The Real Reason The Pontiac Fiero Was Discontinued

In 1978, the concept was brought off the ice by Denny O’Donnell, Pontiac’s then-strategic planning manager, while at a quarterly Future Product Conference (FPC). The FPC was, ironically, helmed by none other than Elliott Estes, who had since become President of General Motors (via Hagerty). Estes ordered a concept car, but it took another half dozen years of revisions, design modifications, and various Pontiac General Managers before the little two-seater would make it to production.

In 1984, the plastic-bodied Pontiac Fiero, which means “very proud” in Italian and “fierce” in Spanish, was released for $7,999. By the end of the year, nearly 137,000 were on the road (via Motor Trend). It became such a hot commodity that it zipped around as the pace car for the Indianapolis 500 that same year, and the 2M4 model even made it on “Car & Driver’s” 10-best list.

Then, Pontiac’s penny-pinching ways, combined with the bargain bin parts used to get the sporty commuter car into production on such a paltry sum… came back to burn them, literally.

While it may have handled well and gone from 0-60 in 11.3 seconds with a top speed of 105 mph, it was full of so many parts and pieces cobbled together from other GM vehicles, something was bound to go wrong.