While it’s hard to appreciate cars that were shockingly ordinary, finding one that has been lovingly maintained is always worth noting. This 1988 Ford Tempo Coupe has clearly performed dutifully for its owner, with the seller noting the car has served as a daily commuter between Brooklyn and Monticello, New York. It’s listed for just $1,600 here on eBay with the option to submit a best offer.
On older vehicles like this, there are usually some tell-tale signs that the owner has tried to keep the vehicle roadworthy and easy to maintain. Note the sidemarker reflectors added front and rear, perhaps done to ensure the Tempo remained visible to fellow drivers when it was parked on a busy urban street. And the modern aftermarket wheels that likely made tire shopping easier than with the OEM wheels, deemed too small by today’s standards.
Seat covers are either hiding torn-up cloth or helping to preserve front buckets in decent condition. The automatic transmission is a let-down but not surprising to find in a Tempo; the manual transmissions are far more obscure. Automatic seat belts will never be anyone’s friend, but you could consider it a plus that they’re still working (hey, originality counts.) Dash trim looks good and the seller says the A/C still blows cold. Overall, the Tempo presents like the reliable daily he claims it is.
The backseat appears largely unused, and the box of tissues is a hallmark of an elderly driver (based on the number of Kleenex boxes my grandmother’s Chevy Celebrity and Volvo 240 wagons held at any one time). Tempos were once regular travelers of highways and county roads, but these days, they’re either a rare sight or in deplorable condition. Finding one like this that’s still being used faithfully is the car to buy if a staple of Ford’s 1990s lineup is on your list of projects to own.
I always like to see “ordinary” cars that have been lovingly cared for by their owner. Not everyone had one, nor were all every day drivers a “fire breathing” muscle car!! :-)
friend of mine bought an ’87 sport gl new in ’87 … it was about half the price of the then new 16 valve vw gti … 2.3 with a five speed . he put almost 300, 000 miles on it and it still had the original clutch …i still see the odd four door later models daily driving around the hudson valley ( new york ) …
My parents had a 4-door with a 5-speed that they lovingly took care of. They gave it to one of my brothers, who promptly trashed it, an opened bottle of oil on the back seat; it ended up being coated in 10W-40. My dad was still in loving care mode, and found a pristine seat at a junkyard for what was now his son’s car. That car was dead-nuts reliable, very comfortable, and got mid-40’s MPG on road trips!
I’m going to have to throw the ‘BS’ flag on the mid 40’s MPG.
You can only assume that he/she who puts and pays for the fuel put in would know. Otherwise, you might think it unusual, but don’t call it cattle manure
No one would believe a friend of mine with an early 90 Buick Century was getting in the high 30mpg with a 3.1 litre engine but he did. YES he did!
My 87 5 speed averages 38 mpg highway as a daily driver 400k
These were actually very nice driving cars. Good space too. I had an 85 or 86 and an 89. My sister in law had an 1985 Mercury version. Her’s has a special option package and was blue with silver and had a luggage rack on the trunk lid. The two older cars were stick shift. The 89 was an automatic and a company car. They were reliable and good in the snow too. I think this version of the 2.3 4 Cyl was created by chopping cylinders off of the 250/200 six which goes back to the 144 and 170 Falcon engines. They ran well and got decent gas mileage. There are still several in my area used as daily drivers. We had two as company cars and they both went over 200K. I think the two door model looks a little like a smaller T-bird from the era. The later model was a very quick car. You could actually get a Diesel on the earlier years and all wheel drive on later years.
I owned a two door red over red ’86 Tempo in the early ’90’s. It too had the luggage rack on the trunk – How quaint. Lots of love-and-reliability in the comments here, but mine was junk. I will admit the body and exterior pant held up very well through my ownership – I just could not keep far enough ahead on it – I was my Mechanic’s best friend.
I had an 89 with a 5 speed and like everyone else said it was a car you could count on never had to worry if it was gonna start drove it for a week with a bad starter just had to roll start it!
The condition of this car is a miracle, nothing, and I mean nothing used regularly to commute to or from Brooklyn looks good after five years, let alone 30 years! All I can say is WOW!!!!
This one has the front facelift giving it the same headlights and grille as the sedan introduced in 1988. It’s especially rare to see one with no cracks in the dash– the interior plastics in the Tempos seemed to be especially brittle.
1988 Ford Tempo Coupe. Barn finds is drifting to a different segment. I come here to view older rigs. I notice the original writers are not posting much lately. I would like to see more of the old stuff and they are out there. Is this trend going to continue? Perhaps have a BF 2 for the later rigs?
29 years is pretty old.
Leiniedude – I see your point, but on the other hand the new writers are bringing a whole new dimension to our favorite site. And some excellent writing, too!
But I gotta admit I agree with you about this Tempo, and I was surprised at all the positive response from everyone else.
Maybe we’re the ones who are out of touch…
I have been out of touch before, so you could be onto something ccrvtt! Thanks, Mike.
I have 3 of those Tempo’s here at my place, got them years ago, tried to get a few of them on the road but let two of them sit too long and they got super rusty. Still have one of them in my garage but have not gotten around to finishing it. Guess it may be a “barn find” someday…
Looks like they’re trying for a Audi look with those wheels and stick on reflectors. Not a bad looking car.
I had a 91 2.3 auto 4 door. 30k miles on it and in perfect condition when I got it in 2004. Had it for less than a year and bought a newer taurus. My sister got the car and the transmission blew up at around 35k lol. It was super clean and well cared for. Sad little vehicles that could barely get out of their own way with 96hp.
That rear seat looks like it’s from a four door. The rounded edges were to allow more room to get in. A two door doesn’t need that.
I had two 86 Tempos back in the mid nineties. Both had five speeds. THe EFI 2.3 made them pretty reliable cars, never did much other than regular maintenance. Not a ball of fire, but not a slug. The first was a red GL with tan interior. The second was a white GLX with grey interior. I hit a deer in the red GL and came across the GLX with a bad motor (oil leak and previous owner’ds daughter neglected keeping an eye on the oil level) for less than the parts to fix the deer damage on the GL cost new or used from the salvage yard (!) Later my brother dropped a salvage yard engine into the white GLX. He drove it a while and I bought it from him when he decided to sell, since it had fewer miles, and the cool factory aluminum wheels and red stripe in the side strip. Sold the red GL to my cousin and she put more miles still on it. The white GLX had a large caliber bullet hole in the top of the trunk, through the rear seat and into the back of the driver seat. The trunk lid was bondoed up, but nothing else fixed. Evidently, no one was in the car at the time, judging by the absence of huge amounts of blood. I poked around for the slug, but never found it. I wondered if it was a crime scene…
Crack pipe price. Everyone’s nostalgia filter is strong on this one. My dad has an ’89 4-door auto with 50k miles. Here is the truth. It is abysmally, almost dangerously slow. Hates to do anything over 60mph. Gas mileage is 21 city, same as my 240hp L67 Riviera. It is rattly, shifty, poorly constructed, and is slowly dissolving into its constituent elements. Funny story– several years ago, on the first night we got my baby girl to sleep more than 90 minutes, this car happened to be parked outside our window when the horn went off — by itself — continuously — at 2:30am. She didn’t sleep well for another 6 months. THESE CARS GIVE BABIES COLIC.
Seriously?
buddy of mine’s father managed a parking garage in NYC, he would drive his camry back and forth every single day and and parked it inside the garage when he got there. it looked brand new on the outside- but underneath- that is where the gremlins show up from that rough commute
owned a four door Tempo. Forgot the year. Unlike everyone else, never liked the car. I would of rather have had a Taurus or a Impala.
While serving as a recruiter’s assistant, we had these for Government cars for official business. Not unusual for me to put 400 miles a day on a sedan. Very reliable, but the seat would cause back pain after about an hour. Drove the balls of off these; driving between Terre Haute and Indianapolis 2 or 3 times a day !
Did you know that you could actually get Tempo’s with a diesel and AWD ?
Hah. I, too, had one of these assigned from the govt motor pool. I was gray and not very pretty. But it ran its little heart out. It never once failed to bring us back from where it took us to. And it took us to some pretty strange places. At this price, the car is truly a bargain.
Had a 93 Tempo GL , Cayman Green, 2 dr, with a 3.0 V-6, and very nicely optioned for an economy car. The seats were beefy and comfortable , unlike offerings from competing GM marques.
Car was very stable, and sure felt like a much heavier car. It was most reliable, As I recall other than the periodic GOF, the only parts replacement were tires, wiper blades, brake pads & rotors.
Battery, rad & exhaust system were the original items when I sold it 11 years later. This beautiful personal chariot with rally wheels and Michelin X tires, Am/FM cassette, and AC cost me the princely sum of $10,900, taxes in, licensed for the road.
I sold it, still in great condition, after 170,000 kilometers (105K miles) for $4500. eg- a cost of less than $600 per year average, or a usage cost of 6 cents per mile.. The weren’t Fords best loved vehicles, but were some of the best built. I loved ours,
That mid-40’s mileage may have been possible with a stick shift and tail wind and 55 MPH Speeds. The diesel version would have done it easily. I had a 1983 Escort GT that got up to 50MPG on straight flat highway runs to the beach OC Maryland. It had the 1.9Liter Fuel injected motor. No A/C. My 2010 Mercury Milan with the 2.5 4Cyl and 6 Speed Automatic gets 36 MPG straight highway runs to Philadelphia from Baltimore. If the speed limits were 55 again it could probably hit 40 MPG too.
People are always nostalgic over the cars they had in the past. Unfortunately for me I was a dealer mechanic from when these were new till they were discontinued. From my point of view these were the most repaired cars of our line. I worked at a Lincoln Mercury dealer so we got the sister version of the Tempo. It was called the Topaz (towpaz) the first ones were carbureted and had needle and seat issues that brought them in on a hook. Then the ignition modules and soft staters were quiting. Hook time again… By contrast the Taurus/Sables were much more dependable. The least problematic cars from my point of view as a tech, shop foreman and then Service mgr were the Crown vic/ Grand Marquis. These were bulletproof cars that only came in for basic maintenance. On the higher end the Lincoln town Car was also a no fuss drive it forever car. But this was during my rein which ended about 11 years ago when I retired. Until recently I didn’t like the direction Lincoln had strayed. I ended up driving a Lexus because of Fords bad decisions and I have been a Ford guy all my life..
I had a 10 year old 84 Tempo 2 door 4 speed as a commuter car for a year or so. Bought it for a grand.
Not a bad car, performed its job dutifully, never leaving me stranded.
Plus, it had a carb that I could tune to keep it running smoothly. Except for tires and oil, this car never cost anything to operate.
My first new car was an 84 Tempo 2 door with a 4 speed and a carb. It did everything we asked of it including towing a 8′ Uhaul trailer, filled with our belongings, from Milan, MI to Utica, NY. It never cried on the way but third gear was used frequently. Ah yes, a young family moving away, starting our long journey. Memories! Thanks BF. :-)
I remember that 4th gear (overdrive) not being worth much too.
What PRA4SNW said could indeed have been said by thousands of TEMPO and TOPAZ owners. It’s not that these buggies were particularly great at anything, but that they were pretty good at just about anything.No shining stars , but no lumps of coal either.