[Shotimes] Re: OT: Pontiac Fiero or is it Firero? :)

[Ron Porter]

What is considered to be "bad sales" is never tied to a specific number to
be compared between models, it is against expectations. No way to compare
Vette to Fiero to Porsche sales.

Remember, also, that the Vette is a "special case". The "halo" importance to
Chevrolet lets them do illogical things (like continuing to build the car),
and I'm sure they do some internal "funny accounting" to have the
bread-and-butter Chevys pick up the slack for the losses on Corvettes.

Porsche expects low sales, so the cars sell for $70,000+ for a 911. More
Boxsters are expected to sell, so they sell for $50K. A LOT of Fieros had to
be sold at their price point to make money, and it didn't happen. If sales
were expected to be 200K+ Fieros every year, 74K is pretty lame for an
average. IIRC, '84 was the best year for Fiero sales, and they kept dropping
after that.

Ron Porter

-----Original Message-----
From: James F. Ryan III [mailto:av8r567@optonline.net]
Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2003 11:50 PM
To: 'Ron Porter'; 'SHOtimes Mailing List'
Subject: RE: [Shotimes] Re: OT: Pontiac Fiero or is it Firero? :)


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ron Porter
>
> None of this "conspiracy" crap was ever true. Fieros weren't
> selling........they cost GM too much to build.....therefore car gets
> axed.....PERIOD.
>
> The mfrs want to sell what makes money. One of the biggest secrets
> in the auto world is whether the Corvette EVER made money for GM.

If awful sales is the criteria for killing a car why didn't they cancel the
Corvette instead of the Fiero?  The Fiero outsold the 'Vette 2-to-1.  (AND
the Fiero had the potential to kill the 'Vette if Pontiac had been allowed
to continue with more 'improvements' beyond the '88 model year.)

>From 1980-2000 Corvette production averaged ~27,000 cars per year.
>From 1984-1988 Corvette production averaged ~36,000 cars per year.

>From 1984-1988 FIERO production averaged ~74,000 cars per year!!!!!!!!!

At least the Fiero shared a lot of parts with other GM cars.  The Corvette
has lots of Corvette-specific parts that it shares with no other GM cars -
wheels, brakes, specially developed/special-sized tires, 6-spd trans, the
earlier 4+3 manual trans, electronic shocks, run-flat tires, ZR-1 engine,
LT4 engine, LS6 (Z06) engine, & TITANIUM exhaust.

The 1984 C4 suffered a fate similar to 1984 Fiero when about 50% of the '84s
were ordered with the ultra-ultra-ultra firm Z51 "race" suspension.  This
left a very bad taste in people's mouths and Chevy knew it because they
changed the spring rates and the sway bar sizes every year for the entire C4
production.  C4 sales were on a downward trend all the way to 1996.

Don Mallinson said the same thing as you, "awful sales killed the Fiero, not
Chevy."  If Corvette sales are worse than the Fiero's and the mfrs want to
make money, why is the 'Vette still being made if the ROI is always
negative??

How many 911's does Porsche sell each year?  More than 27,000?



Jim Ryan
Wayne, NJ
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