It was amazing the Fiero "project" ever got launched. Most mid-engine proposals, including those for several Corvettes, had been shot down several times by the corporate VIPs., saying that they were impractical and too expensive . They said this because mid-engine cars needed special transaxles and other custom tailored components. The main engineers involved in the project were Hulki Aldikacti and Edward Falardeau. Hulki, who has worked on many Pontiac prototypes in he past, had been previously unsuccessful in launching a mid-engine car. He just could not get the support of the corporate V.I.P’s. Finally, when Pontiac proposed a mid-engine sports car in 1978, he saw his opportunity.

Hulki used a company named Entech to help him with the process. In 5 months, Hulki had a first running mid-engine prototype . It was a big hit at Entech, and with high ranking GM VIPs. The next step Hulki and his team had to achieve was what GM called "concept approval", which takes months of preparation. After long nights of hard work, the car was approved, thanks to the new Pontiac Chief Engineer Robert Dorn. Dorn, a former race -car driver, was excited about the new car. It is important to note that at the time, fuel economy was a major issue with consumers due to fuel shortages and rising prices. The 84 Fiero, which Dorn realized, was very good on fuel which influenced his decision. He originally wanted to change the 2. 5L 4 cylinder engine to a 1.8L 4 cylinder engine to improve on fuel economy, but as money tightened on the project and gas prices decreased, the 2. 5L was standard (Witzenburg, 34).

The new mid-engined car was lacking one very important thing, a name . Sprint was a favorite with many officials, and also Pegasus was a possibility. The un-named cars emblem was designed by Jon Albert, even before the car had been named. The design was taken from a winged horse in Greek mythology. Pontiac rejected Pegasus because most people mis-pronounced it. Then the team thought they had a name when they came up with Sunfire. . They told the GM officials they the had name . The next day, one of the officials called Bruce MacDonald, head of the planning sessions to publicize the car, and told them they hated it because they thought it was old-fashioned, and the car was meant to be fresh and exciting. So finally, MacDonald did what he should of in the beginning and he polled the plant for name ideas. They came up with very good ones. So with these new ideas, MacDonald and the committee decided on another name, Fiamma, which meant new and exciting in Italian. When Bill Hoglund, spokesman of the meetings to the corporate VIPs took the new name to them, they hated it. "They thought it should be Firebird XP," Hoglund said, "I felt that would take away from the Firebird. They said, 'Well, have you gotten any other names?' I told them I’d get to work on it right away." The team did just that, and they did come to a conclusion that they wanted an Italian name because some of the members were of Italian descent, and also because they felt it was appropriate . Then before Hoglund called the last meeting, where each member was going to lock themselves in a room until they decided on a name, MacDonald came upon the name Fiero, which means very proud in Italian. He called Hoglund right away and he liked it also, and then he called Hulki and executive designer Hank Haga and they liked it too. So finally the day of the big meeting came, and each member submitted their decision. Also there at this meeting was anybody who had anything to do with the car. They finally narrowed it down to 3 final choices: Fiamma, Sunfire, and Fiero. "Fiamma was considered to sleek, Sunfire too old, but Fiero seemed just right" , and so the new car was name just that….