I went to the dealer the other day & I noticed this yellow Trans Am Collector Edition. So the dealer gave me a brochure on the car. I was flipping thru the pages & noticed that for the 3rd gen they have listed 1982 - 1993 and 4th gen they have 1993 1/2 -2002.

Is there anyone out there with a 1993 3rd gen firebird, or was it a late 1992 model year car.

John

 

I'm sure the brochure is wrong. The 1993 models were introduced in 93 instead of late 92 like normal, because of problems with the switch from Van Nuys, CA to Ste Terese, Canada, but thats it. I dont think any thirdgens were still being made in 1993.

 

I don't know, because it was not something just in little print. The numbers were quite large, there actually a water-mark on the background. I found it kind of strange personally. Its at home, I am at work. It seems to be a BIG mistake, if that is truely the case. Its pretty clear though, Maybe tomorrow I can scan it in & post it here.

The ONLY thing I could posibly come up with is, the 92's ran late into the early 93 production, and then the 4th gen started in 93 but were called a 93 1/2.

John

 

Which do you think is more likely... That one brochure is wrong, or 20 books, countless websites, tv shows, magazine articals, etc are all wrong?

92 production may have run long but the production numbers don't support this.

 

I sell Pontiacs, and as a matter of fact, the very brochure you speak of is sitting on my desk right now. When I first saw it, I wanted to call my GM rep and have him read this stupid brochure....

For the record, this is NOT the first time I have seen a GM brochure or dealer magazine that had incorrect historical references with respect to their own damn product!!! There's another error in this Collector Edition brochure too...wish I was at work today so I could look at it.

There were no '93 third gens, period. This proves not only does GM not want to bother building the car anymore, but they also don't even bother to get straight the history of the car either!

 

I believe to help bury the Firebird & Camaro line they are also over inflating the price of the new cars. I was quoted $39000 for a Yellow Collector Edition.

When GM wants to get rid of something, they do it in style. It goes to show that they will go to just about any length to get a low production run just to justify the demise of the car .

But to stay on topic rather,

 

Unfortunately, they were jerks and quoted you full list...I'm one of the few dealers that treats Firehawks, WS6s etc like normal cars!!! $39,000 is about list price for a $32,000 WS6 + $3,000 for the Collector Edition package....then another $3,000 if it was a convertible. If it wasn't, then the dealer is doing some serious gouging....

Which is too bad. I've sold 7 Firebirds already this year...1 a Firehawk and 2 WS6s. GM isn't the only group to blame for the death of the F body. Dealers are just as bad!! Either they don't stock them, don't know what the heck to order, or wanna stick it to the customer by making them pay full sticker for a "special" car.

 

Well, yeah, I agree about the false quotes. For instance, I had a real honest dude give me a quote on a '87 Grand national in 1992, and it was a reasonalble $10,000. I went back to buy it hours later but it was already sold to one of the other guys who was there looking at it too. This is why some crooked dealers jack the price, so they don't have a few people fighting each other for the car, and the salesman gets his commission straight up when the car is sold to some sap willing to pay up; and a higher commison too. Remember that there is more than one car on the lot to be sold, and the more time a sales guy spends messing around with one car, the less time he has to hop onto other sales. In the case I decribe with the Grand Nash, the salesman probably got a normal cut, but he was also kept away from other deals while the interested group of buyers spent his time. In this case, he did his job well and didn't jump at the chance to quickly blow off a customer in order to move on to the next.

 

Drew, I would think that with all those sources that some of them would be correct in whatever they are presenting. And they probably are, some of them... What I find discouraging is all of those sources that you mentioned cant even get the same figures of production.

For example in the book: Consumer Guide's "50 Years of American Automobiles". on pp. 684-687, they claim that there were 13,164 1987 Formulas made, But George W. Scala in his book "Pontiac Firebird 1967-2000". on pp 61-85. indicates that there were only 13,160 1987 Formulas made. Even the books don't agree.

Granted, thats only 4 cars, and that is an acceptable margin of error, but get this: in 1991, the production could be 50,454, 20,332, or 43,306... I have heard a theory that the 1991 was an early model year, and some books do not include those cars and count the early cars as a 1990. But that is a difference of more than 30,000 cars.

My question is this, which one is correct.
Pontiac Firebird 1967-2000 states 50,454,
Standard catalog of American cars 1976-1999 states 20,332
Muscle Car Color History Firebird & Trans Am 1967-1994 stated 43,306

I remember that the camaro came out before the firebird in the 1993 model year, BUT I have never seen or heard of a 1993 3rd gen. Who knows, one day we might come on the boards and discover that someone out there has a 1992 Trans Am with a 1993 VIN. Doubt it, but you never know.

John

 

91 should be 50234

 

KIZZ,
Where is your information from?

John

 

PHS

 

ok, thanks, I would suspect their records to be more accurate than anyplace else.

John

 

I can't make any claims as to PHS's accuracy or inaccuracy, but they seem to have gotten pretty much all the other years' production numbers right, so I presume they are right for 1991

Which reminds me .. can anyone say *FOR SURE* .. how many 92 GTA's were built ... was it 226, or 508? This is one of the longest outstanding debates.. I'm leaning towards 508.