I knew that the Fiero Factory’s Swap Meet for 2006 was to be held on April 28th through the 30th. I knew that there were cars for sale in my price range from an earlier phone conversation with Ed Parks. So, my thinking was that I needed to go up BEFORE the swap meet to have a chance to see what was there before the horde arrived for the swap meet!

Click on the image to go to the web album.

My daughter Erika and I set out for Toney, Alabama (north of Huntsville) on the Tuesday before the swap meet. It’s a pretty good drive up from Birmingham and that last dozen miles or so up from Huntsville seem to take forever.

When we arrived we went inside and met Ed and Rosey and Ed took us around and showed us the Fiero Factory and the assortment of cars all around the grounds. We liked a little black 85(?) SE … but it wasn’t co-operating too well for a test drive and the owner lived in Louisiana, so we couldn’t have done any car trading at that point anyway.

So, back to Birmingham …

The 28th was a Friday, and that was out because of work commitments, but I did call to speak to another Fiero owner from the Birmingham area to try to get some info about any cars for sale showing up. At that point there weren’t any additional cars for sale on the grounds, but I asked him to let me know if something in my striking range showed up.

Saturday arrived and all the planets managed to achieve the proper alignment to allow Erika and me to make the return trip for the swap meet. As we were passing through Gardendale we had a phone call from one of the Birmingham folks telling us that there was a car we might be interested in, being displayed at the show.

A good while later we arrived and met up with our B’ham Fiero connection who introduced us to the the Fiero folks from Madison, Alabama AND this little beauty:

Pearl

1984 Fiero SE, 2.5 L, 4-Cylinder, 4-Speed 

Click on the image to open the web album.

There were quite a few really beautiful cars at the swap meet … but once we saw this 1984 Fiero SE, our attention was pretty much focused on her until we left the meet.

To summarize the Swap Meet … met some very nice people (Fiero Fanatics), saw some really cool Fieros, bought my first Fiero (of at least a couple), and made a mental note to mark my calendar to return next year … and buy a T-shirt early while they are available, and buy more raffle tickets, and …..