(first posted 3/25/2015) So familiar, so forgettable.
For most of the motoring public, that’s the general consensus on the Ford Tempo & Mercury Topaz twins. They were there, in abundance, for a whole bunch of years. They were cheap and they were plentiful and if you happened to be lucky enough (or wise enough) to get one of the ’90s builds, you probably had an alright ride to get you from A-to-B, perhaps an occasional tie-rod or other often-replaced part needing repair. You probably remember little (or remember everything) about the performance of the standard issue 2.3L HSC four pot and three speed ‘Find-O-Matic’… highlighting its characteristic abrupt gear shifts. It did the job… not briskly… but economically. You still see enough of the final examples around that you pay little attention to ones you come across, no matter how battered or beaten it might be, or every so often, one exceptionally well preserved, like this one.
1992 Ford Tempo GLS
Now, there are some enthusiasts out there that know a few things about the Tempo/Topaz compacts (and they’re probably already howling after the first two paragraphs of ‘mood setting’ here). I happen to be one of those people, having once owned a Vulcan 3.0L V6 equipped ’92 red GLS coupe that left a far greater impression of what a great car a Tempo ‘could’ be. It was good-looking, carried the right amount of comfort goodies, moved along well and presented no challenges on the reliability side.
In fact, I even have a soft spot for the early models… remember those? Swoopy styling, recessed sealed beam headlights, ‘bathtub’ cockpits inside, erratic idling carbureted 2.3s and an overall look that was revolutionary at its time of introduction?
Probably so… and now you’ve probably noticed you don’t see any around any longer. Heck, you probably can’t recall the last time you did, maybe wandering by one in a pick ‘n pull yard, or maybe who knows?
A day trip over to Salt Spring Island, British Columbia yielded today’s feature, and I’ll tell you the truth: as soon as I caught a glimpse of those rear tail lights, then the side profile and finally, in the rear view mirror, a look at the chrome-laden front grille, I turned right around and went back for a closer look.
Upon rolling up and coming to a stop, my catalog of ‘useless information’ flipped open and right away I was taking note of the details: standard issue Ford Tempo chrome wheel covers that adorned many the early models in base ‘L’ trim, recessed sealed beams and separate, single bulb brake/signal/tail light lenses signaled a 1984-85 model, and my instinct said it was a first year ’84 for sure… confirmed moments later by for the ‘For Sale’ in the window.
1992 Mercury Topaz LS
I have always preferred the aerodynamic lines of the Tempo/Topaz coupes far more the sedans, especially the gobs of restyled-for-1988 late-model sedans that lived in driveways everywhere in North America, though the final 1992-94 offerings with the 7-spoke 14″ alloys and two tone paint jobs weren’t so bad, I suppose, especially equipped with the V6.
1990 Ford Tempo
While the sedans underwent major cosmetic changes for 1988, those changes were few on the coupe. New grilles up front, new lights on the back and the new interior inside… other than that, they looked pretty much the same right from the day they hit the dealership lots in 1983. These cars, of course, were absolutely 100% different from their Fairmont & Zephyr rear-drive compact predecessors, with their bold, aerodynamic styling and front wheel drive. They were an instant hit, and Ford sold plenty of them, first year models and beyond.
I guarantee this one spent almost its entire life wearing less grime than it does in the picture, as I learned from the owner that it was previously (and not surprisingly) owned by a little old lady for almost all of its 31 years on the road. Isn’t that wild? A 31-year-old Ford Tempo. Who ever thought?
The advertised 89,000 km, tallied up ever so slowly on the roads of Salt Spring Island is definitely original as there are likely very few 1984s left with a mint condition interior… and a LEATHER interior at that! It wasn’t immediately clear to me upon first peering through the side windows, but this car is adorned with the rare leather seats option, in all their whorehouse red glory.
Oh, I should note that this is a GLX model… the top trim level offered in 1984… which makes the find even more interesting, especially to those enthusiasts who are now glued to this post and hanging on the little details. I know you’re out there!
A factory sunroof adorns the top, something else you didn’t see too often on the early builds. Rounding out the options list of this black GLX coupe are dual red body pinstripes, dual sport side mirrors with remotes, delay wipers, cruise control, digital clock and a little bit of fake wood grain around the gauges, though this one only offers a large fuel gauge and speedometer with the rest of the details coming to you by a number of idiot lights.
1984 Ford Tempo GLX
The wheel covers are throwing me off a bit though, as I am not certain those have always been there. There is no question that these came on a whole bunch of early Tempos, but one would normally find the styled steel wheels on the GL & GLX trims, with the available TRX fancies reserved for the best of the bunch. Perhaps the difficulty in first locating and then subsequently the cost of replacing the original TRX tires on this car (they could only have been replaced once with 89,000 km on the clock) was just too great, resulting in a downgrade to a much simpler and cheaper set of factory Tempo boots. After all, who would know otherwise? (other than me… and you other guys still keeping pace here)
Of course, there is also the fact the current owner was happy to advise that the original ‘just-looking-for-the-gear’ automatic transaxle had been rebuilt at the 80,000 km mark, part of a $10,000 fully documented and available repair history, which would astound most people, until you remember what that 10 grand was maintaining over the years. Perhaps I am wrong with my theory about how original those wheel covers are on this car.
The need to make the next ferry back over to Vancouver Island meant I couldn’t dawdle too long, so I never did get a chance to seat myself, pump the pedal a couple of times and get that ‘Ford-Falcon-straight-six-with-two-cylinders-lopped-off’, high swirl combustion engine going. These carburetted 2.3L first model year offerings were not the smoothest of idlers and this was confirmed by the new owner, telling me that “it’s not quite right” and fiddling with it would be wise, should you wish to get around stall-free, of course.
The $900 ask clearly points out that while this car easily qualifies for vanity ‘Collector’ license plates here in British Columbia given its age and original condition, the demand and interest in such a scarce specimen isn’t really there. As I have pointed out before when drooling over the other domestic oddities, if I were a bit younger and a little less responsible (and had TONS of parking), I would probably take the plunge, even if just for a while, just to have it and enjoy it, not forever, but for the moment.
It would be nice to see it preserved some more, frankly, being one of the few early examples I have seen in a long time, with its rare & interesting options package, it deserves to stay as pristine as possible for as long as possible. Sadly though, it’s purchase price will likely see it run out its final days as a workhorse it has never been, nor will it have much interest in being, unless adding to the accumulated $10,000 service history isn’t an issue (and we all know that with a $900-or-less purchase price, it will be).
The find was great… the time was enjoyable… and the memories: priceless.
I think by doubling or tripling the asking price it would steer away most “just another car” buyers. And most people are very unlikely to appreciate how 3AT works as a 2015 daily transportation.
The variety of colors and hubcaps in the past is far richer than nowadays. It wasn’t uncommon to see blue, tan, red or maybe green in interior for an economy car. But most non-premium cars now only come with black, grey interior and it’s really dull. I think for that reason alone, I wouldn’t downgrade from full size cars in the near future. ( we always have tan interior with faux-wood in larger sedans, so far, which is far better than awfully boring ) Tempo was neglected enough in the ’90s to receive really plain interior like a fleet Taurus in the mid-00s and I didn’t appreciate it at all ( just stepping from late ’70s Plymouth sedan for winter )
“Presented no challenge on the reliability side” – I assume this applies only to the V6 version, right? My grandparents’ experience with their ’89 four-cylinder Topaz (five speed manual, one of very few exported to Europe. God knows why anyone would do that, let alone buy one, but they did) was quite different, and not just concerning the engine. I still remember the smell of smouldering wire from under the dashboard.
Very neat example though, this one. Perfect Mercedeses and Jaguars of that time command serious money today but I think workaday cars like these in mint condition to be much more interesting, real time capsules.
Yes, my 1992 GLS coupe was equipped with the 3.0L V6 and it was a terrific car all around, it was totaled in a car accident, rather than living out it’s full life as a commuter… which I would have much preferred!
My Mom purchased a ’92 GL sedan brand new and owned it for a few years and it was a good one as well.
The early ones were a little spotty, reliability wise. In Canada, we only had the carbureted 2.3 for 1984-1986 whereas CFI arrived for 1985 in the US (not until 1987 in Canada), and these ran better and performed better than the carb.
I had a few Tempos. 1989 AWD 5-speed 2.3 HSC (it was a dog, but did a damn good job getting me around in a New Egland winter), a 90 GLS coupe vulcan. My mom bought an ’88 GL brand new. These cars were basically like an Escort and a Taurus smashed together. I know a lot of strange facts about late 80’s early 90’s Ford’s forgetable facts lol
I still think the Tempo was the best LOOKING compact through the 80s, it’s just a damn shame they were such mechanical duds and about as fun to drive as… umm… hmm… I normally would use Tempo for that analogy but it seems that I’ve hit bottom, damn. But anyway, I think there was a lot of the excellent 83 Tbird styling that made their way into these cars, particularly the coupes, that really made them good cars to look at so long as you never have to experience one first hand, that’s how the bubble burst for me personally anyway. Oh and yes the last one I recall seeing was at pick n’ pull.
It really didn’t matter the interior color pallet these cars had, they were bad bad penalty box interiors. I’m very familiar with the Fords in the 80s(all Panthers, Mustangs, Tbirds, Taurus, ect), while I’d never say they were Mercedes Benz grade, they certainly were as good as anyone else back then, including the Japanese and I’d even say BMW(I always felt their driver centric designs are mistaken for quality, which they aren’t), but the Tempaz seems to get the short end of the stick in that area in particular – they really felt and looked cheap. There was a lot of switch gear that didn’t seem to be shared with many other Fords(maybe the Escort if I were to guess), more like stuff you’d find in an early Hyundai, and there were a lot of 70s carryovers like the cardboard, rather than molded door cards, which is somewhat excusable in aging designs like the Crown Vic, Fox LTD and Mustang at the time but on a “aero” design it seems way too old fashioned. These never benifetted from an improved midcycle dash either like some either (Mustang in 87, Tbird in 85 and 94, Taurus in 90), the second generation dash was even worse, with worse ergonomics and the ugliest airbag steering wheel ever made, again strangely not shared with any other Fords I believe(although probably purposely, it managed to make the early 90s square airbag in everything else look decent).
What a find! Could this be the last ’84 Tempo GLX left anywhere?
I always preferred the coupe, too. When I graduated college in ’89 and went new-car shopping, the first place I stopped was the Ford dealer to drive a Tempo coupe. I so wanted to like that car, because I thought it was the best-looking inexpensive coupe extant. But the rubbery steering and the completely flat front floor (no place to rest the foot while it was on the gas) sent me to see what Plymouth and Chevy were up to.
Very nice find! I haven’t seen one of these in years!
I share your opinion that the coupes had much better styling, as did the earlier Tempos/Topazes. I’m dating myself here, but when I was in kindergarten, one of my best friend at the time (whose name was also Brendan), his parents owned a burgudy-colored Tempo. I remember those rounded taillights on it, so it was and earlier model. I never rode in it, as any playdates usually involved their ’94 Grand Caravan, but I remember his mom did drive it more frequently as it was on its final leg, so because his dad needed the more reliable car for his commute. They replaced it with a new oval Taurus in 1998.
Just one quick thing. I know leather was optional on GLX models, but are you sure this one was leather? From the pictures it looks more vinyl-grade to me. Even with low mileage, I’d expect to see more wear due to age. Of course, I’m sure the highest grade of leather wasn’t used, so maybe there was a certain amount of vinyl in it.
I’m with you on the seats, Brendan. These look like vinyl to me too. Even low mile leather seats will show crease lines from use. This was about the end of the line for vinyl in cars, and I don’t think I have ever seen a Tempaz that was not cloth.
Yeah, the grain of them looks identical to the blue vinyl seats in my friend’s ’89 Volvo 240 wagon.
Of course, now vinyl is referred to as “leatherette”. Many manufacturers have gotten quite good at it though, making it quite convincing as real leather. Mercedes sure had me fooled for many years.
Yeah, if you want real leather, take a gander at a 76 Grand Marquis like mine. Now thats leather! You should see how thick the stitching is.
I had a vinyl-equipped ’84 Topaz sedan, light gray but the identical grain and sew patterns to this.
The seats were very interesting and caught my attention right away, they were soft to the touch, very similar to the leather seats in my 1983 Mustang GLX coupe I once owned (which also was bright red inside). They were nothing like the red vinyl seats I remember having in a 1984 Escort which were very firm and coarse and had fixed/integrated headrests.
I’ve never seen these seats in a Tempo/Topaz before, I owned a base model ’84 Topaz L sedan, with a 5-speed manual being the only option it had (it only had one black ‘post’ style mirror on the driver’s door) and it had cloth seats inside.
I would love to see some other examples!
I saw one of these just last week, stuffed into a barn on the side of the road, a light brown later-build 4 door…..about what you would expect a frugal farmer to drive.
These cars were NOT a “clean sheet” design, and most folks half way knowledgeable about cars knew/could see that. Little more than an up-sized Escort, Ford designed and pitched the Tempo/Topaz as the cars buyers with a bit more than Escort budgets could move up to. I rented a Tempo in the early 90s and a co-worker had one I rode in in the mid/late 90s, BOTH were sky blue 4 door sedans (GL or LX trim level).
The best thing (or WORST thing?) about the Tempo, and even more so the Topaz, was the styling. The “mini-Sable” styling of the Topaz was quite different from it’s Chevy and Dodge competition.
If the colors and options were “right”, I’d be tempted to buy one….if not? I wouldn’t bother crossing the street to look at one. Make mine a V6 please.
uh…what an ugly car!
Beauty is all in the eye of the beholder.
Ah, the mighty Tempo of Steel (and plastic and aluminum, etc.).
These cars were such a mish-mash of experiences for people. My father bought an ’88 Tempo coupe new – don’t remember the trim, but it was the upscale trim with the mini-spoiler, “higher” performance four-banger, and five speed. He put 155,000 miles on the car.
It presented three malfunctions in that time. The fan motor on the cooling system puked its bearings; a cable in the instrument panel snapped, causing all HVAC air to blow onto the windshield; something in the intake clogged, but it was a quicky fix.
The car averaged over 30 mpg for its entire life. On the flip side, my sister had a ’92 Tempo for a while (she wrecked it) and with its three speed automatic, it griped relentlessly above 60 mph. Dad’s Tempo didn’t like going past about 2500 rpm without moaning about it.
For Father’s Day, I’m recapturing all the cars of my father so the Tempo memories are fresh. But for the amount I drove his Tempo, it seems I would remember much more about it than I do. Must be a Tempo thing.
What an awesome find! And an excellent write-up. I don’t remember seeing that many first- and second-year GLX variants, even when new. Our family bought a new, 1984 GL 4-door from Al Bennett Ford in Flint, Michigan, which ended up being my first car once it was 7 years old and couldn’t idle without stalling. I used to have to put it in neutral at stop lights and lightly rev it to keep it from stalling before the light turned green. One time, while shifting from N to D when the light turned green, I chirped the (front) tires, which elicited loud laughter from my best bud, who was riding shotgun. The interior shots were a total throwback. I suddenly feel like I’m in my senior year at Flint Central. I always thought the sedans looked better than the coupes. That kick-up character line on the rear quarter panel on the coupes just looked…weird to me.
In high school, a friend of mine had a fairly new one that he drove around thanks to his dad’s A Plan discount. I distinctly remember it for my friend’s fondness for putting it in neutral, revving the engine all the way up to redline, and slamming the transmission into D for a not-so-smoky burnout. The skinny, little tires on it squealed like frightened mice on steroids, it was great. Whatever issues those cars may have had, I am under the impression that their transmissions were indestructible.
Over the years I’ve often overhead young adults who’ve mentioned how they used to drive the family Tempo or Topaz. Funny, I don’t recall any of them being negative about their experience driving those cars.
There’s a four door Tempo for sale on Kijiji not too far away from me. Low kms, lady driven, minimal rust, paint still looks shiny. All for $500 and it looked good in the photos posted. Hmm? Nah
“The skinny, little tires on it squealed like frightened mice on steroids,”
Description of the day!
Funny thing, I saw a nice 2 door Tempo on the road yesterday. Even my coworker noticed what an unusual sight it is these days. At $900, I would almost buy this.
I am another who liked the looks of the early ones. I liked Ford’s jellybean era, and the Tempo was the jellybeaniest of them all. I may have driven one, but I don’t remember. I gather that this is not uncommon.
It’s funny how the ’80s blobular exterior was lined with a stack-of-shoeboxes dash from ’78 or so. Design by committee.
Design by Accountants is more like it.
Wife had a four door 84 Topaz when I met her. I had a Lincoln TC.
I was amazed that the Lincoln got better fuel economy but not that it was more reliable. Topaz got to the point where we couldn’t take it anywhere so we sold it.
On the other hand it was a solid feeling ride that I liked taking on the highway till my common sense took over. I am happy that it had it’s fans and don’t care to be one of it’s detractors. I’ll save that for some of the really bad cars I experienced.
As Car and Driver so aptly put it when reviewing a Tempo, “Automotive quiche for a bacon-and-eggs America”.
The most irritating thing about these ‘meh’ cars were the damn motorized ‘mouse’ shoulder belts that would automatically run from the A-pillar back and cinch you down in the seat (in some cases, tightly). I think it was cheaper than putting in airbags but, man, were they annoying.
As mentioned above I had an ’84 Topaz in the early/mid ’90s. Low mileage and it had been kept up but automotive entropy caught up to it with a vengeance. It burned and leaked just enough oil that it seemed to disappear without trace (I would buy Kmart “Motorvator” oil for it at $0.99/quart, less by the case. Eventually the trunk was full of oil empties), the driver’s seat backrest broke on one side, I hit a glancing blow off a deer which was “repaired” with amber lens tape, a new turn signal bulb and a new sealed beam headlight…not sure what combination of the car, me, or how it had been treated before me but it went from “decent car” to “clunker” faster than anything I’ve experienced before or since.
Lumpy idle from the 2.3, yes, but mine was a 4-speed manual so at least that behaved itself even if the shift linkage was a bit sloppy – I had only driven 2 or 3 other manual cars to that point but one was an RWD Corolla so it was definitely something I noticed.
I frickin’ hate deer – stupid, vile creatures. Two have used me to suicide; one in the marshlands of Texas, the 2nd in broad daylight in upstate New York. I’m just waiting for the third.
Good friends got a sporty (racing stripe and 5 speed) Tempo coupe in ’85. I remember driving it and thinking how crappy the shifting relationship-dynamic was compared to my Toyota. It did serve them well, however, until they traded it for a Maxima in ’93.
A friend of mine, different from the one I talked about above, had a baby-blue Tempo. The hood of said Tempo was the sight of one of your beloved deer suicides, so her dad bought her a replacement hood… in red. My neighbor, she was dating a guy who drove a red Tempo. Its hood was baby blue, a coincidence that Charles Dickens would look at and say, “That’s ridiculous, that would never happen.” Yeah dude, it totally did. Anyways, they went to my friend’s house and swapped hoods and ended up with new-looking, late-90s Tempos, so this story got a happy ending.
No fewer than four friends I would consider fairly close to me drove second-gen Tempos when we were in high school at the end of the 90s.
Nice find but having been afflicted with Tempo/Topaz rental cars back then, I couldn’t muster up much enthusiasm. In rental car trim they were penalty boxes that felt like the stretched Escorts that they were.
Maybe with the Vulcan V6 they would have had a different personality.
Wow! An interior in red, and leather nontheless. Not really my kind of car,but that interior sure beats today`s 50 shades of gray mouse fur.
I caught this “Suddenly It’s 1988!” scene last fall, but the pic quality was too bad to use for a CC post. The Tempo is an ’86 if I guessed right.
Another shot showing the (’88, I think) Mazda B2000 better:
That’s a ’92-’94 Tempo, ’88-’91’s had a chrome strip on the front and rear bumper covers.
Ah… thanks for the ID
Twenty five years in the Ford parts business will do that to a guy LOL!
Ah, the TemPaz twins! Had a few… an ’85 Tempo GL 4 door that I paid a whopping $80.00 for and drove for 20k (after replacing about 1500ft of vacuum line under the hood 🙂 )before selling it for $375.00, a clean high mile ’89 Topaz I picked up for $700.00 which I drove for a year and then gave to my mom (she loved the little thing), and a ’94 Tempo coupe I picked up cheap as a flipper. Not bad for cheap wheels as long as you don’t do a lot of highway driving… those ATX equipped cars whined and complained like a bitch at any speeds over 55mph LOL. Not the greatest handling little turds either, I always felt like mine would tip over if I took a corner a bit too hot… hot as in at whatever the posted speed limit was LOL!
Can’t say anything bad about Tempo/Topaz’s–they are something you can’t buy anymore–basic transportation. I have a customer that uses on as the shop’s gofer car. We made a lot of money off those cars-what was wonderful was how many parts fit from year one to the last–brakes, chassis and exhaust (not counting V6’s)–I can still ring off the part numbers for the exhaust pipe, muffler, pads and wheel cylinders.
Someone at work had a later model with a missing rear bumper, but I haven’t seen it recently.
1990 I was due for a new company car, and a Tempo was a the list. Took a 10 minute test ride at the Ford dealer. What a turd! Pushing the throttle pedal made lots more noise, not any increase in speed. Uncomfortable seats, rode like a truck. Just terrible.
I’m convinced Detroit made the cheaper cars as penalty boxes; they wanted to show you the error of your ways by buying a cheap car. Next time, buy the more expensive car. The one we can actually make a profit on…
A chapter of the “bad old days” for sure. I bought one at a municipal auction in Los Angeles. It had previously been a “pool” car for the building inspector’s department.
Despite its dowdy appearance and forgetable performance, it served as the poor college kid’s car pretty well–as long as said college kid had no interest in dating.
Bad memories. The company bought a bunch of ’84 GL’s with the unique ’84 only carbureted version of the HSC 2.3L. That added drivability issues to the constant TFI module and transmission failures. They were rotated out of the fleet pretty quick. Did hear the later versions were much improved.
I like the styling of the earlier sedans; it was progressively blandified as time went on, to rationalize better with the rest of the line. The coupes kept that pleasant styling all the way to the end, though they never seemed very popular. I agree that $900 is a great price for this one, and that it would definitely be fun to own for a while, maybe fix the idling/stalling issue if it’s not expensive, and then sell on to someone else who would appreciate it rather than run it into the ground.
It’s been a little while since I’ve seen one this old though. I’ve seen a handful of the ’86 and ’87 models with flush lamps and wide tails, but not these ’84-’85 cars. This was the last one, spotted in Richmond on a visit back in 2012:
Are these old enough to be emissions exempt? Might be possible to fix the idle/stall problem if emissions aren’t an issue – fiddle with the idle speed, mixture settings and ignition timing. – or replace the parts with ones that are adjustable. I did that enough with my old Pinto-powered Cortina, so 2/3 of a Falcon engine shouldn’t be too bad to work with.
If it’s computerised though, all bets are off.
Depends on where you live; in this country it varies by state and can vary by county within the state. In my previous state, North Carolina, they eliminated the tailpipe “sniffer” test so only OBD-II cars (1996 and newer) must pass emissions. However, cars from 1973 to 1995 must pass a visual inspection that emissions parts have not been removed; theoretically this includes things like AIR pumps but in reality I think they mostly check that you haven’t removed the catalytic converters. Which results in a lot of old cars having gutted cat shells still present.
Not sure on the restrictions in my new state of VA, since this year will be the first time I’ve had a pre-1996 car to test.
Some counties, and some entire states, don’t have emissions testing at all, across the board.
Easy to fix the idle issues. Put a non computer controlled Carter YFA carb on it. Remove engine check light bulb. Problem solved. Any YFA off a 75 up 200 six maverick will work.
I have that exact one!
I worked for a rental car company during this era, so I have plunked my butt into hundreds, if not thousands of these cars for four years. Many a time I spent driving across the US in one. They were always new.
We didn’t get the expensive ones like this. However, by the end of the run for these cars, I did get a lot of time with four wheel drive versions, V6 versions and a nicely equipped Topaz about once a week. As these cars aged, Ford kept them timely by making them appear increasingly plastic. The first years were the most attractive, yet the later years weren’t shabby either.
Regardless of engine size, these cars are about as exciting as drinking a glass of room-temperature milk. They are amazingly bland. They steered like they were sleep walking. Even with the V6 option, these cars aren’t even in the most generous definition of the word, sporty.
So why do I love them?
Because I remember the competition. I spent a lot of time in Citations and Sunbirds, K cars and older cars. In comparison to what was offered by other cars, these were passable vehicles. It is hard to get excited about any of the cars in this size and price. Being boring was better than being undependable during this era.
I would take a Fox body car over either the Topaz or the Tempo.
Good point about the other cars. The Tempaz might have sucked, but the competition sucked even more.
Well, the domestic competition, anyway…
wow – this car must be one of a kind….leather + sun roof
this is the type of car I wish I would see more often at carshows
Don’t forget, they made an all wheel drive version in its later years.
…and a diesel too!
I remember when the Ford Tempo/Mercury Topaz was first sold here in the USA. I liked its overall styling. Although I preferred the Mercury’s grille, I like the rest of the car. The only thing I didn’t like was the fact that it was front-wheel drive. I’ve always preferred front-engine, rear-wheel drive. I also didn’t like the fact that no station wagon was offered.
I always wondered why the early Tempo/Topaz didn’t offer a bench seat and column shift like the crosstown rivals at GM (X-Body) and Chrysler (K-car). My childhood neighbor (elderly lady) had a metallic red ’89 Tempo sedan with matching cloth, hubcaps and luggage rack.
I drove the sedan version of this car for driver’s ed. The ignition fired up very quickly. I was used to turning the key in the ignition and holding the key in the engine ON position until the engine fired up, but the ignition in the Tempo fired up instantly with a mere flick of the ignition. I remember being chided by my driving instructor that holding the key in the ON position like I did would ruin the ignition.
You know, I always kind of liked the looks of the Tempo and Topaz. Definitely digging the red interior!!! Neither me, my family nor anybody I knew ever had a car with a red interior. And, I’d love a car with a red interior.
I wonder if anybody else ever frequented Jalopnik when it was strictly a car site many years back. I say that because a frequent commenter was a young guy with the handle of FordTempoFanatic. And he was constantly sharing his knowledge of and love for the Tempo (and Topaz). He was frequently defending the often maligned little cars. Wish we could tell him about this car. I certainly hope this little jewel can be rescued by someone who will baby it and care for it rather than someone who will use it as a daily driver.
lol I remember that t00- I used to own a 1990
when scrounging for parts I found a guy who owned about 25-30 tempos/topazews over the years…he had a full shop full of random parts and yard with about 4-5 part cars
wish I had taken pictures- very strange for sure…same guy??- from Ontario
My wife drove 2 Ford Tempos back in the day, a 1985 and a 1991. They were good basic transportation for us. Nothing really stands out about them although I do remember how unique I thought the styling was on the 85 at the time.
I have seen two different three wheelers made from Tempos in the Central Florida area in past years. One was light blue and one was purple as in this picture although since it’s not my pic, I’m not sure if it’s the same one.
That…is really, really odd!
So I’m following along with emails relating to this Tempo post and last night outside the building where I work a rather nice four door 1990 Tempo cruises by. Pretty decent shape from what I saw.
I agree with many others the cars were not outstanding, but certainly better than what the other domestics offered.
My mother bought an ’88 Tempo 2 door new (she was giving up a Pontiac Sunbird to my youngest sister who was commuting to college from home). Well the Sunbird eventually had numerous problems (ruptured power steering hose, and threw a rod on its second engine…and the car had less than 90k miles on it…but the Tempo became the longest owned car (in calendar time)…she gave it up in 2009, not for the national “cash for clunkers” (it got too good fuel mileage to qualify for that) but a different one in our state, intended to get old “smoking” vehicles off the road.(her car didn’t smoke, but they presumed anything that old would have an emissions issue) About 2005 I had gone over the car and replaced some of the “sniggling” problems (power locks didn’t work on one door and the remote fuel filler didn’t open) such that the car worked better than it had in years….but by 2009, the AC compressor went out (we live in the South, so working AC is a pretty big deal) and she decided to “sacrifice” the Tempo for a 2009 Focus. Granted, she didn’t put many miles on the car, I don’t think it ever crossed the state line, used mostly for her to get back and forth to work until she retired, then just became an errand car, it was hardly flashy, but I must say I borrowed the car more than once when my car was down being serviced (I’m pretty slow, I’d probably never make any money as a mechanic). Other than alternators (the car went through several of them) it was pretty reliable overall during the length of time she owned it.
What a find.
I’ve recently developed a thing for the early models. I like the front end.
For that price, I would buy it!
I do wish they upped the price though just so it would hopefully go to someone who will appreciate it some.
I think it’s fairly attractive when looking at its contemporaries and I like it better than the redesign. I like the thick door frames on the sedan.
That interior is shocking and unexpected in such a basic car. I love red (and any color) interiors so I always like it when it’s a vivid shade. I think the interior and the condition alone make it worth the price of entry.
I always loved how even the steering wheel was color keyed to the rest of the interior back then.
I am one who would gladly pay $900 for it and take VERY good care of it. I own 18 cars (9 parts ones) bought between 1983 and 2015 for between $free and $1200 that (at least the 9 road worthy ones) are still in good shape. I buy cheap, but maintain them faithfully.
Want!
I came across this trying to look for a way to buy a spare key for my 84 Tempo.
I’m not much of a car enthusiast, but I do adore mine and wish I made an income that’d allow me to restore it or keep it in better cosmetic shape.
That’s a skookum ride!
Ugh. I think one’s opinion of the Tempaz largely rests on whether one likes the styling or not. I HATE the melted, blobby, bar of soap look, whether on this car, the Taurus, the Thunderbird, the 92-96 Camry, or the Lexus SC300/400. It looks manatee like, like your high school athlete friend who gave up on life and went to a diet of Ho hos and Doritos and now can only wear Velcro shoes and sweat pants. This is a car for people who watch daytime TV, are likely to be featured on Paternity Court and whose family trees end up interwoven. This is a car for people who think Golden Corral is fancy and collect plates. This is a car for drinking straight out of the container and not using napkins and wiping your hands on your clothes. This is a car for community college dropouts.
This car went from 83 to 94 without a whole lot of improvements. The four door got a refresh in 88 and the Topaz version became almost handsome with a chunky Buick Skylark formal look, the car got a new interior as mentioned and the optional V6 and awd was optional for a couple of years but it didn’t really improve. It ran about as long as the GM A car but the A car did get tweaked a lot more over the years and the A car was a world beater when it debuted. The buff books didn’t find much to say about this car. The engine was rougher than the Iron Duke which gets a lot of undeserved stick but was a smoother, more powerful engine than this one, and the Chrysler 2.2 was a smoother and more powerful engine as well. The J bodies had FAR better styling (in my opinion), better interiors in anything but the base Chevy versions, more body styles, and in V6/turbo 4 versions, had far more power and better handling. The Omnirizon was bigger, better styled, had the accessibility and practicality of a hatch, the Chrysler 2.2 engine, and the Aries/Reliant could fit 6 smallish people, had much more interior room, better interior materials, and the Chrysler products were more durable. The Ks offered the wagon as well. Some of the K variants could be had with turbo engines, which would have been a lot of fun for only a little more money.
A few people I knew had these as $100 cars back in the early to mid 90s and even then $100 didn’t buy you a lot of car; everyone quickly found out that now it would cost $2000 to get the new transmission, and the this, and the that that the car required to get it roadworthy and they could have bought a decent car and they fixed it anyway. A lot more of these ended up dead on the side of the road than the similar K or J cars.
These cars proved the cynics right who said that Americans wouldn’t buy an expensive small car when they were replaced by the sophisticated Contour and Mystique and the Contour and Mystique flopped badly. These things were going out the door well loaded for the day with electric windows, locks, mirrors, air, automatic, tilt, and cruise for right around 10 grand at the end. In 1994 if you walked into a Honda or Toyota dealer with 10K they would sniff disdainfully and see what they might scrape up in a Tercel or Civic and then load you up with $400 paint stripe and $350 wheel locks. It was a good value and the quality improved. Not to A car level, but it did get better. Some of them were made in Mexico and the Topaz version was considered a luxurious car.
Not much Tempo/Topaz love here at CC, but mine never let me down and cost little to run. I replaced it with a Contour, so got to see the advancements under the hood and elsewhere. Today’s article is six years old, and I’ll guess that the featured car got bought and run a while longer—-though not in devoted hands. I should have snapped it up in 2015, I guess!
My wife had a 92 GL coupe when we got married in 96. While extremely reliable, it’s 2.3 HSC and ATX was a dog. We traded it off in 1998 for a 96 Sable GS. The Sable actually got better fuel mileage on the highway.
I had an 88 2dr 4cyl auto. Was not a very good car. Thank God I’m a mechanic so repairs weren’t to expensive. Mine had a head gasket leak from day one, took 2 years before I finally convinced the dealer it was areal problem. Inner tie-rod ends failed quickly. Rust started after 5 years. Ford paid to repair it. Claimed I wasn’t waxing it enough. Didn’t know I was supposed to wax the insides of the body panels. The rust was coming thru from the back side. Also random stalling started fairly soon after purchasing. Didn’t seem to like 40 degree damp weather. Always restarted and always ran smoothly. Finally discovered it was the throttle position sensor. Never set a code. Never got a check engine light. Hose to the EGR pressure sensor cracked, allowing exhaust gas flow, melted the sensor and the short shutdown the car. The other laughable failure was the heater controls. There was a bunch of buttons to select various HVAC functions. One day on the way to work I pushed a button and all the buttons fell into the nether world behind the dash. Pulled the control head out of the dash. Its a bloody snap together piece of crap. The little tangs that held this pile of crap together had decided enough was enough, they had all broken off. I was able to reassemble the prick and drive a couple screws into the housing to hold it all together. The car had a red interior and none of the panels matched, all slightly different shades of red. I’ve owned some crap in my day but this was probably the worst.
The only saving grace was it was fuel injected.
The first ones were carbureted, gutless and ran terrible and very sad looking.
The Vulcan V6 would have been more fun, I don’t know if the V6 had a better transmission.
The oddest one I saw regularly was on my dog walking route. Red AWD Diesel, don’t recall any more if it was a 2dr or 4dr.
Ford had a design department staffed by blind people its a goofy looking car good condition sure but its totally incoherent in looks No wonder Japanese cars sold so well and these werent exported anywhere, and a cut down Falcon six as motive power straight out of 1959 when the world was going OHC or DOHC, Oh well they must have been cheap.
Rather ironic, the lowly Pinto arrives in 1971 with an optional 2.0L OHC engine that is nearly indestructible. The Tempo arrives in 1984 with a crap all cast iron OHV 4 cylinder. Ford tries to hide that fact a few years later by throwing a very tall valve cover on it mimicking the cover you would typically see on an OHC engine.
Yep its a Tempo.
Okay then, moving on…