1986 Ford Tempo GL 2.4 litre hsc from North America
Summary:
A terrible burdenous money pit
Faults:
When I first bought the car it needed a fuel pump, and a gas tank.
After a month of owning this burdenous machine on the drivers side I replaced the wheel bearing, inner and outer CV joints, tie rod end and strut.
After maybe 3000k both ball joints needed to be replaced, I only replaced the worse one because at this point I started to not care about the car at all.
The car had an unsolved electrical problem that would come and go as it pleased, you would get in the car turn the key and nothing would happen, no lights, radio or anything electrical worked, so I would pop the hood pull on wires and it usually worked.
There was a huge amount of slack in the steering.
The muffler fell off.
The floor pans were badly rusted.
Horn didn't work, cigarette lighter didn't work.
Rear drum brakes had issues.
General Comments:
This was my first car, for a first car this was possibly the biggest headache I could ever ask for. I was fixing something on it every other week and it just kept taking my money away, This car was the epitome of MONEY PIT. And for a teenager with a part time job it was a burdenous hell that enraged me to the point where I thought I would have gray hair. But I kept fixing it thinking everything might be okay.
The only positive things I have to say about my tempo was that it was very quick for a beater, and had great power, and would go forever on 5$ gas.
I got about 5000k out of this car before it eventually got pulled off the road by a cop that pulled me over and noticed how nice my car was.
Please avoid my trouble and if you see a nice little tempo for sale, just think that the person selling that car is selling it for a reason.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 24th August, 2005
27th Sep 2005, 01:20
I have friends with honda's and even Chrysler k cars that have made it past 250 000k without a regular failure of important components, my other buddy's 85 Toyota tercel has 390 000k and we have taken it on 500k round trips without a thought. I was scared to drive my tempo across town.
26th Aug 2005, 12:33
You don't want problems? Then don't buy old, high mileage crap.