“I was once given a Tempo to use for a week as a loaner. It seemed made from totally uncoordinated parts taken from a parts shelf. It’s like they send each part order out for low bid without a comprehensive plan in making a decent car. Fleet rental mentality.”
Absolutely!
I had one as a rental car for about a week, and it was the most unexciting, uninteresting, bland car that I ever drove. Yes, it always started, the brakes were…okay… and there was nothing about it that was truly terrible, but there was also nothing good about it. Normally, I enjoy driving, but the Tempo took all enjoyment out of the task.
It was actually more interesting to drive an old Falcon than it was to drive that ultra-bland Tempo, and I can’t think of a more boring car than a Tempo.
My late father and me once rented a Tempo, probably a 1990 model
It did the job, but it was just about the most unergonomic car either of us had seen at the time. a lot of the switches and controls were in weird locations, or just didn’t make any sense
Bought a new 1986 Tempo. Burned oil at 1000 mi/qt initially, then down to 800 mi/qt from about 10K to 80K miles, then worked back up back to 1100-1200 mi/qt after that (go figure). The quirky 3-speed A/T blew at 112,000 miles, but that may have been a function of two teenage daughters driving it. It also went through 4 (expensive) fuel pumps. Traded it at 132K. Never bought another Ford (but the 2015 Mustang is pretty enticing).
I was reading and thinking. My dad pretty much always drove Fords, starting with a Model-T he bought for a few dollars in 1925, and in over 50 years, I never owned one.
I am contemplating buying an F-150 pickup here in Mexico. The F-150 is highly rated as a reliable vehicle in the US, and I assume they are the same here.
I seem to remember a review of the Tempo and its sister car the Topaz. The reviewer called them the most boring cars on the market. He said the Tempo ended with a yawn (the “o”) and Topaz with a zzzzz.
I used to like the Fords back in the 60’s. I thought the seats fit me better and you got a smoother ride than the GMs or Chrysler for sure. The only Ford I ever owned though was a 73 Lincoln. I refused to pay $80 for a new tail light though but it was a nice comfortable tank.
The primary problem with the Pinto wasn’t the location of the tank per se, it was the design of the filler neck and the coupling to the tank. In a rear end collision, the neck would shear off of the tank, spilling gas.
Compounding the problem was Ford’s later admission that they knew about the problem, but decided that at about $5 a car, it was too expensive to fix!
That is, until the lawsuits started coming in.
Of course, folks who owned a Vega didn’t have problems like that, since a LOT of them just quit running after 50,000 miles or so. That is, if the body didn’t rot off long before that!
