August 5, 2002

Now, in case you missed it, you might want to read my first edition of this particular rant. And in case you don't frequent our forums, you might want to take a look and go through the Tempo thread. I've made myself fairly clear about the trouble I had with my tempo. I took very good care of that beast and it was utter shit. The electrical system alone was a nightmare plus transmission problems didn't exactly make things peachy. Just one experience? I don't think so.

DPW had one and he took good care of it until it decided to fall apart a piece at a time. Constant starter issues, the hood flying off on its own accord, brake problems, etc.

DPW's sister had a Tempo. No difference between it and her brother's. They got it home and the first time they went to start it at home, well... it didn't start at all.

Had a friend in high school named Rob who had a Tempo. Worthless POS there too. Electrical system seemed to be the bulk of his trouble.

Worked with a woman who had a Tempo. Got her where she needed to go, but constant leaks made things interesting.

And I know two other people who had the same electrical system problem that I had. One of them had transmission problems as well.

Every person I know or met that has had a Tempo has hated it.

Unless bad Tempos are only driven in orbit of me, the Tempo is a horrible car as far as I'm concerned.

Now also in the forums, a link was posted to a car survey site that listed all these positive reviews for the Tempo. I went to that same site and found just as many bad reviews. The one below was my favorite.

http://www.carsurvey.org/review_24630.html

So I think we've established that I and the people who travel in my part of the world are indeed not the only ones to have trouble with the Ford Tempo.

Now should we go into the ignition trouble the the Ford Tempo had in addition to other Ford motor vehicles?

http://detnews.com/specialreports/2002/nhtsa/tuelead/tuelead.htm

I think that particular article says a lot. One piece in particular:

"Despite hundreds of complaints about cars that stalled in dangerous situations, Ford Motor Co. never recalled Collins’ Tempo or any of 22 million other 1983-95 vehicles equipped with suspect ignition modules. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration looked into the matter for years. But, lacking crucial documents that Ford withheld, NHTSA never found a safety defect.

It wasn’t until last year that any authority declared the ignition unit defective and ordered a safety recall — and then it was a county judge in California."

I remember getting that particular problem fixed. Didn't make me feel any better about driving the damn thing. I didn't have to worry about getting set on fire, but preferring one painful way to die compared to another isn't exactly constructive.

Take a look at this.

http://www.autosafety.org/autodefects/FORD-Tempo.htm

It too is an interesting read. But this particular portion of text covers everything:

"CAS has received numerous complaints from consumers on fires, chronic stalling, unintended acceleration, paint peel, and tie rod failure.

Due to sub par reliability, Consumer Reports recommends that all 1989-94 models be avoided. The 1984-94 Tempo/Topaz suffers from chronic stalling. In 1985, Ford tried to end stalling caused by faulty carburetors by switching to electronic fuel injection. Not only did stalling persist, but incidents of unintended acceleration were also reported."

Now I will admit, I never had to deal with the unintended acceleration. Then again, it can't accelerate if it won't turn on.

Unless you're on top of a hill and put it in neutral.

Didn't a Stephen King novel start out like that?

Anyway, if you own a Tempo or any other Ford vehicle, see if your car was a part of a 26 million vehicle recall here:

http://www.flamingfords.com/flaming1.cgi

You never know. According to the stats at:

http://detnews.com/specialreports/2002/nhtsa/tuejudge/tuejudge.htm

... you could be one of many:

"An internal Ford document from 1986 estimated that 40 percent of the 4.3 million cars then under review would be returned because of ignition problems. Ford didn’t give the document to federal investigators but turned it over in court when the company was sued over injuries allegedly resulting from ignition-module-caused stalling."

So what does this tell me? It tells me that I'm not the only one who had a crappy car.

I'm sure there are plenty of Tempos that work fine. But to quote my new buddy Jay (The guy who sent me the email) "Dude, that was one Tempo out of the many made." That's right. So you might have gotten one of the few good ones.

Its not just one experience my good friends. And while I appreciate the offer, you can keep the two cents. No matter what you say, you'll never be able to convince me that the Ford Tempo is a quality car. Ford let me down and they let a LOT of people down as well.

If the priest said it was evil, then I tend to believe them.

If a judge says the car had defects, I tend to believe them.

And this belief is based on both evidence and experience.

Now if a representative of the Ford Motor Company would like to respond to this, I will welcome their response and give it equal time. Its only the fair thing to do. Hell, everybody can have a voice on the internet. Just look at our forums.

But for the time being, I'm pretty confident in my opinion here.

The Ford Tempo sucks.