Ford Tempo sold nearly 3 million units in 10 years and it completely vanished from America’s streets, it’s almost like they never ever existed
by soladois
Related Posts
Cars
Ford Tempo sold nearly 3 million units in 10 years and it completely vanished from America’s streets, it’s almost like they never ever existed
30 Comments
a lot of older 80s/90s cars have, some not made as many, but it’s a shame really
Ford would certainly wish that were true.
The disappearance of the Taurus is even more incredible.
Because that was a garbage car from probably fords worst 10 year period.
My friend in high school had one and parts used to fall off it while we drove.
hey that lx was pretty decent
IMO 80s and early 90s cars were the last generation of cars that didn’t really last a while, especially the lower-end ones that were more often abused. In the future, 2000s cars will be seen as the cockroaches of the car world- built to last, without as much electronic gagetry that can go wrong (mostly).
Someone has a beautiful one of these near me in Vancouver that’s been done up as an art car. It cracks me up. It’s the only one I’ve seen in years and aside from the fancy exterior it’s mint. It cracks me up every time I see it.
https://www.instagram.com/otto_zoohaus/profilecard/?igsh=bDU3aGFnbmkyN2R2
They were absolutely shitty cars.
My parents bought one of these new in 1988 and it’s the car I came home from the hospital in after I was born. Same color as this one, with a matching burgundy interior. My dad drove it for like 13 years before he replaced it with a 1985 diesel Mercedes.
Ironically, a lot of non-enthusiast mass production cars with high build numbers actually end up being rarites in the future because everyone – car enthusiast or not – consider them to be disposable.
The Topaz was equally as abysmal. We had one in the family that wouldn’t go over 55mph and was aptly named the Death Trap
The HSC I4 was total shit. Ford ran out of production capacity for the wonderful Lima 2.3, so they took the tooling from the recently discontinued thriftmaster I6 (which dated from the late 50’s), lopped 2 cylinders off, and made it the standard engine for this and the Taurus. Total crap
Cash for cars
I saw one for sale at a dealership a few months ago but it was in really bad condition
my cousin and I spun one out into a ditch while speeding on a highway in high school. just left it there and walked home. good times. that thing was a pos
Cash for clunkers?
Chevy Astros too
I worked at a used car dealer in the eighties. I got to drive lots of cars. The Tempo was one of the worst cars I have ever driven.
my grandma owned the Mercury Topaz variant of this for a few years, junked it in i believe 2019 for a couple hundred. They’re all over in lower-income neighborhoods since they are about as Japanese as you can get in an America car, reliability wise. Unpopular take I know but my Grandma simply could not kill it.
Still see a couple but more the next gen from 90s
I’m not sad.
I had a girlfriend in college who had a Tempo GL, I took a heat gun and a razor to the badge on the truck lid and changed it to the Lempo GT. That was in the early nineties and I still laugh every time I think about it
I had an ‘89 Tempo just like that one! Bought it new drove it for 3 years with no issues, was a 5 spd manual too. Car 11 out of the 26 i have owned.
OH NO!!
Anyway…
Father-in-law drove a Mercury Topaz (same car) back and forth to work for years, over 300,000 miles. Only did oil changes. The thing never broke. He sold it after he retired. It’s probably still running somewhere.
Scrap was too high
I liked the Gen 1 Taurus, but the Tempo deserved to die.
Cash for clunkers
my grandma had a 1994 tempo. after she died i don’t remember what happened to it