General Motors sold a lot of bad products on its long road to eventual bankruptcy, and the Fiero was certainly one of them. Despite being a very profitable company in the 1980s, GM's design philosophy went something like this: Thanks mostly to bloated management bureaucracies, our company's cost to develop new products is ridiculously high. Therefore, to be competitive with the imports, we'll insist that new cars use assemblies and parts from other cars, and in general focus on making cars as cheaply as possible rather than as high quality as possible.
From curbsideclassic.com: "To keep costs down, ...existing components and
assemblies were begged and borrowed, like the front suspension straight
out of the Chevette."
The engine used was, "the unloved Iron Duke 2.5 four, an engine as agricultural as ever was built in the modern era." "It made all of 92 hp @ 4000 rpm. How’s that for getting the juices
flowing?"
"Unfortunately, the Iron Duke brought some serious shortcomings
to the Fiero, beyond its modest output and crappy sounds. It leaked oil
from the valve cover gasket, which dripped on the exhaust manifold and
caused some fires. But the more common reason for a growing rash of
fiery Fieros was the result of a mind-bogglingly stupid decision: not
enough engine oil capacity."
"It’s a well-known phenomenon that was repeated with so many new GM cars
during the non-golden era: lots of PR buildup, fluff advance reviews
from well-fed and entertained “journalists”, sales have a great first
year (the Citation sold 800k in its first year), and then watch the
slow-motion train wreck unfold as the thrill quickly wears off. Engine
fires are quite exciting, but even they get old after the first couple
of hundred."
Bonus: Ford Ranger pickup from the same era.
