Comments: 1-15, 16-24
Clutch.
Oh my god, a very fast car!! People honestly need to stop putting down Tempo's and Topaz's as granny cars. This car whoops Mustangs for a living.
My name is mike and I live in ontario canada eh, I have a 1992 tempo gls with the 3.0L V6 with a five speed and I got in a stoplight to stoplight race with a 1990 5.0L mustang and beat him 4 times (four stoplights) with my stock tempo.
TEMPO/TOPAZ RULE!!
I own Two.
1988 Tempo GRT 2 door 187,000+ Miles, has been totaled
twice, and put back together for less than $150 each
time.
1993 Tempo GLO 2 door 91,000+ Miles, just bought a few months ago, working on it. Summer car only!!
I also have a '69 Charger... but that's another story lol.
http://www.tempotopaz.com
is a great site for T/T owners!
Also NEOTCS is starting a site at:
http://www.angelfire.com/oh5/fordtempo.
SJM.
NEOTCS-Akron, OH
V8FordTempo @ aol. com.
I'm looking for a ford don;t have much money. I am attending schoool and need it for school. All I have is 400.00 dollars. My Yahoo mailing address is crab252003 if you can help me please let me know. Thanks Ms. crab.
I own a 1994 Tempo GL coupe. I have loved the car since I bought it nine years and 287,000 miles ago. Anyone else have one with that many or more miles on it? I now have 304,000 on it. (17,000 miles when I bought it.)
RY from Wichita, Kansas.
Ya. OK to the guy that said he beat a 5 liter mustang...
Sorry, but that guy didn't know how to drive his mustang if you beat em in a tempo!! lol
I've had quite a few tempo's inculding one that hit just over 900,000 kilometers. that's over half a million miles!! and I drove it med/hard as well.
Problem is in Canada (where I live) they rust fast if unprotected.
I just now picked up a 1988 Tempo with only 60k!! (38000 miles)
and even the air conditioning works!! cold air whoo hoo.
I have a ford tempo and is probably one of the worst cars I've ever owned. The gasket blew and exhaust leaks out of my car and the its so loud I probably wake up neighbors when I come home. If you raced a mustang and beat it as many times as you say either the person behind the car wasn't racing you or the person didn't know how to drive it. The tempo has had many problems and I wouldn't not recommend it to anyone unless it was a last resort. There are much better cars out there that you could buy. If you want a car that has many problems i would recommend this car. Please, if your thinking about buying one of these I would just recomemnd buying a bike to save you the trouble.
It's all in the gears. The V6/5speed Tempo has a 3.52:1 final drive ratio. A stock Mustang GT has a 2.73:1 or 3.08:1 final drive. Plus, the Tempo has smaller wheels. The Mustang will do close to 80 in second gear. With its lower gearing, the Tempo can beat a stock Mustang off the line and be a champ in a stoplight drag race. But the Mustang will blow its doors off in a highway race. Needless to say, the Tempo won't touch a Mustang with 3.55 gears!
A stock Tempo V-6 will NOT ever beat a Mustang V-8. Come on people! the Tempo 0-60 was at best in the mid to upper 7's with 140 hp and a 5 - speed while the Mustang 5.0 was in the low to mid 6's (maybe 6.7 with the 2.73 M code axle). I drove Tempo's with the V-6 5-speed combo and even the Probe LX with the same V-6 when I was selling Ford's back in '92 and they were no match for any Mustang. The tempo V-6 is, however, an underrated car as it really did drive nice with that powertrain in it. You gotta look at the facts BEFORE making claims about your car's performance. Most of the time when you race people on the street, they don't know how to drive or they are just toying with you so you'll boast about how you beat them! Been there done that.
Well it does not matter if a ford tempo or a topaz can beat a mustang. The Ford Tempo is a Great little car and is pretty quick. They are great on gas. I have owned many Tempos and they last as long as any other car. I hate Ford, but the Tempo is a great little car.
The Tempo is probably WHY you hate Ford...
A stock V6 Tempo would probably run 0-60 in about 9 seconds or more. Now, I did say stock Tempo, as all V6 Tempo's had the 3 speed automatic which was not made for quickness. Now, if you had a Topaz XR5 with the standard 5 speed or the equivalent Tempo model, or done some swapping, then the 7 second 0-60 time might be easier to believe, but in a stock V6 Tempo no way.
All V-6 Tempos did NOT have mandatory automatics. The automatic was a free standing option on these cars or included in a package. You could NOT order an airbag on a V-6 Tempo, for whatever reason. Trust me, I ordered hundreds of these cars over the years for my rental company.
The above is true... When I sold Fords in '92 we had a bright red Tempo 2-door V-6 5 speed on the showroom floor. We couldn't sell it to save our lives, but it existed non the less!
If MAINTAINED PROPERLY 2.3HSC Tempos are capable of racking up TREMENDOUS MILES! I am a mechanic and have seen them! 150k is not unrealistic to achieve with no more than oil and filter changes and trans services. Tempos do have an appetite for tie rods (esp' auto trans tempos, I can't explain why) and muffler systems. The 2.3 4cyl is a push-rod design engine. It is not a high performance car and should not be treated as one. It is a very reliable and economical engine. The 3.0 Vulcan V6 is also a push-rod engine. Almost the whole country has driven one of these in the Taurus at one time or another. It is less economical, harder to work on (in a tempo) and gives great performance if its limitations are respected! It's not a high RPM engine.It's strong suit is all that delicious v6 torque. We Americans have always BOUGHT HORSEPOWER, but we DRIVE TORQUE! most people never understand that. The last version (my favorite) is the diesel Tempo.2.0 liters, port injected, quick cold start glow-plug ignition. BUILT IN fuel heater. in line water trap with warning light.56 horsepower. Manual trans only. NOT A FAST CAR.40 MPG!! EASY at normal HWY speeds.600 mile per tank range!Mazda designed and supplied the engines. Ford only sold this model to prop up their cafe numbers. The Tempo is the ONLY Ford product ever sold in north America to be offered in 4cyl gas,4cyl diesel and V6 gas versions. It is also the only model Ford has sold in N.A. that was offered as front wheel drive and also ALL Wheel drive (4cyl lx only)!I am not a Tempo fanatic. I have owned several of them, happily.I commented here because I saw too much either gushing praise OR trash talk. Not much balanced comment. In a few years these cars will wear finally wear out and fade away. I think it ironic that Ford can't make an American car that anyone wants anymore. future ford cars will ALL be foreign built, Korean most probably. And almost nobody will remember the cars that could be bought new for less than 12 grand (WITH options!) and serviced for spare change.
The guys are right 5.0 Ls have nothing on the v6 tempo.