Not our car, but you get the idea.
“I’m not putting our baby in that thing!”
It was 1999 and my pregnant young wife Darlene was referring to our 1986 Skoda, which I had recently bought for $600 without her approval. Unlike her, I appreciated its sharp handling and looks, its uniqueness and spiritual similarity to the classic Beetle. It didn’t matter much anymore, as it soon died on the highway two months into ownership, a victim of overheating. It now sat in a scrapyard awaiting the crusher.
Darlene’s stepfather Glenn owned an auto-wrecking company located on his residential acreage near the Edmonton area. In the year since we were married, we had taken a couple of trips to visit the in-laws where I had toured the wreckages, sitting in them and admiring the interior bits, imagining the stories the vehicles held and finding “clues” such as photos, stickers and other artifacts; marveling at how such large American cars could have such little interior space, imagining how buyers must have felt sitting in this first-gen Accord, wondering why some people covered nice seats with blankets and ugly seat covers.
A few weeks before I had sat in a red 1990 Pontiac Tempest that was parked by the main shop, admiring the matching red interior that seemed comfortable enough and stylish enough to my eyes. I had always found the curved hood and matching curved windshield awkward-looking rather than futuristic as it was probably intended to be. Maybe GM designers, in an attempt to compete with the Taurus, tried to “aero” it up late in the game. Glenn had rescued the damaged Tempest and replaced the trunk and rear bumper. “These are good cars.” he had told me, “Good drivetrains. They’re not meant to be driven hard all the time, but when you need the extra power it’s there.” The Tempest was now certified by my father-in-law as having “rebuilt status”, something mechanics were allowed to do themselves back then. (Regulators have since put a stop this easily-abused practice).
A Corsica interior. Like our Tempest, but with a different steering wheel inscription. It even has the matching missing cruise button.
Now that we needed a family car, Darlene made the phone call. “It’s a really fast car”, my mother-in-law warned her, not knowing if we could handle the extreme power of the 3.1 V6 underhood. The Tempest had 190,000 kilometers on it and Glenn wanted $2500 for it. Sold.
Darlene’s parents graciously drove the thousand kilometers in the Tempest to deliver it to us in Mission BC, also staying to visit for a few days. It turned out to be a pretty powerful car indeed, especially compared to the 62-horsepower Skoda, and my mom’s 1984 LeBaron we had been borrowing. (The “your door is ajar!” model). We soon found that the Tempest was economical as well, consistently bringing us over 600 kilometers per tank, which was a blessing considering my measly first-year teacher’s salary.
We soon drove our new baby safely home from the hospital in her tiny rear-facing carseat. Months later I purchased a child car seat with a single y-strap, in which was utterly simple to secure a child. Over the head, one click, and done. (Years later, for our next two children, seats with several click points were mandated as safely laws changed, and as I spent endless time fumbling and digging around for belts and straps, I wondered if any of the lawmakers and designers even had children).
For GM, these were the days of the dreaded door-mounted seatbelts. As door slammed and seatbelts flew around, the door would often catch a buckle as it closed, harming the weatherstripping. In BC, where it rains one out of two days on average, torn weatherstripping can cause flooding, which it did. I was never quite able to solve the problem, which caused wet carpeting, foggy windows, and a permanent musty odor. Sometimes I’d place a space heater in the vehicle overnight to dry it out.
another red Tempest from the web
During a morning commute, as I waited at a 4-way-stop, I noticed the grille of an F-250 quickly growing larger in my rear-view mirror before the truck made impact. After I caught my breath, I exited the vehicle and greeted the profusely apologizing driver at the back of my vehicle. His higher bumper had pushed my bumper down and driven my trunk forward. Fortunately, the car was still driveable.
“Are you open to settling this ourselves, without insurance?” He asked. To his obvious relief, I was. We would meet later at the nearby “Rocko’s” greasy spoon after I received a quote, which I did: “I can tell you right now, that’s going to be $2500 to fix”, the local body man said before scribbling the estimate on a quote sheet. That evening, I received the cheque as promised from the thankful F250 driver. I was also thankful as the car was still driveable (though much less attractive) and I had a cheque for $2500 which I used to pay off our credit card.
Two months later, we would drive the car back to the in-laws in Edmonton for body repair. As luck would have it, there was a matching red Pontiac Tempest in the wrecking yard, rear trunk and bumper intact. As we worked on the swap, I noticed a torn CV boot. With the help of Glenn, I replaced the axle with a used one from the other Tempest. Then the brakes and a tie rod end. Having little mechanical experience, I learned a lot during this time; valuable knowledge that has been used many times since then. How to use a pickle fork, how not to ruin the boots, how to use a small sledge to free a tie rod end, how to balance tires, how to pull the axle, etc. I bonded with my new father-in-law in a way that can only be done by doing this sort of “masculine” work together, something my own father and I were unable to do due to our impatience with each other.
The Tempest had received another lease on life and served us well for another three years. The only reliability shortcomings were the small brake pads which needed replacing every few months and rotors which warped easily, both largely caused by the long, steep hills we often drove on. After five years of ownership the Tempest had 320,000 kilometers and still ran like a champ. We were moving to Calgary and chose to donate the car to a friend, who scrapped the car after a few months due to various problems including coolant and radiator issues. It was done, served us well, and deserves a place in our memory.
Some disguise. Did you have the all-important luggage rack?
As I recall, the Corsica’s seats were very spongy and not sized for tall people. My late aunt had one between a Citation and a Malibu, but I think hers had an airbag, (or there were 2 Malibus) because she hit a truck and was hurt by the bag.
I’ve been rear-ended twice, and both times the cop made a hash of the accident report. The first woman was named Gay [Something], and he wrote it as Gary, so in court he was too confused to explain what happened correctly. I was stopped and heard her brakes squealing long enough to first take my foot off my brake, think a second, then replace it so I wouldn’t be pushed into the car in front with my recently repaired front end ($4000 by a hit & run in ’89). New bumper and taillight was $666.
The second cop reversed the vehicles and wouldn’t fix it, despite a visit from me at his station, until I called Internal Affairs, who got it done in two hours. Turned out the woman’s insurance was fake, so my boss was out his $1000 deductible. That accident was caused by an ambulance using its lights but no siren to cross a major intersection. I saw him and stopped, she didn’t. The EMS driver crossed slowly in front of me, then turned on the siren and left.
Sounds like it was the right car for the right time in your life.
I had a friend in high school with one of the “your door is ajar” K-cars – can’t remember what flavor now. Boy was that thing annoying.
IIRC, Mopar brass nixed the female voice because they thought that male drivers wouldn’t want a woman telling them what to do.
My mom’s LeBaron also had the digital instrument cluster. Ooo, fancy!
I don’t really know the history of K-Car engines, but this 1984 was seriously underpowered. I drove later ones that had plenty of pep.
When you said you’d had a Skoda and this COAL was about a Pontiac, I suspected you were in Canada! What model Skoda was it? I saw one of the rear-engine Skodas parked in Vancouver in the early ’80s. It would have made a good CC if the site had existed at the time.
It would have been the 120 of some kind, rear engine. Something like this: https://images.app.goo.gl/seP3m3gp8N2SpzAn9
It really was a lot of fun to drive.
Very nice COAL, thank you for sharing. Like many GM cars of the day, the Tempest wasn’t anyone’s first choice. GM was king of the mediocre driving experience, but they provided excellent value. Reliable, predictable and solid. And inexpensive. I rented a Tempest like this when they were new. It drove like any other X car or A body. Predictable and a bit boring. But space efficient and easy to live with.
It’s difficult to boast about value in a ten year old car without coming across as cheap or peculiar. But it’s a valid goal. As this excellent COAL demonstrates, 130,000 km for $2500 is a bargain, and one which GM cars excelled, due to conventional engineering and low resale value.
I saw one of these Tempests fairly often in the late 80s-early 90s while living in Memphis. The first few times I was convinced that it was a locally customized Corsica. Someone wanted something just a tiny bit different. That example was a dark burgundy, no 2 tone paint job. I finally figured the Canadian connection even tho the car had plates from a nearby state.
I thought it had to be THE LAZIEST example of badge engineering that I had seen in years. The grille on this example was pretty much the same as the one on a garden variety Corsica, except for that Pontiac emblem.
BTW, my father thought that Corsicas were some of the most reliable cars he had owned. Over the course of about a decade he would own 3 or 4. He regularly scoured the classified ads for cars in better condition with lower miles than his, and sort of trade-up.
The cars themselves were quite rugged, but the interiors were crap. Buttons popped out, knobs broke off, and the ashtrays didn’t fit right after just a year or two. But you could definitely pile on the miles.
Maybe lazy badge engineering, but still better than a Daewoo LeMans. Living on the West Coast of the US all my life, seeing BC licensed cars isn’t that unusual. But, with the fairly recent exception of Delica’s, they are usually indistinguishable from the US counterparts. Today, RAV4’s or full-size pickups (and of course RV’s). In the past, maybe Colonnade Malibu’s or Tauruses. Were the Canada-only cars more likely to be owned by folks who didn’t travel south of the border, or in the case of imports, less suitable for a long journey? I can think of one Canadian plated Lada, one Mk3 Cortina, and maybe a handful of Meteors or Laurentians I’ve seen in California in my entire life. Never a Skoda or a DeTomaso Innocenti or Hyundai Pony. And never even heard of these Corsica/Tempests. Sounds like it was a reliable family member.
A good story well written .
When young I couldn’t understand why so many Blue Collar worker bee types with families loved their plain jane four doors .
Then I began driving and soon realized the utility and value of some forgettable sedan that always ran and being a four seater, made it easier for me to always be the driver .
I wonder how often owners lost their plain wrapper sedans in ocean sized parking lots .
You were _so_ lucky to have that father in law ! .
-Nate
Thanks!
Like kids, I think a lot of people don’t understand why so many drive around today in old Caravans and Impalas, thinking that they just have bad taste. For the poor among us, reliable, plain vehicles like this are worth their weight in gold.
When I drove this car for those five years, I was always thankful for for its reliability and economy, given our financial state.
Don’t loose hope ! .
After most of my life broke I’m sitting O.K. now, I make my monthly nut and put some into a fund for my grandkids .
Oddly enough I still like the same oldies I did way back when and since I’m in the South West rust isn’t a huge thing so my daily whip is almost 40 years old and 1/2 million miles, I love it and use what I learned running a junkyard, indie shop, being a field Mechanic, working in a gas station when they still have more service bay than pumps on the island .
You’ll do fine, you’ve learned (I hope) good life lessons .
-Nate
Since I live in the US, I’ve never seen one of these Tempests, but I remember reading about them back when they were new, and I thought that if I ever visited Canada I’d love to see one, just for the oddity factor. By the time I first visited Canada in 2017, cars like this were all but extinct. But I enjoyed reading about yours!
I liked these cars (Corsicas, that is). I had a long-term rental Corsica in the early 1990s, and driving it around for 3 weeks or so, I was impressed. Certainly not exciting, but perfectly fine for most driving, and that V6 really was powerful.
I know what you mean about those rear-facing carseats. When our first baby was born, I had a Ford Contour — the back seat was barely big enough for passengers, but one of those monster carseats? Ugh; it barely fit, even with the front seats far forward.
I was fortunate to have that father-in-law. Fun times, interesting stories.
Around the same time, Glenn brought in a 1997 Ford Ranger that had held the remains of a suicide victim for two weeks, hidden in the woods. He found that no amount of sandblasting can remove the smell of blood from a truck cab, as the enzymes are some of the most powerful on the planet, making their way deep into the metal.
He dubbed the Ranger “Stinky Truck”, and it was purchased by a cattle farmer who didn’t care about the smell. (“With the sh** I track in here that smell doesn’t matter”, he said).
For an outsider this Corsica / Tempest looks like a Ford disguised as a GM car, those horizontal ribbed tail lights looks right from Corcel II, Taunus and Scorpio, the whole side sheet metal is almost identical from the Ford Orion Mk3, specially the crease line, even the curved rear window looks from the Orion, the only GM-ish thing is its nose that slightly reminds an 80’s Opel.
Had an early-90’s Corsica 4-cyl as a company car. Slow, loud, and saddled with a 3-sp autobox.
One item of note: It was metallic black, and that was one of the best factory paint jobs I’ve had on a car. Absolutely flawless.
It was replaced with a White over Burgundy 3.1 V-6 which was a much better highway car, but still had a 3-spd auto. Very reliable car, but had all the personality of a wet brick. The Burgundy cloth interior was hideous, especially juxtaposed with the Kelvinator White exterior.
This car still haunts my dreams and is ingrained in my memory. My dad had a 1990 Tempest purchased used in 1994. It had a burgundy and light grey two-tone paint with the 3.1L V6 engine, burgundy interior and power door locks, trunk release button and cruise control. It didn’t have aluminum wheels or a trunk rack like in the last pic, but it came with the plastic hubcaps which I think I still have with the repair manual and a can of GM “medium garnet red” touch-up paint that I purchased for it. I remember that the tires were 14″. As a new driver I spent many hours behind the wheel. I drove it to high school towards the end. Other kids kept trying to get rides off me. I would visit the junk yard for minor parts such as a gas tank door to replace the one that rusted. I’d spend Friday evenings during the warm weather washing and waxing it. I have memories of passing my road test, going places and even breaking down and visiting a mechanic’s shop. Unfortunately around early 2004, my dad spun out on the highway during a snow storm and it was wrecked. The back end was mangled and the rear glass shattered from hitting a guard rail, but it still made it back home. I miss the car and even recently I dream about still having it from time to time, but I don’t think I would buy another one even if I still could. Having the memories are enough.
@ M.D. ~
Better to retain the good memories than be reminded how much better most folks find newer cars .
I still prefer driving the oldies, some times others will have me drive theirs or loan them to me as always returned clean and full of fuel plus replace worn out bulbs .
These certainly were blah automobiles but not bad just uninspiring .
-Nate