I didn’t need another vehicle at the time I bought this Tempo, but when a car ad showed up on Kijiji for $50 I couldn’t resist. All the ad said was “Silver car for sale. Runs but needs battery. Manual transmission.” I contacted the owner right away who had absolutely no idea what kind of car it was besides silver and probably two doors. She had been given it by her father who had driven it to a parking pad behind her house. She was being swamped with inquiries due to the low price so it was a take it or leave it proposition. It was located only a few blocks away from where I live and offered for less than scrap value, so I figured I could afford the gamble.
I showed up after work with a battery liberated from my Seven project to find the mystery car was a second generation Ford Tempo coupe. I have to admit I was a little disappointed as my parents had owned one for a decade, including some of my learning to drive years, so I was quite familiar with them. I had been hoping for a new automotive experience. But one cannot complain too much as a fifty dollar is a fifty dollar car. After paying, the previous owner made me up a bill of sale on the back of a cereal box. I tossed in my battery and the car fired right up. Unfortunately the long grass the Tempo was sitting in also lit up, the result of a hot catalytic converter or exhaust no doubt. After stomping out the small grass fire, I proceeded to the drive the Tempo the few blocks home.
The L trim was the lowest on the Tempo totem pole. For the Canadian market the Tempo Ls were sparsely equipped with crank windows, partial hubcaps and not much else. Air conditioning was available but few other upgrades were offered. Ford sold a huge number of these cut rate stripper cars in the late 1980s by advertising them at just under ten thousand Canadian dollars. My father was one of many that answered the siren song of a cheap Ford with a warranty and bought a red two door L model Tempo. It was a 1988 model sold at the beginning of 1989, so Ford further sweetened the pot with air conditioning and a useless trunk mounted luggage rack included for the base $9988 price.
There was, not surprisingly, a few minor issues with the car. The worst thing was the interior was absolutely covered in dog hair. Every square inch of the rear had a thick layer of the stuff. After a few hours with the shop vacuum and a few wet rags, the interior was restored to presentable condition. It was also missing a front signal light lens and housing so a replacement was sourced from the local u-pull scrapyard.
Another concern was a bit of rust near the rear wheel on the passenger side. I removed the rubber rub strip which turned the small hole into a rather larger one. The rest of the car was very, very solid. In an attempt to keep costs down on my cheap beater, I found a bit steel furnace door lying on the ground in the alley adjacent to my yard. This would be my patch panel!
It was my first attempt at body work so I cut down the panel and welded it in (very poorly as I look back at it). The Bondo was laid on too thickly followed by a token effort at sanding and finally painted with a rattle can of generic Ford silver. The rub strips were glued back on and it didn’t look bad provided you viewed it from far enough away. At least the silver paint was easy to match.
The engine had quite a few kilometers on it, 363k to be more precise. That is an impressive number considering the cold Canadian winters and the fact that it was a Ford Tempo. A quick hit of engine degreaser had it looking pretty decent. The 2.3L four produced 98hp and was at least routed through a five speed manual gearbox. I think it is fair to say the Falcon derived Tempo motor is happiest at low rpms where one can make use of the relatively generous torque. I had learned to drive a stick shift on my parent’s mechanically identically red Tempo years ago so the experience took me back a decade or more.
Interestingly enough the previous owner had written all the maintenance history with a felt marker all over the engine bay.
A novel way to keep your maintenance records for a car whose cosmetic condition causes you no worry.
The interior was a bit worn but cleaned up reasonably well. I’ve always thought the control layout of the second generation Tempo is both simple and almost elegant. Everything is easy to use and within the driver’s reach.
I drove the Tempo only for a short time but we did manage to take it on an out of town camping trip. The car performed brilliantly and the engine ran better than I would have thought possible. I also taught my sister-in-law to drive manual transmission on the Tempo. She was not a natural, but the Tempo has a long travel clutch with lots of feel which, combined with the torquey motor, makes the car rather forgiving for a first time stick shift driver.
As per usual, I sold the car as soon as I had it sorted. I had intended on making it my beater/daily driver but another vehicle landed in my lap rendering this one redundant. While it was a good, solid car, most potential buyers were wary of the high odometer reading so the sale was a bit of a challenge. I think the sale price ended up being something like $250-300 earning me a (very) minor profit, but I wouldn’t bet against this car still being on the road.
When I was young , we’d buy $25 cars , work on them for a week or two then sell them for $125 , a slim profit but we did O.K. ,
Nice to see someone still doing this .
-Nate
I rented a couple of Canadian Tempos back in the day on business trips to Toronto. Unlike their American cousins, they didn’t have attack seat belts, so they were much more pleasant to be in.
Glad it went to someone honest who took care of the biggest problem before it was passed on. May it continue to serve as basic transportation to someone who needs it.
Furnace panels are good metal that make wonderful replacement floorboards. I thought the best things about our Tempo (actually Mercury Topaz) was the solid feeling ride and the engine. Plenty torque as you say. Low 20s mpg was a disappointment. Biggest problem was the reliability. Had to repair it too frequently.
It went away and we did not cry on it’s way out.
The manual transmission gave much better mileage and acceleration.
My father had an ’88 coupe, but equipped in the GLS trim. He put 160,000 miles on it with the only problems being a radiator fan whose motor soured and a broken cable in the dash causing all a/c to blow out onto the windshield.
My sister briefly had a ’92 in the early ’90s. She totaled it out. Both drove great.
Never have I seen a car in which the manual transmission version got such better fuel mileage than the automatic. The ’88 had a five-speed and never got less than 30 mpg; the ’92 had an automatic and got low 20s. The overdrive in the ’88 could not have been the sole culprit.
Think it could have been a difference in drivers, as well?
Perhaps some as my sister is a lead foot. Yet even with my driving them both, it was still about the same difference.
I had an 80 Jetta that was auto, no ac and got 29 mpg LA to Washington. I later had (still have) an 86 Jetta with 5 speed stick and ran the AC all day (it was in July) and got 36 mpg. Both cars drove between 65-70. The 80 was only a 3 speed auto and it really wound out. It was a 1.6 liter, the 86 was a 1.8. And the 80 was about a 300 lb lighter car. Big difference.
These days there ain’t much difference in mileage between manuals and automatics. But there sure was back in the 50s when I was a kid. My daddy always bought manual cars because of that.
I take my hat off to someone capable of enough enthusiasm to respond to an ad for a $50 car. And even better, you won!
An Irish friend bought a $50 Mini Clubman S 1974 twin fuel tanks twin carbs all the gauges and it went, mind you it did cost quite a lot of time and spannering to keep it running apparently that was the reason for the near free purchase price but Dollar Wally had nearly a dozen BMC Minis in stock for spares so it was kept alive for several years.
I like the character line that upsweeps toward the trunk. The sheer flatness of the face reminds me of a 1990 Lumina APV and I kind of like it. This Tempo pulls off the basket handle design much better than the bloated late 70s Thunderbirds.
My most memorable experience with a Tempo was getting hit by one at the intersection of Bald Hill and Station Road in the Town of Danby. In Central New York all country roads are 55 zones, but it is up to you to have common sense. An Ithaca College student in a faded red Tempo unfamiliar with the road did not see the only warning sign about a horseshoe curve so she entered it at a high rate of speed and hit the family Saab 900. Mom’s quick swerving and gas pedal stomp saved her from a driver door hit and instead the Tempo took out the quarter panel. Mom and I were annoyed at her (I was 10 at the time) because if I remember correctly she did not act sorry enough and kept making excuses. Plus, she just stopped in the road instead of pulling over somewhere. In the end we got money from her insurance company and used sheet metal screws to attach the bumper cover bits back on.
My hate for these goes back to the early-mid 1990s when I got stuck with a rental every time I flew in to Grand Rapids on business.
In 2003, my old buddy’s brother picked me up in one of these things one hot & humid Missouri Saturday when we were in town. We drove out to my buddy’s house near New Melle, MO. The Tempo in question was their aunt’s car, who was now in a nursing home and he was going to repaint the roof and trunk lid in order to get a better price when he sold it for her.
An old associate also showed up that day, so that makes 4 guys…
Well, first things first: Beer and lots of it! After that, we sanded (kind of), prepped the roof and trunk (kind of). Now for the painting part…
A hot, humid day and alcohol don’t mix too well, especially with the 10% beer we started out with. After that it was all downhill from there!
We did get the roof and trunk painted and it didn’t look too bad, but after we were finished, we all crashed in the family room for several hours.
When his brother and I were ready to leave that evening, I was the driver because he was still half-looped!
All in all, it was a fun day and we did accomplish the task at hand with lots of laughter, food & drink.
That day was the most fun I had and will ever have with a Ford Tempo. I still hate those cars…
They did get a fairly good price for the Tempo after all!
I love dungas like this, I even have one a $200 Nissan its got air psteer pwindows remote locking alarm rust numerous dents factory alloy wheels 342,000kms and starts first flick of the key whats not to like? 5speed manual trans apart from its beatup appearance its a good car.
Ive never been a fan of the tempo….but a 2 door with a stick for cheap would be tough to pass up!
Ive always wondered what kind of sleeper could be built by swapping in the turbocharged SVO 2.3 and working it up a bit….
I’m not sure it’s even possible. The SVO’s 2.3 is an entirely different engine, and I can’t find where it was ever used in a fwd, transverse installation.
The Tempo/Topaz “HSC” 2.3 is a pushrod engine; it’s Ford’s perennial 200-CID straight six, minus two cylinders. The Lima 2.3 used in the Mustang is an OHC engine, and totally unrelated. They’re often thought to be the same engine, but they’re most definitely not.
Not possible without some serious work as they do not share anything other than displacement when measured in liters. As David mentioned sticking in a SHO motor is a much easier accomplishment, one that has been done before.
It would easier to find a 3.0L V6 Vulcan Tempo and swap a SHO engine in.
Cheapest car I ever got was a 68 New Yorker in 84 for a hundred bucks. Now that would be a tank of gas for it.
Cheapest car I ever bought was also $100 – a 1988 Buick Regal Limited coupe that I bought (and drove home) as a parts car for my own former ’88 Regal in 2004. Body was full of dents but otherwise solid. It fired right up and ran like a top with some fresh gas – after sitting for a few years. That 2.8 V6 was a great engine, just a bad choice for a heavy W-Body.
Also, I was given a 1982 Chevy Impala sedan (Caprice twin) in 2006 as payment for some very light work I had done for a family member – I did absolutely nothing to the car other than a good interior cleaning & sold it off to a high school kid for a tidy $500 profit. Last time I saw it on the road was back in 2010.
Had a very similar Mercury Topaz, which I bought new. My then college age daughter drove it for a while until ice on the road had her straddle a left turn island with it. Curb broke off the sump where the oil filter attached. End of that car. Too bad really. Maybe I had low expectations in those days, bit I rather liked the car as a commuter.
Like the piece mentioned above, Canada was awash with these things during the low dollar era of the late 1980’s. Even a Corolla was considered Big Money by infamously car cheap Canucks and the Greatest Generation snapped them up like hotcakes. For $10,000 out the door, they weren’t bad. The HSC four-banger made great torque in the city and the cars generally went where you pointed them. The interior was horrid but the people who bought them had driven Mavericks before, so no biggie.
These were not high quality cars. Ten years and they were toast, not worth fixing anymore.
$50! That’s about the price of a 1:18 diecast model!
My Mother had one of these for 21 years…she got it new in 1988 when my youngest sister took over her car (1984 Pontiac Sunbird). It eventually went in the 2009 state version of “cash for clunkers” though it had very low mileage (probably only 60k miles) and ran OK, it only lacked air conditioning…hers was an LX with Automatic.
I did a fair amount of work on it, mostly electrical (darned alternator more than once) but also cooling system. I got many of the small things working again on it…one side power lock didn’t work (new relay fixed that) and the pushbutton for the fuel door inside the glove compartment didn’t work…had to pop the trunk and use the “emergency” release for the door until I got it going again…only thing I didn’t fix at the time was the scratchy volume control on the radio (either was too low or way to loud).
It was kind of a spare car after my Mother retired, I used to borrow it when I was working on my car (only have 1 car). It was slow, but I liked it, it was pretty comfortable car…I don’t know why she got the 2 door, but other than having pretty big doors to open, it was pretty nice running around town car.
She had this car so long, that one time I recognised it when a camera person panned up from the hubcap…my mother was at a local emissions test before it was required in our state, she wanted to make sure her car could pass it…I guess she was first in line or something, I remember thinking it looked like my mother’s car from the hubcap view only, then they panned up and I saw her in the driver’s seat..made the local news that day, and suprised the heck out of me (I didn’t know she was planning to go to it).
My wife learned to drive on a Tempo sedan; not sure what year exactly but I’d expect it to have been around this vintage. While the later facelift versions are still relatively common, it’s rare nowadays to see any coupe or one of the “jellybean” sedans.
Not bad for $50, this one. Heck, anything running isn’t bad for $50. The least I’ve ever paid for a car was $800.