Many cult classic films bombed initially, with low ratings from critics and paltry box office sales. It was years after they had been released that the public began to recognize their true brilliance. Those that love a cult classic film usually really love it, dropping quotes from it in everyday life, re-watching it hundreds of times and pushing their friends to watch it with them.
Just like films, there are a few cars which could be considered ‘cult classics’. They are usually vehicles which may not have been particularly successful in sales or engineering marvels but due to their uniqueness have developed an extremely dedicated following and sometimes weirdly obsessive subculture. Motor Trend’s Generation Gap YouTube show recently compared two General Motors cult classics, the Chevrolet Corvair and Pontiac Fiero.
The Fiero was actually rather popular in 1986 when it was released and even though many may not be a fan of the little mid-engine sportscar today, the followers of it are usually pretty die-hard. The same can be said for the Corvair, but Generation Gap thinks in regards to collectability, the Corvair will ultimately be more valuable in the future. The Fiero is more affordable and easier to own, but does that make it the better cult classic car? Check out the episode below to find out Motor Trend’s opinion.
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It’s rare that I find a “car show” that is completely uninteresting to me. But this is definitely one of em. And the whole “unsafe at any speed” issue does not apply to 2nd gen Corvairs. that was a first gen issue thanks to the rear swing axles. Which coincidentally also applies to VW Beetles, BMW 2002s Porsche 911s, and a few other European cars of the 60-early 70s.
As for the Fiero; it’s more of a case of played out 1980s fashion. I do remember that these cars were all over the place and very well received. Just like it’s Chevy sibling the Beretta GT. But now it’s just a interesting 80s econo car. Although I loved the V6 1988 Fiero GT; as usual, GM got it right just as they pulled the plug.
The Fiero has a very large following yet today and while Pontiac tried to sell GM management that it was an Econo car it was never their true intent.
To be honest the Fiero program is a perfect case study of how flawed the GM culture was as GM and Chevy did not want it while Pontiac did all they could to save the program and get it to market and hope they would get help to keep it there.
the roots of the Fiero go back to a GM engineering study for a V6 mid engine Corvette in the 70’s. Pontiac wanted a sports car and was offered the work done on the Vette to create the Mid Engine. The program was canceled and hidden several times by GM and Pontiac.
Pontiac farmed the program to Entech engineer to hide it and then went about selling the car to management as a high mileage commuter car. their intent was really what we got in 1988 by they did not have the money to start there and had to settle on share parts with other GM models.
The next issue was the plant was a large plant in Pontiac MI and the car needed a sister product to share the plant. Pontiac banked on the GM 80 program a Plastic bodied FWD F body replacement to come into the plant in the mid 80’s. Well that car was canceled when Ford took the Probe and did not name it the Mustang. This left the plant under capacity even thought the last year the Fiero sold over 30K units. The major issue was Pontiac over sold the first two years over 100K units each and that really hurt future sales too.
In the end the Corvette was selling in lower and lower numbers and the Chevy guys were worried the new coming 1990 GT with a DOHC V6 would take enough sales from the Corvette that it could damage their business case for a C 5. I held the paperwork in my hands of the last meeting and while Pontiac had some big plans with the DOHC 6 and the Quad 4 being used in a new rebody of the Fiero it was doomed when the Pontiac people walked In the room.
The Fiero if it had lived may have not live much more than 5 years more as the low price sports car market is a tough one and few live longer than 10-12 years. Just look at the MR2 and RX7. The Miata and Corvettes are the rare acceptation.
The Fiero even with the flaws is still yet a strong car and will be one of the few cars from the 80’s to live on with much of a following. The prices are just now starting to come around. You will not get rich but at least the values are increasing. I just had a friend sell his 88 GT for $14K.
I have been involved with the Fiero since 1980 and owned mine since new in 85. I hung on to it as it is a fun little car and it was my first new car. I have other toys but I will hang on to this one for sentimental reasons. I also show it on a national level and have taken some awards I never expected a Fiero to do. I have taken my class at the Pontiac National many times and even taken a top 5 award twice out of 600 Pontiacs.
It has also taken me on laps of several race tracks including two trip to the Indy speed way with laps over 100 MPH.
The one thing many fail to know is the 2nd gen Fiero GT styling did live on. It was converted to Front Engine and used in the 4th Gen F body. The 1990 Fiero GT is in the heritage collection and if you compare the photo of it with the 4th Gen body you can see the carry over. Note the even used the Fiero dash pod in the Camaro and Fire bird that was intended for the Fiero. As John Schinella stated to me the styling was good to waste. Also he is the one who first broke the Chevy involvement in getting the Fiero killed. Being with the program the entire time he should know.
Also many like to state the 88 had a Lotus designed suspension. The 88 GT had a GM designed suspension by the folks at Pontiac. Now what many do not know is some of the tuning for it was done by Porsche Engineering. Pontiac even had a Prototype Fiero that had a 2.9 Turbo in 1985. It has tail lights that lit up and said Porsche eater. They had to remove the tail lamps when the work went to Porsche.
We also had 4 Corvairs in our family over the years. My father loved them. The thing that many fail to understand is that Nadar did not kill the car. The Mustang and then the Camaro killed it off. If it were not for Ed Coles love of the car it would not have lasted as long as it did. The fact is the Camaro was a cheaper car to build. The Corvair with the transaxle and the flat 6 was more expensive to built than it was to make a 327 V8 and Turbo transmission.
Anyway neither car will be a Shelby but they will be cars that will always have a solid following and are a fun car to play with. Just look at the engine swaps out there in the Fiero. I would love to have one with an Eco Turbo.
Note I put a Herb Adams VSE suspension kit on my Fiero and it solved many of the issues of the early car. Nothing a 1.25″ rear sway bar can ‘t help fix and solid bearing bushings. LOL! The car is still not C7 like but it is not bad. I kind of see the Fiero as the American Triumph. Not fastest or best handling but still fun to drive.
I often wonder where GM would be, and what wonderful cars they would have built if they had been LESS worried about eating the sales of their own products. Fiero eating ‘Vette sales, V6 Chevette eating Camaro sales, Chevy having the Vega shoved down its throat rather than building the small car they had designed, X-body based mini van (Yes, GM looked into that and would have beat Chrysler to market in that segment) but they were worried about eating station wagon sales…the list goes on and on.
Wish the bean counters and badge engineering twits had just stayed out of the way of the “guy guys” from about 1968 onward.
Well as much as I like Car Guys they still need to have the bean counters to keep the car guys from bankrupting the company. It takes a good balanced effort by both.
This is not my opinion but even by many of the car guys in the industry. Bob Lutz states this in more than one of his books. He calls the bean counters the necessary evil. The key is to get the car guys to come up with the good product but make sure the bean counters figure out how to make money with it. Either one fails the company fails.
I bought a used 62 Corvair and had great time with it. I remember one night some friends and i used the Corvair to chase Jack Rabbits, we done all kind turns with it never flipped on us !!