I’m always surprised at how effective a little suspension tuning and some extra horsepower can be. Stiffen up the springs, add a turbo or a bigger engine, slap a tach in the dash, and you’ve got something just a little more special than the ordinary edition. Today’s cars have some really stodgy relatives, but thanks to more power, they’re lively enough to keep things interesting.
Yesterday’s choices were both low-mileage coupes that your grandma might have driven thirty years ago. You all claimed to hate them, but they sure got you talking, and voting. When the dust settled, the Chevy Cavalier took a narrow win, due mostly to its cockroach-like durability and lack of motorized seat belts.
I think that’s the way to go. General Motors cars get a lot of grief, much of it deserved, but I think they nailed it with the J platform. It provided reliable basic transportation for millions of people, and created a lot of fond memories along the way – not necessarily memories of the car per se, but fond memories nonetheless. You can’t ask more from a cheap little car than that.
Now then, let’s look at some coupes with manual transmissions and some extra horsepower, and see what you make of them.
1984 Renault Fuego Turbo – $4,000
Engine/drivetrain: Turbocharged 1.6-liter OHV inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Lebanon, IN
Odometer reading: 203,000 miles
Operational status: Has been sitting for years
Some European cars, for one reason or another, just don’t translate well to the US market. And unfortunately, that includes almost everything built by Renault in the 1970s and ’80s. The Fuego coupe sold like hotcakes in Europe, and it stayed in production in South America well into the ’90s, but it landed with a thud in the US. Secondhand Fuegos gained a reputation for unreliability here, but that seems to have had more to do with poor parts support and kludgy repairs than the car itself. Renault didn’t sell many Fuegos here to begin with, and there are almost none left. The few that remain are often squirrelled away somewhere, like this one.
The Fuego was available with a couple of different engines; this one has a turbocharged version of Renault’s trusty old pushrod four-cylinder. It sits longitudinally in the engine bay, in front of the front axle like an old Audi, and drives the front wheels through a five-speed gearbox. This one last ran several years ago, when it was limped into the warehouse where it now sits. The seller believes a clogged catalytic converter was robbing it of power back then, so it will have to be removed or replaced before you start reviving the engine.
This car has over 200,000 miles on it, so someone got some use out of it. It doesn’t look too bad inside, but the driver’s seat has been replaced, probably because it was worn out. It’s not like these cars are a dime a dozen in junkyards, so a mismatched seat was probably the best they could do.
The Fuego’s styling is kind of a love-it-or-hate-it proposition; I’m personally a fan, but I know some folks just can’t stand it. It is very French, that’s for sure. The seller describes it as “nearly rust-free,” which is about as good as it gets for an ’80s Renault. There is a little rust along the bottom of the doors. It includes three sets of wheels, including the stock wheels, which are probably pretty hard to come by these days.
1992 Ford Tempo GLS – $3,500
Engine/drivetrain: 3.0-liter OHV V6, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Carrollton, OH
Odometer reading: 116,000 miles
Operational status: Ad doesn’t say, but I’ll presume it runs and drives well enough
To make a muscle car, you take the engine from your big car, jam it under the hood of your small car, add some stripes and flashy wheels, and give it a cool name. That’s it. There’s nothing mystical or magical about it. A GTO was just a LeMans with a Bonneville engine in it. It’s not brain surgery. And the formula didn’t die with the malaise era. Plymouth revived the Duster name for a Sundance with a minivan engine in it, and Chevy’s Cavalier Z24 stole its engine from the mid-sized Celebrity. At the risk of infuriating entire legions of Chevelle SS and Charger R/T fans, I submit that this Tempo GLS, with a V6 engine taken from the Ford Taurus, is more or less a muscle car.
In addition to the big V6, the GLS ups the fun factor with a five-speed manual instead of the sorry excuse for a three-speed automatic found in most Tempos. It also, by the way, has a speedometer that reads to 120 MPH instead of 85 like lesser models. This one has 116,000 miles on it, but that’s all I can tell you; the ad invites you to message for more information. By the way, as of this writing, this car is listed as “Pending,” so if it vanishes before you all get a chance to check it out, I apologize.
I still really like red interiors, but this car highlights one of the problems with them. A few years in the sun turns them pink in places. I had a Ford Probe that did the same thing. It wouldn’t be so bad if everything faded evenly, but the various materials used in a car interior seem to shed pigment at different rates. And yes, this one has the automatic seat belts, and no, I don’t know why the driver’s side is all the way back with the door open. It shouldn’t be.
Outside, it has a rear spoiler you can blame Ford for, and some stripes and a bra that were someone else’s fault. Because it has the spoiler, it doesn’t have the luggage rack on the trunk lid that most two-door Tempos have. It looks like it’s in good condition except for a couple minor dents, but you’d do well to look underneath and make sure it isn’t rusty.
These aren’t the same two-door coupes you see for sale everywhere else; in fact, they’re both pretty damn rare. Is that a good thing? Well, if you like to draw attention at car gatherings, it is. When you’re looking for parts to keep it on the road, not so much. Either way, you have to like the car enough to put in the work. If you had to choose between these two – and you do – which one would you pick?
Fuego for me. I’m a sucker for oddball cars, Merkur Scorpio or Saab Sonnet anyone?
Drove one when they came out an absolute sleeper especially boosted. A Temp really??? Have some guts buys and girls!
Yeah, the Fuego is way more interesting. To me, the Tempo is on par w/ the Topaz from yesterday…pure junk (Fix Or Repair Daily/Found On Road Dead)
Tempo a muscle car?! Ha ha ha ha
Uhhh …. the Fuego would be something I would entertain … maybe … if it were offered for free. MAYBE. Who knows why it died. Maybe a clogged cat, also, with those miles, maybe a just worn out engine? Sheesh.
And as to the Tempo, who knows, it probably is pretty crappy too, but at least it doesn’t appear totally shot.
Ah, the Fuego. Car and Driver called it a car shaped like a walrus with gas. The fact that someone made it past 200k miles with one is incredible. C&D used one for winter beater racing, but they only paid $400 for it. This one has one too many digits in the price.
The up-optioned Tempo is likely one of the best Tempos left in existence. I want to dunk on it, and someone did get separated from far too much money for far too little value at a Ford dealer, but somehow the thing lasted 30 years. Nobody involved with the development, assembly, or maintenance could have ever fathomed this.
Get out the mix tape. We’re keeping the Tempo like it’s 1992.
The Fuego for me please. I would like to enter the “turbo zone”!
https://youtu.be/2b1AxI_YK_Y?si=zoN8eM5GRkiF1IDG
I’m not scared of the Fuego, but not especially keen on it either. Tempo for me.
The Fuego will drag you through the fires of hell to get it drivable. But when you’re finished you won’t have a Tempo. I generally like Fords but a Tempo rental car left me metaphorically scarred for life.
Tempo, despite the rat belts. While there are definitely Renaults worth the effort to keep on the road, I don’t think that one is.
That Tempo screams “cheap fun.” Meanwhile, that Renault screams “Je regrette tout!“
I am French in name and so feel obligated to vote for the Frenchy Fuego. I think the Tempo is a better car if you want something to drive. The Fuego will probably be difficult to put back on the road at best, but if you manage to succeed, you will be rewarded with the occasional thumbs up!
When did $3k+ start being what these crackpots try to get for a 30 to 40 year old junker they hauled out of some rotten garage or field. Just because it’s kinda rare doesn’t mean it’s worth money. $1k cars the lot. Tempo is at least got the right engine and trans and 2 door. Rad stripe is kinda ok.
Summer 2021, to be precise
I suppose so, I guess the crack pots dont realize no one is buying anymore. Everything else seems to have settled. But they lack the sanity. Extreme low balling is the new game
I too like the styling of the Fuego, and those Turbo graphics are 80s-tastic, but I feel as though the parts are made of pure unobtanium at this point. Unless you’ve already got a couple of them lying around, this one is going to be a challenge.
It’s the Tempo for me today. The V6/5-speed combo really upped the tempo of the Tempo, and I’ve always liked the styling of the coupes. If you squint just the right amount, they kinda look like a teenage Mark VII. That and I’m a whore for a bordello-red interior.
Anyone voting for the Fuego should get their head examined post haste. I’m making my appointment now. The Ford is just too boring and yeah that stripe is awful and tells me this spent lots of hard miles owned by a young driver who thought it was a muscle car and likely drove it as such.
Yes, the running car with half the miles and a cheaper price should win, but I just feel like Frenching today.
As terrible as a Tempo is, old, decrepit 80’s French cars scare me more. Yeesh. Gimme the Tempo.
The Tempo ALMOST looks cool with that side stripe, as it mimics the blurple-to-purple F150 Nite stripes that I hold near and dear to my heart, but it’s a shame they quite literally flame out at the end, which looks pretty terrible. A shame, actually.
That makes me think though; they should have made more Ford Nite vehicles. One of the best looking Rad-Era sticker and stripe packages you could get on anything!
Nite, Splash, STX graphics. I dig it!
Its like the last two days have gone through my early car owning years. I first had a 93 Mercury Topaz GS 2-door, 4cyl auto like yesterdays’ car. I also owned a 1992 Tempo GLS V6 5-spd like today’s car, although mine was a 4-door.
That car was quite fun for what it is. The V6 gave it a lot more pep, and the 5-speed definitely made it more fun to drive. The V6/5spd combo was rare to begin with, and now days it is really rare.
1992 was the only year that you could get the GLS with the V6. From 1988-1991, it was the H.O. 2.3L HSC. After 1992, the GLS model was dropped. You could still get the V6/5spd in the Tempo GL/Topaz GS… the Tempo LX and Topaz LS were auto only. 1992 was also the only year that a Tempo/Topaz came from the factory with Fog Lights and 15″ wheels.
I absolutely would take that Tempo.
Same here. I had 3 Tempo/Topaz models
1988 Tempo GL sedan-3 speed automatic
(after that car,never again would I buy an automatic Ford)
1986 Tempo GL coupe (5-speed manual/2.3liter HSO HSC-the most fun coupe I’ve ever had until I bought a 2009(later 2010 Focus coupe)
1992 Mercury Topaz GS coupe (5-speed).
Even back then any Tempo/Topaz with a manual was rare (automatics outsold them on a 3 to 1 ratio). Finding one with the Vulcan V6/5-speed was the equivalent of finding a “holy grail” of sorts. They were a lot of car for the money back then.
There’s a reason why Renault hasn’t sold cars here stateside since the 1980s/1990s .
Parts were hard to get to begin with. Even with their dealer network.
My 92 GLS V6/5spd is one car i wish I would have held onto. I have an online friend who has a white one…. i have first dibs on it if/when he ever decides to sell it.
Here is a write up I did on my ownership experience with it several years ago:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1992-ford-tempo-gls-sho-little-brother-that-you-didnt-know-existed/
For anybody who remembers the Omni GLH, where the GLH stood for “Goes Like Hell”, do you also think GLS stands for “Goes Like Shit”?
My dad always said it stood for “Good Luck Sucker”.
Somebody went to a ford dealership in 1992.
That somebody asked for a Tempo. I can forgive this because they were cheap and people needed cars that got them from point A to point B.
The salesman then proceeded to talk them into buying the most optioned-up Tempo on the lot, convincing the buyer that they just purchased a hot road for Tempo money.
I’m fictionalizing this last part because I assume the rest of the purchase went down like this:
The salesman blindfolds the buyer and tells him the sales manager is about to surprise him by making a huge fuss over this important purchase.
While the buyer is blindfolded, the salesman walks him past all of the Mustangs – including 5.0 Mustangs – that he could have bought for what he spent on that Tempo, giving him 100 more horsies and a convenient hatchback, and gets him quickly into the sales manager’s office.
Flashing lights and sirens go off as confetti flies everywhere and they hand him the keys to his new Tempo while selling him on undercoating and Scotch Guard. They escort him (past the Escorts, which he also could have gotten a nicer example of) to his Tempo and rush him off the lot. He spies a Mustang out of the corner of his eye, but all the salesmen quickly block his view and wave as he drives off.
I voted Tempo.
Admittedly, the scotch guard is a necessary upsell for that interior.
That Fuego is just up the road from me. But it’s not even worth having a look at. Too far gone.
With my Autopian Bucks I’ll take the Renault. I had an Alliance and it wasn’t too bad.
With my real money? Neither, best Saab 900 available.
At one point three of my moms siblings owned Tempos. The only one that was reliable was my uncles who had the manual transmission. Honestly don’t know if he had the 4 or 6 cylinder (I’ll assume the 4) but it served him well for a decent number of years.
I’m going for the Renault. That way I can yell out all the fancy french words that I know when I get frustrated while trying to work on the vehicle.
I’ll take the Tempo just for the stripes. The Renault isn’t running and parts are probably unobtainable.
I imagine sounding like the French version of the scene in When Harry Met Sally…”oui, oui, oui”…but I don’t think other people will want to have what you are having.
Judging by the other comments, I think you’re right. That’s okay though.
My cousin had a V6 5-speed Tempo, and it was a surprisingly fun little car. I’ll take that over a non-runner I’ll never find parts for, even though that TURBO graphic on the Fuego is pretty perfect.
That Turbo graphic almost sold me, but what it was attached to made me think twice. I don’t hate the Fuego, but parts-sourcing would be a nightmare.
Yeah, that was my exact thought process.
Another neither day. No reason to ever buy the Fuego and the Tempo is a $2,000 car at best.
Also both are from states on the used car banned list.
I was just admiring the minty Fuego they have at the lane motor museum in Nashville. This is not that, obviously, but it’s still pretty cool and very rare. Still, I would be interested in what the driving experience of that tempo is like.
The Fuego already has 200k on it, which was beyond expectations for the time. Then it’s been sitting for many years. Absolute money pit…the Tempo is already functional and operational. Those stripes are ridiculous in a not-the-worst, definitely-not-great way. No brainer for the tempo.