Project Cars--You Get to Vote on "Hold 'em or Fold 'em"

fintail

A lot of old MBs are decaying away now too. No surprise I love the W126 and C126 cars, which still soldier on in large numbers so many years later. There were a few bright spots in the waves of late malaise.

tjc78

Image is denied

Yeah Allpar doesn't allow external linking of their pictures. I found that out the hard way recently too.

It was a very plush K-car variant

Yeah it was, if Chrysler did anything right in the 80s their interiors were plush and comfortable.

explorerx4

har har, i generated a lot of posts!

explorerx4

those are mustang 'phone dial' wheels.

fintail

I remember a senior citizen neighbor had a K-car LeBaron coupe that was pretty much like a bordello inside, dark red velour/velvet and all. It was replaced with a "black cherry" Caravan that he'd pay me to wax twice a year, and now and then he'd ask me for help to remove the seats, back in the day when stow 'n go was a pipe dream.

hpmctorque

At the risk of making a laughable statement, those Tempos look pretty good in those pictures.

fintail

I don't think ours looked too bad...pleasant metallic medium blue with the "deluxe" wheels...it was pretty slow and didn't handle well, and the mileage was nothing to brag about...but for the day it seemed modern and competent. It was also on that car I started my OCD automotive cleaning routine. Next time I am at my mom's I need to see if I can find a pic.

ghulet

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1986_Ford_Tempo_Se...

This is an LX or GLX, had the cool adjustable headrests.

michaellno

When I first met my current wife-to-be, she was driving an '86 Tempo that she had bought new. It had the fancy wheels on it, plus she had added a flip open sunroof. I think it was a GLX and had a stick shift. Pretty nicely loaded and it was the gold color with a tan interior.

Unfortunately, after the divorce from her first husband, she wasn't able to take care of it as well as she would like, so it was pretty run down. Was approaching 100K when I met her and it needed some work.

Not long after we met, she took a new job that required her to commute about 15-20 miles each way. No way was the Tempo going to survive that, especially in the winter. So, she drove my car for a while then we got her a new '97 Escort. The Tempo got sold to her sister for, I think, $400.

fintail

There it is

That's an 86 LX, the replacement for the GLX, with facelifted panels and wheels. I think those seats are similar to our car. The steering wheel is the same, I can see that much.

fintail

I think most of them died around 100K. I remember sometime in the mid 90s the tape player died, so I hit the junkyard looking for a replacement, and saw a number of them that looked like the odo had just rolled over. I found a working tape player in a diesel 5-speed sedan that looked to be in very good condition. That's a hell of a rare car nowadays. It had 99K on it. That tape player ended up dying a few months later, so I got an aftermarket unit which was in the car when it sold. My mom got $600 out of it from a guy who worked at a repair shop...I saw it a few years later, with different wheels.

qbrozen

After watching this segment, I felt I just had to come here and write about it. I dunno if anybody has ever watched this show... and I'm not even sure how long it has been on. But it is called Gearz? I think. It is hosted by Stacy somebody-or-other. I know he has done a number of shows. Always the same format, always the same garage, but just different types of projects. I think one was Trucks, another was muscle cars or hot rods, and this one seems to be more of a tuner show.

Anyway, I turned it on this past Sunday morning. His pitch was that he was going to build up a hot rod 6-cylinder. OK, i'm thinking he's gonna pull out a 2JZ or something to that effect. Nope. He managed to find a GM 292 I6 from, I believe he said something like 1967, that was still in its original factory crate.

What I found absurd is that his "reconditioning" involved pulling off the valve cover and oil pan and taking a look inside, putting them back on, then spraying the whole thing with a rattle can WITHOUT covering up any holes in the poor thing! He actually got spraypaint inside the intake ports, inside the exhaust ports, inside the water pump inlet, etc. :sick:

The "build" involved putting on 3 single-barrel carbs. That's it. This was his "high performance hot rod" 6-cylinder.

I couldn't take anymore. I turned it off. That was the first 8 minutes of the show.

Mr_Shiftright

It's pretty pointless putting that much carburation on an engine with modifying it internally to actually take that much fuel onboard. 3-2s might be good for WOT, but not much in-between.

texases

Erf...what a waste of a segment and an engine. Why not do something neat to a well-know 6? Slant 6 builds have always appealed to me, and the Chevy or Ford 250 have parts available, too. I think that's the same guy who, on a different show, was installing some gas saving scammer gizmo, to see if it worked, with no actual results. :sick:

boomchek

Thanks, I couldn't find the file! Yeah in that trim the Tempo looks half decent for what it was.

british_rover

A build up on a slant six or a ford 4.9 for off-road use would be cool but yeah that sounds beyond dumb.

A friend of mine in HS had an old duster Slant six with whatever the OEM period correct performance package was called. It was actually a pretty cool car. Not particularly fast compared to say a brand new V6 family sedan but way more character and would run rings around the econobox four bangers most kids had.

andre1969

but I can look at those old Tempo pics and find a new appreciation for the thing. But at the time, when my stepdad had his, I just thought it was a total piece of crap. Part of that, though, might have been that I didn't get along with my stepdad, and tended to associate that car with him, so I might have transferred my opinion of my stepdad to the car. :P

I do remember though, the one time he let me drive it. It gave me a whole new appreciation for my 1980 Malibu! My 1985 Consumer Guide has a test of a Topaz, and they got 0-60 in 15.9 seconds, but I think that's being generous. I know my Malibu probably wasn't much faster than that, yet it would blow the doors off that Tempo. I vaguely remember the seating position being kinda like riding in a bathtub, with high window sills. That's the norm nowadays, but at the time, it just seemed strange and stupid to me.

In the long run though, that '84 Tempo proved itself. Mom and my stepdad got about 160,000 miles out of it before trading it on a 1991 or so Stanza that, embarrassing enough, wasn't as reliable. I think they got $600 in trade for that Tempo.

andre1969

A friend of mine in HS had an old duster Slant six with whatever the OEM period correct performance package was called. It was actually a pretty cool car. Not particularly fast compared to say a brand new V6 family sedan but way more character and would run rings around the econobox four bangers most kids had.

Just going from a 1-bbl carb to a 2-bbl carb, and changing the rear-end from a 2.76 to 2.94:1 made a lot of difference on these cars. Well that, and the appropriate cam changes, I'm sure. The 2-bbl cars only had 10 more hp, and I forget what it did to the torque figure, but it improved power across a wide rpm band rather than being peaky, so it made excellent use of that little bit of extra power.

fintail

Oh they were mostly crap...inconsistent longevity, dreadful handling, unimpressive mileage...but their local competition (I guess it would be loaded K-car or a nice Cadavalier/late Citation) was no better. It wasn't a bright time for cars in general, and especially for the lower-middle market. They were at least modern looking, and IMO had better fit and finish than many other domestics. There were also made oddball variations - diesels, AWD, V6.

I am certain my fintail is faster than that Tempo. I used to rev that thing way up and drop it into gear, floor it all the time, etc, and it was still slower than hell. It had an 80mph speedo too...I remember driving with it pegged. The most fun was when the muffler finally rotted out and the car got louder...best it ever sounded. I would drive it like a manual just to make noise :shades:

qbrozen

Found the site for the show:
http://www.gearztv.com/

And here is that very episode... watch if you dare. Maybe someone can see some value that I'm missing and clue me in.

bah!!! wait. Just took a look. The description says that's the episode, but I guess you can't view the whole thing? Looks like it picks up after the "build" that I saw. Good grief, it is as if they know I changed the channel right at that point! :surprise:

fintail

For an affordable domestic in the later years of malaise...it was inoffensive. The cars are worthy of some disdain, but not pure hate. There were worse choices.

michaellno

There were also made oddball variations - diesels, AWD, V6.

I remember thinking that the V6 Tempo was a pretty hot ride - with 140HP!

I don't remember an AWD version, but since I lived in Southern California at the time, I suppose that doesn't surprise me.

fintail

I remember around 1992 or 93 we had to rent a car, and I was hoping we'd get a V6 Tempo as I saw them on the lot. Instead, we got a burgundy Corsica, which actually didn't seem too bad...but it was new.

The AWD Tempo was all 2nd generation, I think.

I just remembered a good Tempo memory...I was driving down a city street with a female relative in the car - my mother or sister I think...and I remember smelling something burning. As I looked down, smoke started pouring out of the bottom of the seat. I quickly pulled over and had a look while my passenger freaked out - apparently the power seat motor committed suicide at that random moment (it wasn't even in use). That was fun, and I remember it took some time to find a replacement.

hpmctorque

We had a Tempo in our family -- an '86 or '87 with the HO (high output) 4 cylinder and 5-speed manual -- that we bought as a beater for ~$1,100. We needed an extra car for a short period, and it served the purpose. Shortly before we were about to sell it, the engine caught fire, from sitting in traffic with the A/C on on a hot day. The car was destroyed, but, fortunately, no one was hurt.

HO seemed like an oxymoron when applied to a Tempo 4 cylinder, because it performed about the same as my '86 Grand Am with the Iron Duke and 5-speed. My Grand Am went 188,000 before blowing the head gasket. The Tempo had ~105,000 when it burned up, and the drivetrain was still in decent shape. We're obviously not talking about great cars here, but the Grand Am had the handling package, which made a noticeable positive difference.

Interestingly, Pontiac applied the name "Tech 4" to its agricultural 2.5 OHV 4. What a misnomer!. A friend once asked me if mine was a diesel when he heard it idling, and he was serious. Those engines got really noisy as they got miled up. The source of the crude noise was the timing gear. For this reason, GM hired John Deere, of all companies, to convert this engine to a timing chain design a year or two before it was retired.

In its last couple of years, you could equip the Tempo and Topaz with the Vulcan V6.

boomchek

in their family at one point or another.

xwesx

Ours didn't; we instead had a Subaru GL wagon from '80 to '87 and then an '85 Camry (in '87) followed by a '92 - at least as the primary family vehicle. My Dad had a little red car, I seem to recall it being called a "Colt" but I don't remember what brand, for a while in the mid-80s that he received on trade for half of a cow. We used to take that car, which had a black vinyl interior (very uncomfortable during an Eastern Oregon summer!), to baseball practice.

However, many of my friends' parents had a Tempo of that era. I had a friend in college who had a dark red Tempo AWD with a red interior in the late '90s. He said his family had owned it since new and it had north of 100,000 miles on it. Amazingly, though, the thing was immaculate both inside and out, and my friend took the same care of it his parents had. The last time I saw him, in 2002 I think, he still drove it regularly.

fintail

They sold in huge numbers, certainly over 300K/year for the first few years...they were everywhere once. Early ones are pretty thin on the ground, but I do see later ones now and then.

boomchek

I knew someone who had a hand me down Topaz in dark red color. Although it wasn't a fashionable ride for a girl in her early 20s (and she made fun of the fact that she had this non cool ride) it lasted her quite a few years before it got totalled.

oregonboy

Was this your dad's Colt?



Colts were built by Mitsubishi and marketed as Dodges.

hpmctorque

Pretty upscale, those Topazes! Well, at least the name was.

ghulet

....with the Topaz/Tempo, IMO, as with nearly all Fords of the era, was the automatic transmissions. They would wind up for what seemed like fooorrrever, then hit second and really chug along, which only helped them feel slower (I remember this distinctly driving back from Kentucky in my aunt's Escort wagon). I was never a fan of Ford's steering, either, it seemed like nothing happened til you turned the wheel half way around. I seem to remember the Tempo (and the 'updated' Escort of '85-89ish, too) seats being hard as rocks, too. Believe it or not, I used to drive a friend's parent's Diesel Escort (5-speed) on a regular basis when she became too inebriated to do so (this was in high school). That car was actually more fun to drive than you'd imagine, probably because of the manual trans.

fintail

Tempo had a very old fashioned feeling 3 speed auto...terrible. Shifting it manually at least made it feel a little better.

I do remember the seats in that car seemed too flat...the padding lost its softness pretty quickly, and there was no support. Pretty normal for period American cars maybe.

srs_49

I never owned one personally, but my son's wife had a '94 Tempo when they got married. This was back in 2006. My lasting impression of it was "cheap and junkie".

When we moved them to Rochester, MN the following year, we towed the Tempo behind the rent-a-truck, 1050 miles. I don't think had any confidence that the car would make it that far on its own. It was pretty worthless in MN, given the amount of snow they get. It lasted less than a year, then we sold them our '02 Outback wagon which, with the AWD, they were in pig heaven when it snowed.

srs_49

I seem to recall it being called a "Colt" but I don't remember what brand,

Dodge Colt - a clone of the Plymouth Horizon, I believe.

tjc78

a clone of the Plymouth Horizon

I believe that was the Dodge Omni.



This one is the "rare" Omni GLH

Mr_Shiftright

If I woke up one morning and saw a Tempo in my driveway, and realized that my former life with nice cars was only a dream, I think I'd kill myself right then and there.

srs_49

You're right.

Dodge Colt == Plymouth Champ
Dodge Omni == Plymouth Horizon

Whew, how could I forget such memorable cars :shades: !

andre1969

Back when I used to deliver pizzas, I remember this one house in the neighborhood that I'd pass pretty regularly, that had THREE Tempos in the driveway! Talk about not learning from your mistakes! :surprise:

andre1969

Wasn't the Colt name used for both the Dodge and Plymouth versions for awhile?

Mr_Shiftright

Well not everyone is like us (unfortunately)....some people don't care what they drive as long as it gets them there.

oregonboy

There was one generation of Dodge Colt that ==== Plymouth Colt, a feat that was later duplicated by the otherwise incomparable Neon.

michaellno

I remember this one house in the neighborhood that I'd pass pretty regularly, that had THREE Tempos in the driveway! Talk about not learning from your mistakes!

How do you know they were all running? Perhaps two of them were parts cars that were used to keep the third one running.

tjc78

Anyone remember the Shelby Charger from the 80s? My cousin had an 85 and my Dad a matching 86. I thought they were cool back in the day. I haven't seen one in years.

andre1969

How do you know they were all running? Perhaps two of them were parts cars that were used to keep the third one running.

Good point. Now that I think back on it, at least two of the three Tempos were always there (although I can't remember if it was always the same two). Next time I'm out that way, I'm going to drive by that house and see if any of those Tempos are still around.

fintail

Tomorrow you will wake up, and there will be both a beige Tempo and a beige K-car in your driveway :P

Another Tempo thing I just remembered...our car had these weird map lights up front, on the ceiling near the windshield. They were chrome, and hinged, like little flashlights. I remember my brother thought they were really cool. I don't think I recall seeing them like that in another car.

xwesx

Hahah; yep! Paint that thing in red and it was the spittin' image!

xwesx

Well not everyone is like us (unfortunately)....some people don't care what they drive as long as it gets them there.

That's sure the truth. I suspect the bulk of GM and Toyota's sales fall into that category. Given the numbers of vehicles they sell, that does not bode well. :sick:

Mr_Shiftright

I used to call vehicle like that "TM"s. Transportation Module. :P

jlflemmons

There was one version of the Colt in the late 70's, maybe early '80's, that had a 4spd with dual range for a total of 8 fwd gears and 2 reverse! While a rather crude little thing, it was nonetheless pretty reliable.

boomchek

I think you're referring to this one?