In this paper we extend the subdiffusive Klein-Kramers model, in which the waiting times are modeled by the -stable laws, to the case of waiting times belonging to the class of tempered -stable distributions. We introduce a generalized version of the Klein-Kramers equation, in which the fractional Riemman-Liouville derivative is replaced with a more general integro-differential operator. This allows a transition from the initial subdiffusive character of motion to the standard diffusion for long times to be modeled. Taking advantage of the corresponding Langevin equation, we study some properties of the tempered dynamics, in particular, we approximate solutions of the tempered Klein-Kramers equation via Monte Carlo methods. Also, we study the distribution of the escape time from the potential well and compare it to the classical results in the Kramers escape theory. Finally, we derive the analytical formula for the first-passage-time distribution for the case of free particles. We show that the well-known Sparre Andersen scaling holds also for the tempered subdiffusion.