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Beautiful Cars & Trucks


Eric
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2 minutes ago, Rabbi said:

I really like them. 

I agree.

It was an interesting car in an era when automobiles were trying to be interesting and failing.

If I recall, the Cadillac Allante was contemporary and that was one ugly automobile.  I also seem to remember that it was obsceely expensive for an American offering.

American roadsters just weren't all that popular in the late 1980s.

The Fiero was a poor copy of the X 1/9, 914 and various Italian and British roadsters that were cheaper and more fun.

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13 hours ago, tous said:

I agree.

It was an interesting car in an era when automobiles were trying to be interesting and failing.

If I recall, the Cadillac Allante was contemporary and that was one ugly automobile.  I also seem to remember that it was obsceely expensive for an American offering.

American roadsters just weren't all that popular in the late 1980s.

The Fiero was a poor copy of the X 1/9, 914 and various Italian and British roadsters that were cheaper and more fun.

which did you own or spend a lot of time in? I owned a 85 Fiero GT and a 2006 Lotus Elise, and my brother had a 67 Lotus Europa, and a 70 914 when he was in high school. I have a very different opinion. The Elise was by far the best, but also the most expensive. The Europa was cheap because it was well used and had all kinds of electrical problems (think Lucas), build quality was terrible. The 914 was a VW. The Fiero was fun and handled well for the time, and I had none of the fabled problems. I also had a 1979 RX-7 that I did some amateur racing. Lots of fun.

 

The Fiero gets a lot of unwarranted bagging. The final model was even better as it was not from cobbled together FWD parts. It was a expected to be a sports car and they tried to build it from  commuter car parts. It could have easily exceeded the Corvette of the time, if they had not hobbled the program.

 

 

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I owned a 914 for many years and had the opportunity to drive many of the other roadster offerings of the time, including more than a few samples of the Fiero.

We used to spend a lot of time at autocross and Steak n' Shake bemoaning what the Fiero could have been if Pontiac would just get their head out.  It could have been very good.

The X 1/9 was ... well, it was Italian.

Your last remark is exactly why the Fiero was never a competent road automobile, rather it was an American manufacturer's idea of an everyman convertible suitable for commuters and young ladies.

I agree about the Elise, probably the best roadster Britain ever made, far superior to the mundane MGBs and Spitfires of the time.

I drove several Europas, some on the track,  and I agree that it was a good idea badly realized, but dang would that thing go around corners.

:599c64bfb50b0_wavey1:

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