The fact "Fiero" sounded an awful lot like "fire" only worsened the association. Not particularly, no. In total Pontiac sold 370,168 Fieros in its five model years, 1984-1988. By comparison ...

Thus, in 1984, the plastic-bodied Pontiac Fiero, which means "very proud" in Italian and "fierce" in Spanish, was released for $7,999, and by the end of the year, nearly 137,000 were on the road.