The 84-86 Fieros were not that great. The 87 was not bad, most bugs were gone and the V6 GT with a 5 speed was pretty fast and could handle.
NOW the 88 Fiero is the top dog of all dogs. It was the last year, BUT it got a new Lotus suspision, a GM at the time owned them. And also redid the engine cradle a little bit. So not it handled a lot better.
The 4 Cyl's were ok (87-88) not very fast but great gas milage and still could handle well.
One of the biggest problems is a rear engone front Rad. car needs good maintaince, and a lot of people thought you could just beat the piss out of them and nothing would happen. So they got a bad name for over heating and blowing head gasket as people did not take care of them.
I would still love to have a 88 Fiero GT with 5 speed.