So, you may remember me posting about a car accident a ways back. Friend put his 1990 Tempo into a Civic Hybrid.
For whatever reason, he bought a "new" Tempo. He refused to even really consider any other cars. He was leaving for a vacation, and at 8PM, got a tip that there was a Tempo on a used car lot from his mother. It was 5 hours before he was due at the airport, and we'd all just gotten in the pool, but he DEMANDED to go "BUY THAT CAR!"
It's dark out, he takes a quick look, takes a 2 mile test drive, and says "I'll take it." It's an '87 Tempo, with less mileage on the clock than my 2006 Focus did when I bought it. The car looks BRAND NEW on the interior and in the engine bay. Every single part is new. Very suspicious to me, but not to him. To me, it seems like a flood damaged car that's been rebuilt for $50. The fact that it's the nicest looking car on the lot (and also the newest) is also a matter of concern to me. It's an AWD car, but the halfshafts have been removed, effectively making it a FWD car.
He then forks over the $1200 (not a bad buy, really, but I still wouldn't have done it on that short notice), and takes off for his 10-day vacation. Came back, picked up the car, went through all the hoops to transfer the tags from his previous Tempo, registered to his parents, to him and put it on that car (a process which took 3 days, left him without transportation for 3 days, cost him $15 in food to pay people to shuttle him around, and a few hundred dollars in missed work, all to save the $19 "extra" it would have cost to get new tags and just turn in the old ones)
So, he's been driving the car less than a day now, and is picking out "minor" flaws (shifts rough, some funny noises, etc.), but is saying "it's all good". It's a 1.9L engine. Apparently VERY underpowered - he REFUSES to allow any of his friends to be passengers, because he knows we'll make fun of it even worse than we did his previous Tempo.
Anyway, I suggested that he put the half-shafts back in, on the off chance that it may fix the power issues, and at worse, it'll improve ride and handling - his response was "That'll halve my gas mileage!"
Correct me if I'm wrong, but currently, one of two things is happening with his car:
1) All the power is being delivered to the front wheels. Gas mileage would change subtly, if at all because of mechanical drag changes, and may improve.
2) 50% of the power is being delievered to the front wheels, and the other half is just spinning a mechanical part around rather violently. Gas mileage would change only subtly, but the power problems would promptly dissapear.
For whatever reason, he bought a "new" Tempo. He refused to even really consider any other cars. He was leaving for a vacation, and at 8PM, got a tip that there was a Tempo on a used car lot from his mother. It was 5 hours before he was due at the airport, and we'd all just gotten in the pool, but he DEMANDED to go "BUY THAT CAR!"
It's dark out, he takes a quick look, takes a 2 mile test drive, and says "I'll take it." It's an '87 Tempo, with less mileage on the clock than my 2006 Focus did when I bought it. The car looks BRAND NEW on the interior and in the engine bay. Every single part is new. Very suspicious to me, but not to him. To me, it seems like a flood damaged car that's been rebuilt for $50. The fact that it's the nicest looking car on the lot (and also the newest) is also a matter of concern to me. It's an AWD car, but the halfshafts have been removed, effectively making it a FWD car.
He then forks over the $1200 (not a bad buy, really, but I still wouldn't have done it on that short notice), and takes off for his 10-day vacation. Came back, picked up the car, went through all the hoops to transfer the tags from his previous Tempo, registered to his parents, to him and put it on that car (a process which took 3 days, left him without transportation for 3 days, cost him $15 in food to pay people to shuttle him around, and a few hundred dollars in missed work, all to save the $19 "extra" it would have cost to get new tags and just turn in the old ones)
So, he's been driving the car less than a day now, and is picking out "minor" flaws (shifts rough, some funny noises, etc.), but is saying "it's all good". It's a 1.9L engine. Apparently VERY underpowered - he REFUSES to allow any of his friends to be passengers, because he knows we'll make fun of it even worse than we did his previous Tempo.
Anyway, I suggested that he put the half-shafts back in, on the off chance that it may fix the power issues, and at worse, it'll improve ride and handling - his response was "That'll halve my gas mileage!"
Correct me if I'm wrong, but currently, one of two things is happening with his car:
1) All the power is being delivered to the front wheels. Gas mileage would change subtly, if at all because of mechanical drag changes, and may improve.
2) 50% of the power is being delievered to the front wheels, and the other half is just spinning a mechanical part around rather violently. Gas mileage would change only subtly, but the power problems would promptly dissapear.
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