Ebay Yank shite is home! Ford Tempo

[John F]

Tempo is the name of a leading brand of paper tissue in Germany, and is used to describe disposable snot rags in general (much the same way as "Hoover" is used for all vacuum cleaners in Britain).

 

So I can't imagine Ford sold many of these cars over there

[hairnet]

That is thunderously shit. Great work! I would love to have a shot all over it.

 

looks like a maxima top buying

[outlaw118]

That is awesomely horrible. Much liking here cheif, well bought!

[eddyramrod]

Good shot sir!  Fancy a suitably-shite American 4x4 to go with it?    Regardless, you've scored there. 

[DaveAspley]

Thanks for the praise, I love the shoddy thing. Although it has just taken me over 2 hours to change a cv boot on it...... Will definitely update with pics soon!

[DaveAspley]

An under bonnet shot for the engine pervs,

 

 

2.3L 4 cylinder apparently made from cutting 2 cylinders off an ohv straight six. Strangely it has a Ford Performance finned alloy rocker cover which I'll buff up. Couple of scabs to attend to and its going to get a drastic de-smog, More vacuum pipe than a vacuum pipe factory. Along with a cat-convertor linked into the cooling system, never seen one like that before. I'm presuming its to keep the cat warm in -15 degree weather (came from British Columbia) or uses the heat from the cat to warm the coolant?

 

Plenty of room in the garage for this little one!

 

 

Alloys in good nick for 24 years old, tyres are old and quite tired

 

 

First job, to inspect the Cv boot advised as "perished but not leaking" on the MOT

 

 

Yep, the journey home finished it off! luckily I always keep a universal boot kit in stock. The fun began with getting the sodding balljoint back in. In hindsight I should have took the ARB off.

 

 

General plans are to tidy/repaint/service it as needed, its drives so bloomin' lovely I was gutted to park it up today at a customers house to take their Kia Shit-dona in for MOT. Everything is sooooo tight and new car like!

[Split_Pin]

I love this sort of American car, almost unkown over here.

 

I wonder what the Americans think if them and if they have OSF Scene tax across the pond.

[dollywobbler]

Great stuff. That interior is surprisingly appealing. Moar interior pics please.

[DaveAspley]

Just priced up a set of ht leads. £42!! RockAuto has gone expnesive for shipping. The leads are £3.40! Time to annoy the local factors by chucking them a pile of bits and ask them to match them to what ever is on the shelf.

 

 

.

[Madman Of The People]

I love this sort of American car, almost unkown over here.

 

I wonder what the Americans think if them and if they have OSF Scene tax across the pond.

 

 

Hello.  Autoshite's token Yank,here.

 

Tempos were disposable, throwaway cars and nearly all of them have been thrown away by now.  You hardly ever see them anymore,  Not surprising, considering they were last made in 1994,  I haven't seen one as well preserved as this since the 1990s!  The last one I remember seeing looked like it had been doing taxi duty in Kabul.

 

Why would anyone ship a Tempo across the pond when you lot had the vastly better Sierra?

[DaveAspley]

To fill in the history, it was originally bought in British Columbia in 1989 by a guy who I can't decipher the name of in the service book. Then it was bought by a guy called Deter Tucker who seemingly owned it for years having brought it to the sunny UK (and gave it the reg plate of 99DTU) and who sadly died a couple of years ago. It then went into storage, ended up with the guy I bought it from and voila!

 

Got it up on the ramp today, our valeter Merv from Mauritius thought it was excellent, everyone else took the piss.

Underneath looks like a 5 year old car part from a few bits. Lower arm inner bushes are shagged, and look at the size of the bloody cat!

 

 

A few wire brushes and several gallons of waxoyl are about to be purchased. A visit to Custom Chrome may be required to delete the cat. Hopefully won't incur the wrath of my General Manager by pissing rust kiler and underseal all over the 'shop this time!

[CreepingJesus]

That cat's twice as big as you'd expect isn't it? Deffo well on the big side for a 2.3.

That aside, it's quite a handsome old thing, and well purchased, it looks a good 'un.

[Richard]

Why would anyone ship a Tempo across the pond when you lot had the vastly better Sierra?

 

Cars like this tended to come over with American servicemen. There were quite a few US military bases here during the cold war.

[Guest Breadvan72]

They're still here.  RAF Lakenheath (USAF fighter-bombers)and neighbouring RAF Mildenhall (USAF tankers) are like small US towns, and there are loads of American shitemobiles to be seen on the roads around there.

[HillmanImp]

That aside, it's quite a handsome old thing, and well purchased, it looks a good 'un.

 

This just reitterates that beauty is deinately in the eye of the beholder

[fordperv]

Wow that looks like the bastard child of a 3 some between a mk2 Granada. Mk1 Orion and Honda accord I like it, I'm taking its the n/a Lima 2.3?

[RedSparrow]

Man this thing looks miserable! What a joyless vehicle. Nice find.

[Guest Breadvan72]

I have a vague memory of driving one of these on a rental in the States once long ago.  If I remember correctly, it was massively cack.  Therefore WINNAR indeed.

 

Love the registration, too.  My Rangey is G47 VYJ.

[PhilA]

Had a drive of a Topaz back in Canada a few years back... had horrible performance coupled with interesting gearshifting- had a big solid metal bar linking the kickdown mechanism on the gearbox that needed adjustment. It was soulless, bland and got ou to where you were going, whereby you promptly forgot about it.

 

Does it have a block heater? That's normally de-facto for inland BC.

 

 

--Phil

[Lord Sterling]

Wow man, that is one charmless vehicle, gives the Mistubitchi "Charisma" a run for its money. The Granada wheels make oi larf, almost like the 'original' wheels had been stolen or summat and you had to make do with some Granada wheels from a local tyre monkey or whatever.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Cars like this tended to come over with American servicemen. There were quite a few US military bases here during the cold war.

 

Is there any particular reason they ship their cars across the ocean instead of just buying a local one for a while?

[CreepingJesus]

IIRC, the US military shipped them over very cheaply, and with special allowances from the UK regarding tax, MOT etc., it was cheaper for them to do that, rather than buy here. So I understand, but I could be wrong.

Many didn't go home, 'cos there was ready money for them here.

[PhilA]

IIRC, the US military shipped them over very cheaply, and with special allowances from the UK regarding tax, MOT etc., it was cheaper for them to do that, rather than buy here. So I understand, but I could be wrong.

Many didn't go home, 'cos there was ready money for them here.

 

^ This

 

Plus, a lot of them coming over aren't used to the price of vehicles over there being so low- shipping a car across for whatever the military charge these days (not much) is ultimately a drop in the bucket of the price of buying new or used here... so they'll opt for that. Plus the wheel's on the wrong side, all cars are built like 70's FIAT's outside the USA, tiny little putt-putt vehicles is all they drive.

 

Misguided, really.

 

 

--Phil

[Split_Pin]

I love Sierras, but in the UK this sort if thing is rare, interesting and definitely Autoshite in the most absolute sense of if it.

[phil_lihp]

That car's definitely got incestuous genes looking at that unhappy styling & wheels combo, it's quality!  11/10

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I guess having to drive a Ford Tempo isn't the worst thing that can happen to a soldier serving overseas, but it's probably pretty high up in the list after having to eat off metal plates, clean the floor with a toothbrush, be in a war, sleep in a bunk bed and all the other stuff I learnt from M*A*S*H. 

[Richard]

Is there any particular reason they ship their cars across the ocean instead of just buying a local one for a while?

 

I must admit I've always wondered that myself, though not enough to actually find out. I imagine the US military are shipping hardware around all the time so a few cars here and there wouldn't make a lot of difference.

[freebird]

I used to see a few of these and other assorted nondescript Yank stuff when my work patch used to cover Lakenheath/Feltwell and the USAF Airbases.

Pontiacs that no longer resembled Pontiacs and Dodges and stuff that looked like Ray Charles had penned the blueprints after being given a description of a "European" car.

Nowdays all you see up here are U.S registered Hondas and the like with the odd SUV/ Mahoosive Pick up tootling around.

That Tempo is utterly shit.

Brilliant work fella.

[stormee]

Tempo is the name of a leading brand of paper tissue in Germany, and is used to describe disposable snot rags in general (much the same way as "Hoover" is used for all vacuum cleaners in Britain).

 

So I can't imagine Ford sold many of these cars over there

And even a brand for small lorries. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidal_%26_Sohn_Tempo-Werk

[oman5]

I suspect its what few people would picture when you tell them you drive a yank car.. but the point is its different. I'd be happy to run it. respect and all that sort of thing.