Good morning! For your mid-week Showdown, I have a couple of cars featured in the classic 1986 John Hughes film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. No, not the one you’re thinking of, or the other one. Or the other one. These are the two cars in which Jennifer Grey squeals the tires.
But first, about yesterday: Yeah, I screwed up. Of course that Polaris was a scam ad. I have no idea what those usually go for, don’t care much about them anyway, and figured depreciation was just horrible on them (because really, it should be). I should have checked, I didn’t, and I regret it.
It doesn’t matter; the stupid thing lost anyway. As it should. If you really want to have fun on three wheels, don’t half-ass it; do it the right way. That little Sidekick is probably a little overpriced, considering it needs tires like five years ago, but at least it’s honest.
All right; back to more familiar territory. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off isn’t really a car movie, but it has probably the most famous bit with a Ferrari of any movie ever. It’s not a real Ferrari (fun fact: those are MGB taillights), but still, it’s the one car everyone remembers. But John Hughes was a genius when it came to picking cars for movies, and the rest of the cars are absolutely perfect: Cameron’s Alfa Romeo Alfetta, Ed Rooney’s Plymouth Reliant, the other two cars in Morris Frye’s garage – an MGTC and what I’m pretty sure is a Lancia Aurelia – and these two, driven by Ferris’s mom and sister, respectively. Let’s check them out.
1985 Chrysler LeBaron Town & Country – $4,200
Engine/drivetrain: Turbocharged 2.2 liter overhead cam inline 4, three-speed automatic, FWD
Location: West Hollywood, CA
Odometer reading: 69,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Katie Bueller, working mom, real-estate agent, and complete dupe when it comes to her son, needs a car that works for her. It has to be classy enough to show clients around, large enough to carry yard signs, economical, and easy to live with. Enter the luxury version of the most practical K-car bodystyle: the Chrysler LeBaron Town & Country wagon.
No mere Reliant, this. The Town & Country features a quad-headlight fascia with a waterfall grille and Chrysler’s faceted crystal (actually probably acrylic) pentastar hood ornament. Behind that hood ornament is a turbocharged and fuel-injected version of Chrysler’s 2.2 liter K engine, a welcome improvement over the Mitsubishi-sourced 2.6 liter with its hateful feedback carburetor. It drives the front wheels through a three-speed Torqueflite automatic (of course).
Inside, you get comfy leather seats in good condition, a full host of all the power toys available in the ’80s, and Chrysler’s Electronic Message Center. The leather-wrapped steering wheel could use redoing, but otherwise it looks quite nice. The seller says it runs and drives just fine, and has a new battery, tires, and front struts.
The trademark fake woodgrain paneling outside has suffered somewhat in the California sun, but it’s all there, and passable. One of the “Town & Country” badges is missing off the rear quarter panel, and you can see the outline of where it once was. But that should make it easy to line up a new emblem, if you can find one.
1985 Pontiac Fiero SE – $11,000
Engine/drivetrain: 2.5 liter overhead valve inline 4, five-speed manual, RWD
Location: Westminster, MD
Odometer reading: 25,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives great
“I asked for a car,” says Ferris, “and I got a computer. How’s that for being born under a bad sign?” His sister, Jeannie, on the other hand, has her own car: a snow-white Pontiac Fiero, shown only in one scene, when she cuts school (ironically) to try to catch Ferris in the act of cutting school. When I saw the Town & Country for sale, I knew I had to find one of the other cars from the film. I wanted to find a red Audi 5000, like the one Ferris’s dad drives, but came up empty-handed. So instead, we have what might be the nicest Iron Duke-powered Fiero left anywhere.
This SE model Fiero has a five-speed manual gearbox sitting next to its Iron Duke, providing better acceleration than the economy-geared four-speed or the completely unnecessary TH125C automatic. It still doesn’t have the performance to back up its looks – you need the V6 version to get close to that – but it’s plenty for a maniac driver like Jeannie Bueller. This one has a scant 25,000 miles on it, and as expected, runs and drives beautifully.
It’s practically flawless inside and out, as you would expect for something with so few miles. The only issues noted by the seller are a falling headliner (though it has a sunroof, so there isn’t much headliner to begin with) and a non-functional tape deck (which means you might as well leave the Yello cassette at home). The car’s low mileage is due to being parked for many years; it was revived by a Fiero specialist and has since completed several long drives.
I know the final-year Fiero GTs and Formulas are the best of the breed, but I greatly prefer the looks of these early cars, with the trim squared-off bumpers, the much smaller buttresses in the rear, and those classic ’80s Pontiac “Salad Shooter” wheels. Yes, the asking price for this car is steep, but if you really want a near-perfect four-cylinder Fiero, here it is.
Yes, I know Katie Bueller’s car was yellow instead of white. But it’s the first thing I think of whenever I see a Town & Country wagon, which is not very often at all, especially these days. But at least I was able to find a white Fiero, even with an eye-watering price. I know we’d all rather have Tom Bueller’s Audi, or Cameron’s Alfa, but those are getting really hard to find at any price. So we’ll stick with the American iron in the film. What’ll it be: the wagon or the sports car?
(Image credits: Chrysler – Facebook Marketplace seller; Fiero – Craigslist seller)
If I wanted a car to use, the wagon. The Fiero, though, I feel like could be a fair investment given condition.
I’m sorry, I can’t justify that kind of money for a fiero
A TURBO woody wagon? Sign me up! That thing is a manual transmission swap away from being great!
And with how much cheaper it is compared to that Fiero, it easily gets my vote.
That Fiero is seriously overpriced. For $11K, it would have to have the V6, not the Iron Duke.
Turbo K-car wagon with wood paneling???? Where do I sign up?
Ignoring the ridiculous price, I’d pick the Fiero. I always wanted one. A friend in high school had one with the 2.8 and 3sp auto and it was a hoot.
In decent shape, a 4-banger with manual would make a sweet 80s retro EV swap. A salvaged small drive from a Tesla would probably fit in there without too much fabrication and be plenty zippy. Not good in the aero department but for playing around town it should fine.
Only in this era could you rewire some idiot lights into a sketch of the car’s outline and get away with calling it an “Electronic Message Center.”
Don’t forget, it talked too!
Right, just like the GI Joe..
It’s gotta be the Lebaron. It sums up the 80’s.
I always thought that K-car wagon was terribly miss-cast. Ferris’ parents have money. Dad drives an Audi, they have a huge house in a swanky suburb, they already bought one kid a car and are planning to buy their other kid a car .. there is no FUCKING WAY Mrs. Bueller would have been driving a K-car wagon in that family.
Side note: I grew up in a rich Chicago suburb not far from where this was filmed. The idea that one kid has a car, but somehow the “favorite” kid doesn’t have one, is a plot hole big enough to put Cameron’s dad’s garage on wheels and drive THAT through it.
As a teen in the 80’s in the Suburbs of Detroit, I disagree. It was still a different era, and Moms got the wagons. The big wagons were still pretty big, and many folks considered them too big. So you got a midsize wagon. If you’re in real estate, and/or if you’re upper middle class, you can’t just have a K car. You need something snazzy, but ultimately not off putting, something that says that you don’t have to settle for a K car, but whispers “I know you can’t swing the Caddy…”
Yeah, but you were in Detroit, where the big 3 still ruled. I assure you, in the 80’s, in the wealthy Chicago suburbs, I was witnessing ground zero of them getting their lunch money taken by the imports. Mrs. Bueller may well of had a wagon, but it would have been a Benz or an Audi.
In the Glenbards, maybe. Head south to Aurora or even Naperville, and Japanese imports were few and far between. And that Audi was probably leased, like ours was.
Cameron’s garage was in the big money area of Highland Park my man. Nobody was driving K-cars there, I promise you. I grew up next door in Deerfield, in the 80’s.
This reminds me of a class I took in College, “The American Comedy and Horror Movie”. We spent a lot of time on Animal House, and it got me an “A” in the class, because I was the one to point out the significance of the Lincoln Continental.
Did you know that Animal House is an allegory for the end of American Innocence/Post war “feel good” America?
What was the premier car of the early 1960’s? The Lincoln Continental. It was trim, handsome, elegant, powerful, big, etc. You’ve made it if you’re driving a Continental.
And what did they do to the car? They turned it into the “deathmobile” and ruined a parade at the end of the film, as a final FU to the establishment.
What other event symbolized the end of that era? The Kennedy Assassination. And what car was he riding when he was killed? A Lincoln Continental. And what was he driving in? In a parade.
Liberal arts are fantastic.
But, along those same lines, the cars were similarly cast. The parents were supposed to be upper middle class white suburbanites who loved their kids, but were fundamentally square. I would think that for the Buellers, the Audi was more of a combination toy/status symbol, but not too showy, but there nothing that says “Mom and Dad are responsible white bread suburbanites” than a Station Wagon with fake wood trim.
That’s a good pull with the Continental!
I get what you’re saying about the wagon. Here’s the thing, I grew up where Ferris Bueller was filmed, when it was filmed. My problem with the K-car wasn’t that it was a wagon or that it had wood paneling. It’s that it’s a cheap American car. Nobody who lived in that area, in that time, with that kind of money, was driving cheap American cars. They just weren’t. Mrs. Bueller would have been rolling a Benz or an Audi wagon if anything. The only exception to the American car thing, was the then new Jeep Cherokee. Those crossed class lines bigtime.
I hate to have to take the K-car, but I’m too fat and old to drive the Fiero now. If this were back in high school it would be more of a tossup. The Fiero would have been cooler, but the LeWagon would allow me to take more friends on shenanigan runs.
I’m the youngest of seven. By the time I got my license the house had emptied out quite a bit so the folks didn’t really need an 11 seat extended van for the day to day. That’s the one I got to use. Shenanigan runs did ensue.
I had an old Subaru wagon back in those days. Shenanigans ensued. We were the scourge of Taco Bell drive-thru lines, the terror of empty parking lots, and the heralds of whatever was playing on KISW though the shitty 20 watt factory stereo.
Fiero is a little overpriced, even though it’s a very clean example. You can get a fastback with the V6 for that kind of money! SE’s that are clean and running with a 5 speed can be had for 3-5k all day around Facebook and Craigslist.
The long roof wins this one, even though I’d rather drive the Fiero.
Surprised myself by voting against a manual rwd—especially for a K-car! But I miss my longroofs, and this one even has the cheesy wood grain stickers. Can’t resist
Fiero. A buddy had a nearly identical one, though in blue and with twice the miles, and it was a lot of fun. I pain to work on, but a lot of fun to drive.
Story time: Many moons ago, I had a friend who was dating a guy who had a Town & Country that looked identical to the one in today’s showdown. He had to go out of town, and parked his car at my friend’s house near the airport. A huge snowstorm rolled in right after he left, dumping almost two feet of snow on the area. The plow trucks rolled through and buried the car in snow, to the point you couldn’t see it at all. I helped my friend unbury the car, only to find that snow had fully compressed the suspension to the ground, and then the ice melt the plows were dumping had led to ice formation that glued the car to the ground. We eventually chipped the car free and I left to catch some sleep. The next morning I got frantic call from my friend about the car smoking. I hurried over and found my friend had tried to move the car, but the wheels and tires were still stuck in the ice, so the transmission was smoking as it fried the clutch packs and roasted the fluid. By the time the car’s owner returned from his trip, the snow had mostly melted and his car was free, but it was in bad shape. The shocks were all blown, the transmission was dead and had puked fluid all over the engine bay and ground, and the snow had caved the roof in far worse than anyone had realized. His insurance offered him $400 for the car, and not being mechanically inclined in any way, he took the money and bought an ex-cop Crown Vic.
It’s make-believe, so I’ll go with the Town & Country. K cars aren’t usually long-lived, and the Fiero would be the better place to put your money (more collectible), but it’s just too much. Nice, indeed, but not quite special enough to be a collectible. Get the Chrysler and sign up with an agent for movies that need period cars.
11K for a 4 Cyl Iron Duke Fiero. Hell no! I’ll take the wagon if nothing more than the idea of picking up 1986 Katie Bueller. When I first saw the movie in the theater of course it was Sloan or maybe even 1986 Jennifer Grey who stood out. . But now when i see it with my kids, it’s Katie Bueller! She has that total Nagel painting look but with blonde hair and eye makeup. So yeah, I’m picking the wagon.
By the way, was Ferris’s dad really doped up the whole movie or what?
“One of the “Town & Country” badges is missing off the rear quarter panel, and you can see the outline of where it once was.“
I JUST had to reattach the “TSX” badge on my TSX yesterday, and the outline of the old one was very handy. I got the old adhesive off with a rubber wheel, but it still had the faintest outline. I did that and restored the headlights to give the old girl some dignity back! Today it’s all new tires!
I saw this exact Fiero at a car show in 2022. It’s in really fantastic shape, and I could tell the owner is a great guy with a lot of love for the car.
I’d take the Fiero and drop a better motor in it.
3800, 3900, whatever it takes.
Oh, wait, that’s another 80’s movie.
Iron Duke is nothing to write home about, but at least it has the slightly better reliability reputation here, and I always kind of wanted a Fiero to either drive as is, or at some point swap in one of those FWD IMP SS LS drivetrains. After the AFM/DFM was removed of course.
As weird as it is to say, without doing a V6 or V8 swap, the K car has more tuning potential vs. the Fiero. Turbo 2.2s/2.5s can be made hilariously fast, and what would be more hilarious than embarrassing people at stoplights in that fake wood wagon?
A 3800 Supercharged FWD swap is pretty potent in those light little Poncho’s. And that in stock spec.
Yeah but that’s a ton more work vs. putting in a better head gasket with better fasteners, turning the boost up a bit, and putting in a junkyard intercooler.
Man hours plus dollars spent would be dramatically higher.
If this were a 1988 Fiero with the better suspension setup, I’d think differently though.
About as hilarious as watching my guy Wayne run sub-12-second quarters in his 2.5 Turbo Caravan.
I had a similar Fiero, and those things are horrible to work on. Mine had a issue that I could not figure out how to repair, and I could not find a shop locally that would work on it, including the local Pontiac dealer. When the dealer told me they would not work on it, I sold it, lost my shirt, and bought a Civic. I choose the K car while humming “If I had a million dollars”.
You would have the same issue with the Turbo K-Car these days. Parts and Mechanic capabilities stop at 10 years old in most stealerships these days.
This was really difficult, but the LongRoof with leather turned my head.
There’s so much you can do with a wagon, and not enuf you can do with 2.5L of Ivory Soap: 99.44% bore.
I want that K car so bad.. I love it. I love any car with fake wood paneling. There is a wood paneled car in every single John Hughes movie, if you look hard enough. That’s no mistake.. I’m with JH.. wood paneled cars rule.
It was a pretty tough choice, until the Fiero had a sunroof on it.
The K-Car doesn’t. So that became my choice.
As stupid of a reason as it sounds, if I wanted a car without a solid roof, I’d just buy a convertible. I don’t want something that could easily break or leak quickly.
I hate you for making me pick the K-car. The Fiero is better but not at 11k. For 11K I want a later year GT.
The Fiero is a nice looking, clean car. But the ask is pretty high at 11K for what it is. YMMV.
The perfect two-car garage doesn’t exi…..
I love that (as of this moment) the voting is so close! Way to spend those Internet-bucks, y’all!
I was tempted to vote Fiero (which I would name “Guy,” of course) but the thought of lowering myself into the driver’s seat made my knees hurt, so it’s the wagon for me.