When the future Mrs DougD left University in 1995, she exited the world of bicycles and buses, and needed a car to get to her new nursing job.
Of course Lynne turned to her wise father, the Ford Sales Associate, to provide her with her first wheels.
Now you must consider here that to be an effective seller of new cars you must believe, deep down in your heart of hearts, that what everyone really needs is a brand new car. So you can somewhat understand the rationale when Pa V turned to his daughter and said “I can get you a good deal on an Aspire.”
Well not quite, he pronounced it “Ass-pire” in the derogatory way that everyone always pronounced it, which is probably how it should have been written up in the Ford sales literature.
“No Dad, I want a REAL car. And cheap too, a real cheap car.”
As I’ve mentioned before it takes Pa about two weeks to come up with the deal of the century on a used vehicle, so long as you’re not fussy about the model, options or color (almost always red). Within a couple of weeks he called her up again and a deal was struck on a 1989 Mercury Topaz in Maroon over Grey.
The Tempo/Topaz twins do not get a lot of love here at CC, and come under harsh criticism for their el cheapo construction, poor handling and thrashy powertrain but the key difference in this case was that Lynne’s Topaz came with the 5-speed manual transmission. I’ve driven a few automatic Tempos/Topazes (Tempazi?) and the overdrive 5th gear transforms the car from a noisy, thrashy, boring, penalty box into a long legged, less thrashy, somewhat fun to drive penalty box. So the pumpkin didn’t quite turn into a golden carriage but it was a definite improvement.
Although the transmission was the saving grace of this car, it was also the first problem because Lynne did not know how to drive a standard. At all. I don’t think her parents had ever owned a standard car either. So it fell to me to teach her, and after watching me drive for a while she was ready to attempt the tach-less Topaz.
When learning to drive standard simple tasks become daunting, like stopping on a hill, creeping past a drive through window or even turning left. While waiting to make a left turn once Lynne hesitated and missed a few opportunities to complete the turn. Finally in exasperation she cried out “I can’t go, I’m too nervous!” and the expression stuck. To this day whenever one of us hesitates at anything (driving, playing cards, crossing the street) we always say “I can’t go, I’m too nervous” and with the tension broken we can always proceed.
When we got married in 1997 the Topaz got covered in ketchup and toilet paper, then settled into married life with the Wee Truck as it’s stablemate.
Although the 2.3 liter HSC engine was a stopgap move by Ford, designed from the inline six and built on the same tooling I kind of liked it. It sure didn’t like to rev (at least I think it didn’t, since there was no tachometer) but it had enough low down grunt to move the Topaz around smartly. I think they only engine repair it ever needed was a leaky valve cover. Turned out that you couldn’t replace the gasket, you had to buy a whole cast aluminum valve cover with integral seal.
The suspension was another story. Since the Topaz was based on a stretched version of the Escort platform the handling was just as flabby, perhaps even more so because of the additional length and weight. Lying under the Topaz it occurred to me that there seemed an insufficient amount of stuff connecting the wheels to the rest of the car. It had Macpherson struts all around, with long spindly paired control arms in the back. Up front the sway bar doubled as the longitudinal link with forged control arms that looked weirdly angled, but despite my doubts the wheels never fell off.
In those days the Topaz was our shuttle for wilderness canoe trips, since my truck could not carry a canoe. On one trip Lynn was driving north from Toronto on Highway 400, a fast, busy and accident prone stretch of freeway. Having been stuck in the backup from a minor accident, we finally crawled past then accelerated briskly with traffic, getting back up to 110 km/hr, not realizing that there was another accident just ahead.
Suddenly everyone ahead was braking and swerving. Lynn braked hard, and the Topaz stood on its nose in the middle lane as I watched the cars in front of us jink from smacking into each other. We weren’t going to stop in time, and I was tensed up for the collision when Lynn released the brakes and yanked the wheel to the right. The tires howled as the Topaz whipped across the right lane, clawed itself back straight on the paved shoulder, and slowed beside the chain of damaged vehicles.
I was stunned, my Wife had just executed a perfect brake-release-and steer maneuver while I’d been target fixated on the cars ahead. Moreover, the weak and squishy Topaz suspension had totally come through for us when we needed it most.
Lynne’s driving wasn’t always so stellar, once when visiting friends she backed out of a parking spot and square into a light pole. The trunk lid got dented and the bumper cover broke but it never got fixed.
I forget where we were going, but it was darn cold that morning at my parent’s house. Note how the Ranger gets into every photo, and my brother’s vastly superior Tracer here too
Quality wise the Topaz was indeed cheap and cheerful. The seats developed the famous reverse lumbar support and required pillows to drive comfortably, the blend control door in the heater broke it’s plastic arm and required a whole weekend to put in a new heater box. The headlights became clouded, to the point where it was downright dangerous to drive after dark. Since the 3M headlight reconditioning kit hadn’t been invented yet we had to buy brand new headlights for it.
Eventually we decided to bite the family bullet and get a minivan, which led to a discussion about what vehicle to replace. The Topaz was the better vehicle, but we decided to keep the Ranger. The car was given away to friends, a starving student couple just starting out. They were in much the same situation we’d been in five years earlier and needed cheap reliable transportation.
Our friends drove the Topaz for two years, and once their situation improved they bought a newer car and managed to get $500 for the Mercury. Another full year later they got a call from the Police asking about the Topaz, found abandoned on a downtown street. The final owner had never visited the MTO registration office to transfer the ownership. Maybe he couldn’t go, he was too nervous.
As of 2016 it’s been a while since I’ve seen a Topaz, I think I saw one up on blocks in a yard last year. Not only have the cars disappeared but there’s precious little information about them on the Internet. No Topaz fan club website, no suspension shots or good interior photos. The best pictures on my image searches were provided by some little website called Curbside Classic 🙂
Nice story…I had an ’88, looked just like yours but sadly was the worst car I ever owned. Tie rods, A/C, heater control unit, valve cover issue, wouldn’t start in anything below -15 C…my list goes on and on, but in the end it had travelled 270000 kms. Traded it on a brand new ’96 Saturn and got $200 for it…
I enjoyed this story. And that brake, release, and steer move was spectacular.
As a New York City cliff dweller in 1980s, I did not own a car but did rent from the Avis on 18th street. The standard issue rental was a Tempo or Topaz. I liked them. They were all automatics and not quick, but they felt solid and safe.
I must say I preferred the older Fox body Fairmonts when they were available. There was something old school and familiar about the Fairmonts (especially with the 302 V8), but the Tempo/Topaz twins were the future.
For the last couple of years I have seen the Tempo version of this car almost every weekday headed in the opposite direction of my morning commute. For a 20-25 year old car in Michigan, it looks to be in remarkably good condition. Somebody must have gotten their money’s worth on rustproofing.
I remember when Tempos were in the Avis fleet. I actually made changes in my life to make more money so I’d never have to drive a POS like that again.
What a horrible car.
Oh, yes! I had to drive Ford Tempo for a weekend during my business trip in Texas. That meant driving on the country roads at night without street lamps for miles and miles.
I couldn’t see the shit out in the front with the world’s worst headlamps ever. Not even switching on high beam helped at all. I had to drive really slow…
Don’t get me started on Ford’s brilliant standard feature: seat track, which is ultimately world’s shortest. I couldn’t even push the seat all the way back to give my legs more room and buffer zone between my chest and steering wheel.
Fixed. But not because of the stock headlight performance or lack of it; a collision took out the lights and grille and I didn’t want to pony up for replacement parts.
As for the rest of the criticisms, there has been at least one Tempo in more or less constant use in my family since 1984 and in all those years these so-called issues haven’t came up except for the push-button HVAC control on the later ones. I admit to preferring the other style controls.
You must be freakishly enormous. At 6’4″ I have no trouble getting comfy behind the wheel. If anything is tight, it’s that I scrape my left shoulder on the top of the door opening on in/egress, partly because I chopped the springs and lowered the car.
What a great story — and the pictures are terrific, too.
I hold a silent appreciation for manual-transmission Tempos/Topazes, and for a while I considered looking for a used 6-cyl. manual Tempo back when I needed a “real cheap car.” Though this car doesn’t get much love, it sure saw you all through some pretty demanding years.
Regarding Topazes still on the road, I recommend visiting Central Virginia or the Shenandoah Valley — for some reason, that seems to be the Tempo/Topaz capital of the world. Whenever I’m there, I still see several of them per day. I have no idea why.
Finally, I have a similar story about getting a call from the police regarding a former car. In the mid-1990s I sold my 1981 Audi, and two years later got a similar call… turned out the car had been involved in a drug transaction, and that it had had stolen plates but was still registered to my family. Sometimes it’s best not to know what becomes of your former cars…
I got a real odd letter from US Customs one day, regarding my former 1982 Buick Skylark. I sold the car after rebuilding the fuel and pollution control systems. The US Customs asked me whether I still owned the car or not and for the proof of sale that I sold it.
Uh-oh, according to the informative letter, my former Buick was used to smuggle the illegal aliens across the border in California.
There do seem to be a peculiarly high number of Tempos still on the road in Richmond, including the older ones before the refresh squared up the roofline.. I’ve photographed several, maybe I need to do a CC article on them! Topaz-es? Not so much. It’s been some time since I’ve spotted one of those.
Eric703, I hadn’t planned to chime in on the remarks here until I saw your mention of the 6/5 Tempo. We bought one in 2000 for $1150 in a private sale – mint condition – and while the car was a bit small for my tastes, It was almost as fast as my ’89 Taurus SHO. It was one of the few cars I know of fast enough to pass six cars in a row on US-17 between Punta Gorda and Arcadia; just downshift two gears and it’s like you have the hand of God pushing you. Owned it until 2014, when a drunk driver rear-ended my son at 40mph at a stoplight and stove in the rear end too far to be pulled back out.
I hated those shoulder belts and the lack of space between the front doors and the seats, but it was a blast to drive.
I remember the Ford Tempo and Mercury Topaz. Although I never owned either, I’ve seen plenty of them during their production. I found both of them more attractive than anything produced since then.
These were everywhere back in the day. Decent transportation for not much cash, that’s what I always thought of when I saw or drove in one of these. Ford’s version of the K-car perhaps.
Ah, the famous clouded headlights by Ford. Ford’s rationale behind those headlights (across its F-L-M lineup) seemed to be “cheap, legal, and cheap”… not necessarily in that order. The bottom line appears to be that these things ABSOLUTELY must NOT see any salt. That kills the coating and then it’s game over.
Nice write-up and great pictures. Ex had a Tempo, I replaced a few things on that. At least replacing things was easy.
One nice thing about my Topaz was that it was an ’84 with sealed beams.
No salt in my area and the headlights on my Fords from that era still clouded pretty heavily by the time they were 10 or so years old. The fact that they were usually $100 or so, new from Ford and being plastic that was pretty resistant to rocks make them the better value. A lot of the glass ones in that era would cost $300 or more and being glass meant that rocks could do a number on them. I had a 626 with the glass lights that took a rock and IIRC my cost at the Mazda dealership with the best wholesale pricing was something like $325 and a used one set me back $150. The clear versions of the headlight covers went on shortly after and they apparently saved me at least one other headlight as they were broke by a rock and the headlight survived.
So in many cases you spend less replacing the pair on the Ford vs one glass unit that took a rock. Plus while the glass units won’t cloud their reflective coating does eventually fail and their effectiveness is also reduced.
Definite advantages to good old sealed beams as far as cost is concerned. I’m real happy that the E150 I recently purchased is the fleet special with the black grille and sealed beams. Yeah just like the SuperDuty that was the inspiration for that era E-series restyle it looks pretty goofy and cheap but I like the fact that it is way cheaper to fix and keep the headlights working at their best.
Wow! I’m not alone in being a sealed-beam fan. I think they should never have gone away- “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
We had an 84, an 85, and an 88 Tempo in the family. They were affordable and reliable. I just never understood the hate for them.
Maybe it’s because Rodent Track said they weren’t the fastest thing around a racetrack? but.. but.. Jackie Stewart praised the handling in TV ads!!!
My mother had the Tempo version of this car, it was a 1988 2 door automatic….it has the distinction of being the longest owned car in our family (21 years…bought new, and gotten rid of in 2009 for a state version of the “cash for clunkers” program). They originally bought it when my sister needed a car to start college with and my mother gave her the 2004 Pontiac Sunbird (now that was a problem car, 2 engines, power steering rack, etc before it got 70,000 miles on it…2nd engine ended up with thrown rod and it was junked within 5 years of being bought new).
After she retired, it became an “extra” car that I’d often borrow when my own car was down (like in 1997 when it took me a month to replace the clutch on my GTI, (mostly due to my own misunderstanding of how it worked, I’d gotten it right and not realized it until I took it apart multiple times)…Then in 2005 my Sister moved in with my parents and it became her work car…I had fixed up several sniggly problems on it, like the relay for the power locks, the remote fuel filler door, and several other things, it had never been in as good a shape at that time since new. But my sister isn’t a car person and the car went downhill, it still ran somewhat OK, but the last straw was when the AC went out (we live in the south so it is important for comfort to have it working) and my Dad decided that they’d buy a new Focus and give the Tempo up for the cash for clunkers program.
The car wasn’t great to drive, but it was comforting to have it as a backup. I worked on it throughout the years, the biggest issue it seemed to have was with the alternator, which I had rebuilt several times. The Focus is OK, but I kind of miss the Tempo, after having it around all those years (something I got used to being there)
My absolute HATE for these cars just returned. Thanks for nuthin’…
“The headlights became clouded, to the point where it was downright dangerous to drive after dark. Since the 3M headlight reconditioning kit hadn’t been invented yet we had to buy brand new headlights for it.”
Actually you could have used Colgate toothpaste(the white toothpaste) with some rags and water to make the lights clear again and get rid of most(if not all) the yellowed parts.
Yes I believed that was a myth/tall tale up there with the Yeti but I tried it on my Volvo 240’s yellowed lights and sure enough they were clear again.
I like the Tempo/Topaz. I think they were a good car for what they were. They were offered as entry level cars that got you from point A to point B cheaply and they did that. Was the driving experience numb and uninspiring? Yes.
I am surprised that there is not more recognition from Ford or auto rags about how these cars helped to save Ford. Yes everybody gushes the Taurus’s role in saving Ford(which is rightly so) but nothing about the car that saved the Taurus and thus saved Ford. The 1984 Tempo/Topaz replaced the still popular Fairmont/Zephyr. I believe that the 1984 Tempo/Topaz twins were being used as a litmus test for the Taurus. (The 1986-1991 Taurus bears a resemblance to the 1984-1987tempo in side profile) to see if the public would accept the new aero style. Yes the 1983 T-Bird had been out for a year by then and was a success and was good looking but a T-bird was not practical for most folks due to price or due to having two doors.
The Tempo sold over 400,000 in 1984 alone showing that the public accepted and would buy an aero car.
Thanks, tell me NOW about the toothpaste. Those headlights were expensive…
If I still had the car I would get Zackman to polish the headlights with toothpaste 🙂
I tried the Toothpaste thing on my 2007 Mustang. I had mixed results. But then I used Crest. Perhaps it has to be the “Colgate White” as Leon says. If it ever stops raining here in Baltimore, and I can finally clean my car (it’s been driving my nuts not being able to do so… I feel like I’m living in Seattle or Eugene), I’ll try that again. I’m pretty sure I have some Colgate White in the house.
Very nice story, BTW Doug. I enjoyed reading it. The proper definition of the mantra of this website, “Every Car Has a Story”. ;o)
I used Arm & Hammer toothpaste (the secret I read is the fine grit) and a wet sponge to rub in and wipe off, and had some decent results on my 2001 Nissan Truck around 2012. It definitely removed the yellow tint from the glass (I took a picture of this somewhere of before and after), and later did it again in 2015 when it got a little foggy looking. While it isn’t perfect (the plastic covers is battered and worn from 16 years and 278K miles), the 10 minute investment of time saved me some bucks. Both lights are original and they seem fine in the dark–no qualms driving in the night.
On a recently purchased ’07 Cobalt the lamps were yellow and clouded really badly. I found a pair of brand new headlamp assemblies on the net for $80.00 including shipping. 2 bolts hold them in, easy to replace. I have heard they will quickly cloud up and yellow after polishing due to the UV coating being removed after polishing.
She had the car a week and rear ended a BMW in the rain. Its now in the body shop, At least she already has the smashed headlamp replacements, which arrived 2 days after the accident since it’s being repaired at her expense due to having liability only insurance. Along with a new hood, grill, bumper cover and core support. Luckily the airbags didn’t deploy so were at $500 in parts, plus whatever the body man charges her in labor.
When I was looking to replace my Fairmont Futura in 1984, I looked at these, very briefly. The dealer explained that this was the successor to the Fairmont. A buddy of mine had an Escort. I looked at the Tempo and thought, ‘That looks like an Escort with air pumped into it’ and then asked, what can you show me in a slightly used or leftover ’83 T-Bird. I found out much later that THIS was the actual successor to the Futura, as it was on the same ‘Fox’ platform. I bought my first T-Bird and was hooked on T-Birds until they were discontinued in 1997. Then the sainted Taurus came out for 1986. I thought the same thing, ‘That looks like a Tempo with air pumped into it’. ;o)
“Actually you could have used Colgate toothpaste(the white toothpaste) with some rags and water to make the lights clear again and get rid of most(if not all) the yellowed parts.”
Except that it ~always~ returns a few months later. And next thing you know you’re doing it with the frequency of an oil change.
It takes all of three minutes to do so meh.
Our accountant, a classic ‘little old lady’ CPA for our company purchased a Topaz new in (85?). I was on my Honda kick and kind of silently sneered at her choice, but it got her to work just fine every day for the next five years without a problem, so I sort of got tired of sneering and decided that for her purposes, it was a fine car.
The CC Effect raised its beautiful head yesterday … I cycled past a driveway that contained a Topaz and an “aero” Cougar. Both from the later, formal roofline years.
I always thought these were OK for the money. Cheap, decent looking, comfortable interiors and reasonably reliable.
+1 OK for the money is right on target
‘The headlights became clouded…’
Blame Ford for this…
When NHTSA reviewed the petition to allow the composite headlamps, the agency rightfully had concerns about the Lexan’s suspectibilty to the ultraviolet damage. NHTSA wanted some type of protection against ultraviolet radiation as the military had included in the Lexan components for its fighters and vehicles.
Ford screamed about adding roughly $2 per vehicle for special coating and invoked the 1972 federal law (Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings Act) on cost-benefit ratio of adding ‘safety’ equipment or requirement. NHTSA backed off, and now we have Ford to thank for that.
Interesting. Was the cost-cutting on the composite headlamps universal with all manufacturers? It seems like after a period of time, this situation was ‘cleared up’ (no pun intended), either by using glass instead of Lexan or actually using the recommended coating.
A very nice story. And props to Mrs. DougD on her emergency maneuver chops.
My stepmom got the Ford Tempo version of this car, only with an auto. It seemed nicely trimmed inside, but she had it the shortest of anything she ever drove, maybe 2 years. It followed ten years in a Cutlass Ciera and the rest of her life (so far) of an Acura Integra and a series of Camrys.
Best thing about the story isn’t the car. It’s that you got, and kept, the girl.
I accompanied my dad on a car-shopping expedition in 1986…looked briefly at the Tempo and Topaz twins and was so unimpressed that he bought an ’86 VW Jetta GL, Atlas Gray, gray cloth, 5 speed. Tough little car that gave great service for many years. That led to an ’87 Golf GL, also a terrific car,and then a ’91 Jetta GL that was a steaming turd and the last VW my parents have owned. They still have never actually bought a Ford…they seemed to always look at Fords but never pulled the trigger. I even remember them looking at a Pinto wagon around 1975…bought an AMC Gremlin, of all things.
We went the other way: from Rabbits to Tempos. I liked the Rabbits for the most part but their rust resistance- even with Ziebart- was worse than the Fords. And the VWs had some chintzy features about them where the Fords just seemed more solid throughout. As far as handling and performance I don’t recall preferring one over the other. Pops was a long-time VW owner but those last two VWs came with some supremely frustrating and disappointing experiences so it was bye-bye VW from then on.
I see some parallels between this car and my wife’s Alero…her Dad bought it for her when she graduated college (though it wasn’t her first car, she’d had a Talon TSi before that), he got that car in particular because he got a killer deal on it, and it was a red 4-door sedan. I wrote a COAL on that one earlier this year as it became mine after it got too flaky for her to drive, so I’ll spare “the rest of the story”!
The amusing part? She learned to drive on a Tempo, which was her Mom’s car at the time. She does *not* have fond memories of the Tempo.
Right on the money, G. Poon.
The Tempo seemed great compared to the leaky, disease-ridden Pilgrim-killers before it. Or maybe it’s just the bile-colored glasses.
I had an ’89 Topaz 4 door many years back, bought used. Drove the living p*ss out of that little car. Yea, it was a bit tight on front seat room and climbing in and out wasn’t easy (I’m a leggy 6’3″) but the little beast never let me down. Got rid of the car, still in great running condition, with 264k miles on her. I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for the Tempaz twins 🙂 .
the old man was right. shoulda bought the aspire.
Uh, no. Ass-fires were pure, unadulterated junk, an unreliable problem child, and a very unworthy successor to the sturdy little Festiva.
Hahaha, I literally laughed out loud at this:
“The final owner had never visited the MTO registration office to transfer the ownership. Maybe he couldn’t go, he was too nervous.”
Great story, one of my favourite COALs I’ve read even though I don’t much care for the Tempo/Topaz.
My first wife’s stepdad worked at a Ford plant in Ohio. So in 1983, we bought a brand-new fully-loaded Escort. Which neither of us ever liked very much.
We disliked it so much that in 1985 we bought a Tempo. With a 5-speed. Which both of us liked a great deal other than the dealer-installed a/c (we insisted on a stick, the only one they had had no air). As I recall, it was pleasant to drive.
My former wife drove it until it wouldn’t run any more.
Doug, I loved the story, the phrase, the pictures, Lynn’s braking maneuver, everything. This was a great, fun read.
Always love your stories, Doug. We’ll have to re-run some of your early ones soon.
That was a charming story, well told. And, like Wm. Stopford, I laughed aloud at the “maybe…he was too nervous”!
I think of these cars as “competent” (often a damning compliment), kinda like the Falcon only c. 25 years later. For me, the “CC Effect” is often an urge I hadn’t had–even half an hour previously–to seek out one of these to take home and love. Right now there’s a clean ’86 tempo in AZ, just 40K miles it says–for $2300: https://tucson.craigslist.org/cto/5553058348.html
Once Ford worked out the bugs, these were basically a Falcon for the 1980s and early 1990s. The Tempo and Topaz did have nicer interiors than their Chrysler and GM competition (Plymouth Reliant and Dodge Aries at Chrysler, and X-cars and later N-cars at GM), and their styling has held up better over the years.
Asspire…lol
I worked a a Ford dealership in the ’90’s, we called them Expires. We also had the Exploder, the Tortoise, the Mercury Mistake (Mystique)… I don’t think many cars were spared a nickname. I’ll leave you to guess the fate of the Focus.
Love the Ranger. Shouldn’t have sold my ’89. I still see it around Bellingham, now wearing camo paint. Have a ’93 Sport now. Anyone see one of those with the decals intact? I haven’t seen another like mine.
Wonderful story.
You are right about the transmissions. My father had an ’88 Tempo with a five-speed; it wasn’t that bad to drive and he got 160,000 trouble free miles from it.
My sister had a ’92 Tempo with an automatic and it was horrid above about 60 mph. Maybe it was a good thing she wrecked it, making it a loss.
Overall, it sounds like her (your?) Topaz was about as good as these got. That’s not a bad thing.
Ah, the Tempo/Topaz, the last of that trio of eminently forgettable small domestic cars from the eighties, the other two being the Reliant/Aries and Cavalier/Sunfire. It’s not that any of the three were really bad, per se. It’s just that the Camry and Accord were so much better. Yeah, they cost more, too, but if you could afford them, the Japanese cars would pay off in longevity, something that certainly can’t be said of the domestics. On top of that, the driving experience for the Toyota and Honda was a whole lot better, too.
With that said, I bought a new, 1985 Honda Accord sedan. It was very nice, comfortable, and competent. But, at 10,000 miles, the front brake rotors warped and Honda would not replace them under warranty. I got rid of it shortly after and it was the only Honda I ever owned. From the little I know, to this day, it seems that the Honda rotor problem has never been fully resolved.
Dad needed a car during the mid 90’s and we obtained a 1989 silver Tempo with the 2.3/automatic and those dreadful motorized seat belts from the back row of our then local Ford dealer via wholesale from our dealership. It was one of the few Fords dad ever owned and he never wanted another. From an under hood fire from a badly leaking power steering pump to failed valve cover gaskets to ball joints, tie rods and of course both half shafts failing within two months just about everything that could go wrong did. the A/C never worked but he never bothered to have us fix it and the linkage to the transmission was never right with the proper adjustment seeing the engine stay into first gear until it was going to explode or by adjusting it the other way which meant it jumped out of first gear at about 10 MPH which meant super sluggish pickup around town and dad had to hold the gears manually to merge onto any expressway just ot get up to speed.
The engine itself was probably the only reliable aspect of that car but it wasn’t smooth, quiet, didn’t like to rev very much and wasn’t particularly fuel efficient. After the resulting rust started taking its toll dad sold the car to a younger kid who totaled the car within a month. Lots of memories with that car but not really great ones.
As a part store manager we loved Tempos/Topazs–can’t say they were bad cars cause anyone I knew who owned one just wanted a car to drive–but there were so many made that we sold lots of wear parts–brakes, exhaust and suspension. I can still recall the part numbers of many items from memory. BTW the leaking valve cover issue could be solved by the aftermarket, we sold a gasket but you had to use a knife and slice the factory one off flush. I don’t think anyone mentioned that during the Tempos life options like a diesel, AWD and a V6 were offered.
I also noticed the Canadian Warplane Heritage T-shirt, I was inside the Lancaster a few weeks ago during a visit and soon VERA will be delighting museum visitors and airshows for the summer–I’m 53 and live about 15 mins from Mount Hope so The Lanc buzzes my house every weekend–I always run outside to see it.
Great story, I enjoyed the read.
I actually owned 4 different versions in my younger years and I completely agree that the 5-speed manual made the car a lot more lively. My ’84 Topaz sedan carried the early 5-speed where reverse was over and up beside 1st and my ’88 Tempo coupe had the usual 5-speed arrangement.
The ’88 Topaz that I owned that was identical to this unit, perhaps a little more spartan (it only had a driver’s side mirror after all) and with the 3-speed automatic it was a slug.
My ’92 GLS carried the V6, so an entirely different story.
I’ll chime in too to say this was a great story, I read it at 3am when it first posted when I couldn’t sleep and didn’t want to comment from my iPad…
Like William and others I also laughed at the last line, that was great, funny how some things just stay in use forever, we have the same thing with similar phrases…
After rereading just now I realized that the pic with the canoe was actually YOU guys, for some reason I assumed it was a more recent pic with your kids or something. Love those shorts you’re sporting!
Yes, an overall excellent COAL, one of the hall of famers for sure! (and I’m no fan of the Tempo/Topaz, to be honest, but it just comes back to the story often being better or more interesting to the reader than the car itself). Good work.
Yup, that’s really us. I think I still have that shirt, but my Wife’s grey shirt is long gone. We weren’t fashionable at the time..
Most of the photos were scanned from film prints, but the lead photo I think was one of the first digital photos I ever took. My father in law got a free Fuji digital camera from work somehow, not having a computer he gave it to us. I set it up at home, went “Hmm I wonder if this thing works?” went out the front door and took a photo of the Topaz…
My sister had a slate blue metallic ’85 GS 4-door sedan with the 5-speed. I drove it a number of times and thought that it was a decent little errand runner. It got good mileage for the day. The paint job on it was really nice, which always surprised me.
There is or was a Tempo and Topaz Car Club of America, but the website seems to be dead.