I'll second this opinion.
The ignition switch has several feeds through it that support different functions. It is likely that one section has intermittently failed as described.
FWIW, I bought a 90 Tempo for my wife back about 10 years ago. She hated it so I ended up driving it for the last 120K miles of its life. My (then) teenage daughter named it the "Goobermobile"....
Steve
