By Jim Hagarty
I saw one of those little Internet photo essays, this one about American cars in the last half century that were known deathraps. I scrolled through them, one at a time, and recognized them, of course. There was the Ford Pinto which would catch fire if rear ended. And the Chevy Corvair that was unstable on the road and also had a bursting-into-flames tendency. Glad I didn’t own those cars. I kept scrolling. And there, lo and behold, was the 1984 Pontiac Fiero, the very one I did own for a number of years after purchasing it new. That model year, the first one for the Fiero, experienced problems with its engine which was located mid-car, right behind the passenger cabin. It was fixed after 1984 for subsequent models of the car but in almost 300 cases, the engine caught fire. Fortunately no one was badly injured by the Fiero’s quirk, unlike the Pinto and Corvair which took people’s lives. I sort of knew the Fiero’s reputation when I owned it and used to joke it was my own little coffin on wheels. I have been wanting to get a Fiero again one of these days (that’s an old guy thing), but maybe I will avoid a 1984 model.
