Worst Cars of All Time

[Fast Eddie]

From MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/Defau...&p1=0 AMC Pacer (1975-80) Chevrolet Vega (1970-74) Citroen SM (1970-72) Fiat Strada (1978-88) Ford Bronco II (1983-89) Ford Edsel (1957-59) Ford Pinto (1971-80) Honda Accord hatchback (1978) Mazda RX-2 (1971) Oldsmobile Delta 88 (1979-84) Pontiac Fiero (1984) Renault Dauphine (1956-68) Sachsenring Trabant (1957-62) Yugo GV (1981-91)

[wicked1981]

Hey I still see a couple pintos running around!!

[pwarren4]

Quote, originally posted by Tom »Last time I was at the dealer, they said that the vehicle they see the most for repairs is Trailblazer.I hope they are in for a facelift. The long ones are fugly.

[Merzbow]

My mom's friend built a '57 bel-air. 15 year old girl ran a stop side broad sided him and totaled the car at 45 mph, after recovering he bought a Fiero and restored it to mint condition. Deer jumped out of the brush and tore off the roof of the car. So he chopped the roof and made it into a convertable...Fieros aren't all that bad in my opinion, they just need a little love just like teh christmas tree in Charlie Brown.

[MJN2]

I seem to remember Fieros having a "spontaneous combustion" problem there for awhile.

[Raven]

The Fiero is wicked with a twin turbo V6 or small block V8 conversion.A really bad car was the early Hyundai Pony. They rusted almost as fast as they smoked!

[Stang2Vibe]

My stepdad would smile, I'm sure, at these comments on Fieros. He is the founder and president of our local Fiero club (Western PA Fiero Club). The article notes the 1984 model on the list, and I would agree that that year was a crappy model. They were made from 1984-1988, and the '88 models were the best. They were the only year that the Fiero was designed completely as its' own model. The other years used many leftover parts from other GM vehicles that were made to work together and that led to some problems. The spontaneous combustion issue is a long standing rumor that seems to persist. The problem was that since the Fiero is a mid-engined car, the early 4-cylinder cars had some trouble with heat retention in the engine compartment that led to more oil consumption. People weren't checking the oil, causing the engine to overheat and sometimes some parts caught on fire. I think that the Fiero is a pretty cool car and would have been really great if they would have made the next generation of them. A complete redesign was made for 1989, but GM axed the car before they were mass produced. I am told that there were 4 fully operational 1989's made and GM has them locked up somewhere in Michigan. Also, the Fiero is the only American mid-engined sports car ever mass produced, so it is fairly unique. They are also much heavier than they look and their bodys are made of a plastic that was specially formulated for the Fiero, except for the hood and roof, which I am pretty sure are steel.And yes, there are lots of mods that people have done to them. A very popular and relatively inexpensive engine swap is to take a 3.4L V6 from a Pontiac Transport minivan. For whatever reason, the motor and transmission from the van fit right into the Fiero with little modification. Another somewhat popular swap is to put a Chevy 350 V8 in a Fiero. A guy in our club did this, but has constant problems with it eating up clutches. Some of the best swaps I've seen for the Fiero took the 4.6L Northstar V8 from mid-1990's Cadillac Sevilles. Talk about some real tire smokers. I had a Fiero mod nut explain to me one time that a twin-turbo V6 in the Fiero makes it perform better than all the V8 swaps because of the weight difference. He said that the added weight of the V8 does something that throws off the handling characteristics of the car and makes it not worthwhile. He also said that he saw a guy with a twin turbo V6 Fiero beating brand new Corvettes at the drag strip (this was in about 1998 or 1999, so it might not hold true for the new Corvettes). In any case, that's still pretty darn impressive. Considering that a Fiero with low miles and in pretty good condition sells pretty cheap, they make good project cars.

[JohnC]

Fieros are also great donor cars for kit car projects. AMC Pacers are now appreciating in value, it's kinda of a cult car thing.

[cohocarl]

The Fiero wasn't a bad car, but like other gm products, was forced to use leftover, exhisting parts from other vehicles (until it was too late). If I remember right, most of them used Chevette front suspension. I wouldn't mind finding a nice, clean 88 GT. Which reminds me, there's a guy in our shop that drives a Chevette Diesel. It's not very often you see a Chevette still on the road, and even less often a diesel.

[SGT]

I didn't think the Fiero was all that bad. I had one for a while in the late 80s and ended up trading it in on an IROC-Z with the 350 engine. I had fun driving around in that thing. It was so low to the ground and handled well. I agree Pontiac just got it right in 88 and then they killed it which was a shame. I do have to say I remember racing one (if you could call it that) at a stoplight when they first came out in 84 in my winter car a '77 Chevette with a 4 speed and a "high output" engine and I actually won. I think they had an auto in it though, however the looks on their faces as I pulled away in a then 7 year old Chevette was pretty funny.

[Stang2Vibe]

Quote, originally posted by cohocarl »If I remember right, most of them used Chevette front suspension.Yes, all except the 1988 models. The rear end was the front end of the Pontiac 6000/Chevy Celebrity that is locked so the wheels won't pivot. It is a rather strange car mechanically. It is rear wheel drive and mid-engined, so it actually uses a front wheel drive tranny. The engine and tranny must also be removed from underneith the car since the opening on the top is too small to fit them through which makes engine swapping a bit of a pain if you don't have a lift. Also, the radiator is still in the front of the car and on a steep angle (to fit under the low nose) so it has to be connected to the engine by very long radiator hoses that run the length of the car to make it back to the engine. The only things under the hood are the radiator, master cylinder w/power booster, the spare tire, and a mounting system to store the sunroof when it is removed from the car. They also have no glovebox. Power steering was not available on any of the cars for any year, either. I have seen some that were retro-fitted with electric power steering units from some other vehicle. I think the national Fiero club sells an electric kit in their parts store (Fiero Owner's Club of America).I should post some pics of my stepdad's Fiero in the spring when he takes it out. He has a red 1986 1/2 GT with silver trim that is completely stock except for the car phone that was installed by the previous owner. He told me that the car was previously owned by a Dallas Cowboy's cheerleader. It is in perfect original condition and has about 46,000 miles on it. I think he just got classic plates for it last year.And speaking of the Chevette, I just saw one 2 days ago in a local shopping center. I was eating lunch and it pulled up to the beer distributer next door. It was in great shape and had classic plates on it. I always thought those cars were pretty neat, even though they were small, cheap, economy cars.

[Stang2Vibe]

Quote, originally posted by JohnC »Fieros are also great donor cars for kit car projects.Yes, this is very true. I've seen several kit cars that were Fiero based. I think the most popular ones were kit Ferrari's and Lamborghini's. Unfortunately, about 95% of the kits are of incredibly poor quality. I saw a kit Lamborghini on a Fiero chassis that the owner actually had to caulk the side windows shut because they fit so poorly that they always leaked in the rain. Most of the kits seem to fit really, really badly.