This Hagerty article showed up in my email today. Of course, it includes a wee article on the 88 Fiero.
https://www.hagerty.com/med...fac76eb1ef56c47062bf

Very typical of "Know nothing" "Auto" press........"Fieros were fire prone" (260 of 130,000 first year production caught fire) "Lacking performance" 1985 the V6 was added- and the handling, though not perfect, was good; Read 1985 Fiero GT tests in MT and R&T...R&T final line; "Let's make it official. The debate is over. The Fiero isn't just a nice, 2-seat commuter car anymore, It's a world-class sports car"

Then there is the 1987 R&T Sports & GT special magazine edition test of the 1987 GT w/5speed by Peter Egan...... "There may still be a few of the small details to be refined, but Pontiac has done its job on the important things. What more can you ask of a real sports car than you get from the Fiero GT? It looks racy and exotic, sticks to the road like glue, sounds good and gets you from one side of the mountains to the other quicker than all but a few cars on earth"

Link to the R&T 87 test; https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/099448.html

Number one thing to remember; Car & Drivel magazine was REQUIRED by the publisher to be anti-American; The head editor, David E. Davis, wrote some positive things about the (Then new) Lincoln Mark VII, and was told "NEVER say anything positive about US cars!" He then left C&D and started Automobile magazine (Let me point out here- Automobile Magazine was not "Pro-American" ...It just wasn't blatantly Anti-American.

One last thing about the first gen suspension; The Spindle/upright on the front suspension, which sets most of the geometry, was from a Chevette, which is (Basically) an Opel.....the 1st generation Lotus Esprit used an Opel upright (the same part) And it had the same scrub radius as the Fiero......In that 1987 R&T special, they tested a Esprit...and only in passing mentioned that "The wussies on the staff called it (the steering) "Heavy" "...So maybe if Pontiac had charged $30,000 for Fieros the press would have been OK with the steering....

[This message has been edited by cvxjet (edited 08-28-2021).]

Keep in mind magazines are not always honest reviews.

I work for a company that used to do a ton of advertising, with it came a lot of pay back.

While I love my Fiero it is far from world class today or in 85 when I bought it.

For $12k it was a fun and interesting car but it was not a well sorted car.

Sorry but I have to be honest.

The 84 to 88 was heavy in steering, horrible in bump steer and a ton of understeer.

But to be fair there are more unsorted under performing sports cars than well tuned and well sorted models even at higher prices.

Many who think the Fiero is the pinnacle of handling just have never driven a well sorted car. I used to think my Fiero was a world killer till I drove well sorted car. I found it would go stupid fast even on bad roads and it made everything slow down. What I mean it made high speeds feel slow and easy to drive vs where I really had to work the fiero hard to do the same.

Now to be honest the Fiero I find fun to drive as it is not an easy car to drive fast. I find this something that makes it fun.

[This message has been edited by hyperv6 (edited 08-28-2021).]

I basically agree with what you are saying Hyper....The smartest thing Toyota did with the MR2 was hire Lotus to tune the suspension...But.....If you sold 370,000 great handling cars (Like the MR2) you would get sued by 100,000 families that lost loved ones in crashes directly related to the cars' handling. Most drivers out there- somewhere around 95%- have not a CLUE as to how to drive a car with knife-edge handling. To be truthful, I would have probably pushed mine off a cliff backwards around 1987 if it had the balanced handling that it now has. And I would take my cars out to an abandoned parking lot in the rain to test handling before driving it fast on backroads!

The complaints that I read about in the magazines became more and more ridiculous as the years went by. If you read the foreign reviews of the Fiero they are much more positive. Car & Drivel would have called the new C8 Vette a POS if you could take it back in time to the mid-80s....They were unbelievably anti-US.

Here in the bay area I catch heck with the Fiero- everyone "knows" it was the "WORST car ever made!!!!" Terrible quality, all of them catch fire, lousy handling, and on and on. I will admit that I drove out to Modesto (Central Valley) a few years ago and stopped for gas- had three separate people come up and compliment my Fiero...I almost passed out!

If the magazines had wanted to do the Fiero right, they would have pointed out it's strengths, and then carefully outlined how the few weak spots could be improved...Constructive criticism would have been better than hatred.

There is no sin in making a perfect handling or near car. I know as it has been done as I have driven and even own an example.

The lawsuit thing was in most cases fables or if the did happen were cases that were thrown out.

The Fiero simply had issues due to the lack of funding due to the inter division rivalry and corporate management that never understood what Pontiac was or could be.

But history is littered with imperfect sports cars and often these bring the fun to these models.

#1 rule is never buy everything the media says. Make your own judgments. That is why we have so many issues today is due to media opinion and too little people with real personal opinions.

I have all those magazines and to be honest The Fiero was a fun car with few vices as compared to many cars then as most were crap. Let’s face it the fwd cars of that era were abysmal at best.