'87 Fiero

[cfaris]

Hey, I found a '87 Fiero GT at a car lot in the city I live in. Car has 80,000 original miles on it, power everything, premium sound, moon roof, auto trans (yeach), and upgraded brakes (vented discs as opposed to the stockers). The dealer agreed to give it a tune up if I were to buy the car. He is asking $3995 for it. Is this a good deal?

[Old Lar]

If everything is in working order. You still may need some work on the suspension if it is still original. The rubber bushings get rather crappy in a 17 year old car.

Stock premium sound should include a subwoofer and am/fm cassette with a radio with lots of little buttons. If that radio goes, it is hard to find another stock one. So working ones may be valuable to a Fiero restorer. Many aftermarket ones can be found.

Find out what the tune up entails. Distributor, rotor, ignition module, wires, plugs, timing rest, O2 sensor. Too bad you can't get the car up to check for error codes.

Make sure the rear spark plugs actually get changed in the tune up. They can be a PITA and some Fieros were still running original rear plugs after 100K miles.

Rear exhaust manifolds are notorious on cracking and also a PITA to replace.

Steering rack bushings sometime go south along with axel boots. Test drive the car to make sure the TCC is in working order and is connected. After 3rd gear and around 45 mph, the car TCC should lock up and you'll drop 300-500 rpm. Once the car is warm and you stop, it should go into 1st gear.

[Ragtop_Renegade]

Watch out for hidden rust... the plastic body likes to hide brake leaks and suspension damage waiting to happen.

If it is a genuine A+ car, the dealer shouldn't have any issue with letting you take it to a shop for a free suspension check.