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Sporty?

My brother is a big fan and owns a 1988 GT.  This:

It's another car GM botched out of the gate, and then fixed mostly, and then killed because the brand was now negative.

 @Cincydawg is dead on here.  The early ones were a mess.  It was rushed to production and had engine temperature and even fire issues and they couldn't seem to decide what they were trying to build.  

It looks and is named to sound vaguely like a Ferrari and with the mid-engine layout and near-perfect weight balance it handles INCREDIBLY well.  I have a 1998 Z28 with an engine 2x as big as the one in my brother's Fiero so on anything even close to a straightaway I can leave him in the dust without breaking a sweat but anytime he and I have driven our cars somewhere together he runs away from me on curves and I have to catch up on straights.  Those things corner like they are on rails.  

The paragraph above says sports car but then they initially only offered it with the old I4.  They actually had a decent number of female customers who typically didn't care as much about performance as "car guys" but they struggled in that demographic because it didn't have power steering.  The spent a gazillion dollars designing a power steering system for it (expensive because they didn't want to run hydraulic lines from the engine to the front) then ended up selling that at a HUGE loss to Toyota who used it for the MR2 I believe.  

My brother was a big fan for YEARS and specifically hunted for a 1988 because, as Cincy pointed out, GM mostly fixed it but a lot of those fixes didn't show up until the last year, 1988.  So you ended up with one year of a pretty good car.  

Even in that final year though, the upgraded engine (in the GT) was still only a 2.8L V6.  A modern DOHC twin-turbo 2.8L V6 would put out close to 300 HP and that car would absolutely SCREAM with that kind of power but the mid-80's naturally aspirated pushrod 2.8L V6 had half that power.  It is enough to feel kinda sporty but it is still not something that anyone would call quick.  

So what you're saying is that for my recent car-buying experience, I should have found an old Fiero instead of trying out the Mustang? I kinda love that. But SFIrish would never have gone for it.

EDIT: Just found one on Craigslist near me: no trunk space. Deal breaker.

So what you're saying is that for my recent car-buying experience, I should have found an old Fiero instead of trying out the Mustang? I kinda love that. But SFIrish would never have gone for it.

EDIT: Just found one on Craigslist near me: no trunk space. Deal breaker.

Nah... You don't need to worry about trunk space. 

You need to worry about the truck you need to buy to trailer it to the racetrack. 

Ed Zachery.

I thought Pontiac was the GM division with more brand identity than Buick.  I guess Buick today is an old person's Chevy, or somesuch.  I wouldn't buy one mostly because I hardly recall they exist.  Imagine instead we had Pontiac making Chevy's that are more responsive and fun oriented.

As for handling, way back when I was in school I'd often ride my bike to school.  It was a ten speed, nothing fancy.  I'd go roaring past other folks on 18 speeds locked in the wrong hear pedaling ponderously up a hill.  I'd yell "DOWN SHIFT" as I passed, to no avail.  They had fancy bikes with no clue how to use them.

I think the same is true with BMWs for most owners.  We take a cloverleaf exit to get to Costco and at times I'm slowed down by a BMW in front of me, or there is one behind me and I look back and it's gone.  Dude, it's a pretty smooth 270° no decreasing radius, it you can't push your car a bit here, get a Toyota.  Or BUick.

for less than $200K