Vehicle report
1985 FORD TEMPO
This model year
What the record shows
The 1985 Ford Tempo is a compact car, and the 5th model year of a nameplate NHTSA records from 1981 to 2000.
The EPA rated seven configurations: engines from 2-litre four-cylinder to 2.3-litre four-cylinder, front-wheel drive only, two transmissions and running on diesel and regular gasoline.
Combined fuel economy ranges from 22 to 34 mpg depending on which one you have.
The federal record holds 30 owner complaints and 20 service bulletins for it.
Counts are reports, not rates. A complaint is something an owner chose to file; it is unverified and unadjusted for how many of these cars were sold, so the useful comparison is against other model years of the same car. Recalls and investigations carry more weight because a manufacturer or regulator acted on them.
Reading this report
Complaint counts are reports filed with NHTSA, not failure rates. A common model collects more of them than a rare one that breaks more often.