A Ford Tempo GL sedan, seen on a car market in the far south of Beijing. The old Ford seemed sadly abandoned, but was in a reasonably good shape. A bit of work and a bit of love it all it needs to get back on the road.
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The second generation Tempo was manufactured from 1988 until 1994, with a facelift in 1991. Our red car is a facelifted example.
The Tempo was available with a 2.3 liter four-cylinder petrol engine or with a 3.0 liter V6 petrol. The GL was a mid level model that usually came with the 2.3.
The Ford Tempo was never officially sold in China by Ford, but in 1992 the Chinese government bulk-ordered 3010 units under a murky trade deal with the United States government. The cars arrived in China with U.S. specifications and without any support from a dealer network.
The seats look all right, partially protected by seat covers. Steering wheel with a minuscule Ford logo in the center. They do that very differently today, when logo’s can’t be big enough!
The license plate is interesting. The A·xxxx sequence indicate a black license plate, but it is blue. It doesn’t seem black-faded, because the numbers didn’t fade with it. Now today, when you have a black plate and you buy a new car, you have to exchange it for a blue plate with the same number. But that’s only since 2002.
It seems most likely that the current owner bought it second hand and exchanged his old black plate for a new blue one at that moment. Also note that the license plate area is too small for the Chinese plate. All Tempos’ that came to China under the aforementioned deal had that, Ford didn’t bother to design a new plate area for just 3010 units.
Have you seen a similar Ford in China? Let us know! You can now upload images in the comments below.