The first time I saw a Pontiac Fiero was back in 1990. It was parked in front of my house. I was 15 years old at the time. My mother owned a building and was renting out an apartment to a couple. The guy that lived there owned a ‘87 Pontiac GT Fiero. It was sitting in the front for a while; he would never move it. The transmission went out on it and it needed to be repaired. I asked him if he wanted to sell it but he said ‘no’. Then one day I saw the car was gone; he said he had sent it to get repaired. When the car was back home, I was sitting out in front and watched him get in and take off. That car took off fast! Right there and then I knew that when I was old enough to drive I was going to get a Fiero.

My first Fiero was a ‘84 coupe 4-cylinder, which I bought when I was 18 years old, back in 1993. I paid $750.00 for the car and everything was original, but the AC didn’t work. It had about 70,000 miles on it and it was running great. After owning it for a couple of months, a guy blew a stop sign and hit me so hard that the car was not worth repairing and I could not afford to repair it. I had to junk my car and at that time it was the hardest thing for me to do. We found out that the guy did not have any auto insurance so it was my loss because I only had liability on the car. I was too young and could not afford full coverage on the car.

Five years later I bought a ‘85 GT which was red with grey interior. I saw the car for sale parked in the street. The asking price was $2,500, which was a nice deal because the car was clean in and out and the engine was spotless! I said to myself, “I have to have this car.” After discussing the price, I got the car for what he was asking. He wouldn’t budge. The car became my daily driver, but due to having a child on the way, I was forced to sell it to a friend because I needed a bigger car, one with rear seats. Although I sold it to him for $1,500, I really did not want to sell it. But there comes a time in life when you have to make hard decisions and that was a hard one for me. That was my second Fiero and it was a GT. It was clean; I really liked that car, but I had to do it.

A couple of years later in 2006, I found another Fiero GT for sale. It was a white ‘87 with grey interior. The car was parked on the street and it looked abandoned. I saw that the plates on the car were expired and there were leaves all over it. It was parked under a tree and I could tell the car had been sitting there for a while; all the tires were low and the entire car was dirty. I left a note on the car with my name and number hoping this car would be a steal, or maybe I would be doing the owner a favor. A couple of days went by and I hadn’t received any calls, so I drove over to where the Fiero was and saw my note was gone. Thinking that maybe he lost my number or maybe the wind took it and he never got the note, I decided to leave him another note. Again, a week went by and I did not hear anything. I went back again to see if my note was on the window, but it was gone. Getting frustrated, I decided to leave him another note saying to please call me if you want to sell this car or just call me even if you don’t want to sell it. JUST CALL ME! All I wanted to know was that he was getting my notes. After a couple of days I finally got a call and he told me that the car was not running and it had transmission problems. He also said that he still owed about $1,500 on the car so he did not have the title. He told me if I wanted the car, I could give him what he owed on it to pay it off and he could get the title. If I did not give him what he was asking for, he was keeping it and whenever he had money he was going to fix it. I told him thanks, but no thanks. $1,500 for a car that did not run and needed some work did not sound like a good deal at all, so we left it at that.

To my surprise, the guy’s wife called me a couple months later and asked me if I was the guy leaving the notes on the Fiero her husband owned. I told her yes, and she asked me if I was still interested in the car. I explained that he had asked too much for a broken car. She then told me that her husband lost a lot in interest in the car and told me that he gave her the car and told her to do whatever she wanted with it. Luckily she wanted to sell it. She then asked me what I would be willing to pay for the Fiero. I told her honestly that the car needed a lot of work. She then said, “How about $500 dollars; does that sound fair?” I told her that it did and I would pick it up in a couple of hours.

I always liked the body style of the ‘86-‘88 GTs. I never kept track of the miles I have put on my Fieros, but if I had to guess I'm going to say I have not driven enough! I have not come across any unusual problems, just the simple wear and tear items like the brakes, exhaust, tires, etc. This past summer, I had to replace the gears in both sides of my head light motors and I also replaced the front brake pads. My girlfriend gives me a hand anytime I need to do anything to the Fiero whether it is a dirty job or not, she is my right hand in everything. She is really supportive on doing anything to the car even when I tell her I want to buy this and that for the Fiero. All she says is “Fix it up, babe.” The only complaint she has is that I hardly ever take her for a ride in it, but I promise I will. We look forward to attending shows together. I have to say life is nice when the person you love is very supportive in doing what you like to do. So if it wasn’t for her support, I would not be here.

Everywhere I go with the Fiero, I feel that it is an eye catcher. People would tell me it’s a nice car and ask what year is it. It seems like everybody wants to know about the car. I have had some offers to sell it, but I say, “Sorry, this one I’m keeping.”

Recently, I was looking for a place that would repair the transmission and that was a big job just to find the right person to work on my car. I did not want anybody messing with it if they did not have experience with Fieros. I found a guy out in Palatine, IL who does transmission work, thanks to Paul Vargas. He told me he has worked on a lot of Fieros and said he could do the job. Sure enough, he did it, and it cost me almost a $1,000 but it was worth it to me. The other thing I did was replace all the speakers in the car and added a 7” flip monitor TV and DVD with MP3 player and that looks really cool.

I also own a ‘97 Chevy Tahoe that is my daily driver now. I like sporty cars and trucks like the GMC Yukon Denali and I have always liked Mercedes cars or even a BMW or two. Would I buy another Fiero? YES, I have to keep one around for when I want to have some fun. Getting in my Fiero is like getting in a time machine; it takes me back to my days when I always wanted one.

I have two jobs. I work in an optical lab as a tech repairing all optical equipment and by night I’m a part-time cop. Don’t worry if I pull over a Fiero, it is only to find out the history and its story. Every Fiero has a story.

On a sad note, when I had my Fiero parked outside my house, someone drove by it too close and side swiped it. It took off my mirror and broke some side molding and scratched the driver side back panel. I thought for a second that maybe Pontiac Fieros are just not for me. This was my third Fiero and something always happens to them when I own one. But I decided to keep it and fix it. In 2009, I plan to have it painted and buy some new wheels for my toy; I am not going to sell this one. I look forward to putting my car in this year’s Fierorama show.