Tempo is often referred to as a forgotten car. Manufactured for only 10 years, from 1984 to 1994, the Ford Tempo wasn’t around for a long time and didn’t have any features that made it stand out from the crowd.

Now, that’s not to say the Tempo was a bad car, it was just average in most categories. But, it did do one remarkable thing—The Ford Tempo paved the way for the

Ford Taurus

, a car loved by many

drivers through the ‘90s

and 2000s until it was discontinued in 2019.

What is the Ford Tempo?

The Ford Tempo was a compact sedan Ford manufactured for a period of 10 years. According to

HotCars

, the Tempo, and similar car Mercury Topaz, were “part of a resurgence strategy by Ford to provide more environmentally decent, fuel productive, modern styled varieties to contend with the European and Japanese [car] imports.”

Throughout the years the car was in production, over three million Ford Tempos were sold in the United States. While the practical design, comfortable interior, and

good fuel economy

were popular when the car first came out, in the early ‘90s Ford began seeing a drop in sales for the Tempo.

According to Hot Cars, the drop in sales was largely due to the Tempo’s 2.3-liter, HSC engine. By the early ‘90s, 5 and 6 speed transmissions had been developed and were outshining the modest engine on the Tempo. With that, Ford knew it was time to stop the Tempo and focus their efforts on keeping up with their competitors.

The Ford Tempo throughout the years

Throughout its short life, the Ford Tempo only had two generations. The first generation had the 2.3-liter HSC engine that would later be the car’s demise, but drivers had the option to pair it with a four-speed IB4 manual transmission, five-speed MTX-III manual transmission, or a three-speed FLC automatic.

Design wise, the first generation of the Tempo was something new for Ford. The car had a lifted trunk, windows positioned at 60-degree angles, better quality headlights, safer seat belts, and the addition of luxury and sports trims.

In 1988, the car was redesigned into the second generation of the Tempo. According to

Jalopnik

, the redesign resulted in the wind-tunnel-tuned shape of the original Tempo to turn into slightly curved boxes. The redesign also brought a new instrument board.

The second generation of the Tempo had the same engine options as the first, but in 1992 the option of a 3-liter, Vulcan V6 engine was added.

How did the Tempo pave the way for the Taurus?

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The Ford Taurus appeared in 1986, just two years after the Tempo’s debut, but had a much longer lifespan, since it wasn’t discontinued until 2019.The first generations of the Taurus and Tempo were similar, and in 1992, some design features of the Tempo got a small lift to coincide with the launch of the second generation Taurus.

The Tempo showed Ford that small sedans with great fuel economy would sell, and sell well. They began to mimic that model with the Taurus, until they ran into the engine issue. By discontinuing the Tempo, Ford was able to focus solely on making the Taurus the best vehicle it could be, and a great competitor to the engines in other brands.

Had Ford tried to expand and improve both the Tempo and the Taurus, they likely wouldn’t have been as successful. Instead, with six generations of the Taurus, the car evolved into a bestseller, with modern features like keyless entry, automatic headlights, and power accessories we see today.

But, had the Ford Tempo not paved the way and shown Ford how to succeed with a compact sedan, the Ford Taurus would’ve never seen such great success.

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