Hate to sound rude, but that statment only shows how little you know on the topic of Tempo. Ford could not make Tempo look the way it did in the 1986 face lift because the law would not allow it. Its why every other compact before 1986 had square headlamps instead of lights molded into the body. If anything, the 1986 face-lift slowed sales. In 1984 Tempo sold over 500,000 units and in 1985 it sold around 450,000. It would never see sales like that again. Why? Because after Tempo's success everyone jumped on board with aerodynamically styled FWD compacts, and even with the 1988 redesign there was much more competition. I don't have a problem with people who don't like Tempo or similar cars, but I do have a problem with people who bash them and know nothing about them.

Edit; another reason Ford restyled Tempo in 1986 is because they promised no two years of Tempo would be identical. Their promise was good, because every year with the exception of 1994 the Tempo saw visual modifications. Even if slight. In 1984 Tempo was introduced, in 1986 (two years later) it got new tail lights, grill and head lights, in 1988 (two more years ahead) it was redesigned. In 1989 it got a slight revise with the addition of more sporting body side molding. In 1992 (three years after the Sport intro) Tempo got another slight redesign.