(first posted 3/31/2016) While walking through my neighborhood after a post-work pit stop made at the local drug store, I came across these two purple Plymouth Neons from both generations – with the older one being an Expresso! The only way the first-generation example could have been rarer would have been if it was a two-door. To find any two Plymouths street-parked nose-to-tail on any street these days is a rare sight, but the opportunity to photograph these two grape Kool Aid-colored runabouts was too good to pass up. These cars are not quite unicorns, as there are still a number of Neons still running around. Production of the Dodge ceased after 2005, and the Plymouth-branded car disappeared after 2001.
I’ve always been partial to the Plymouth brand over others in the Chrysler stable, as I had grown up in a household that had exclusively owned Plymouths for the first nine years of my life (and before). I was actually almost born in a ’72 Fury (thankfully, Dad navigated that beautiful, blue brute with aplomb in that early-morning, Michigan winter snowstorm), which was traded for a new, ’77 Volaré coupe. We also had a ’71 Duster in our family, driven solely by my dad, as it had a column-mounted three-speed manual transmission that Mom couldn’t drive. Our family’s Plymouth streak was broken with a new ’84 Ford Tempo GL that my mom promptly totaled after two days in our possession, but that’s a story for another day.
Seeing both of these cars next to each other served to illustrate just how much of the first car’s charm was lost in the ’00 redesign. I’ve read complaints about the frameless door glass of the earlier cars causing lots of road noise, but taking a 150-mile (one way) road trip from Ft. Myers to Miami, Florida in a buddy’s then-new ’95 Neon was comfortable and reasonably quiet, and the car impressed me with its pep and spacious-feeling interior provided by the “cab forward” architecture.
Aesthetically, I felt certain aspects of the redesigned ’00 model were an improvement. For example, the frontal styling of the newer car retained some of the earlier car’s bug-like “cuteness”, but somehow seemed better finished and more visually interesting. I also liked the elf-eared appearance of the restyled taillights, which seemed to go with the impish, fun character of the car. I must, however, cue the Price Is Right “Losing Horns” for the car as viewed in profile. Those graceless, thick window frames on the doors of the newer car just squash its visual fun-quotient and airiness, even if road noise was reduced.
The name of the “Expresso” submodel, which added power windows and an AM/FM Cassette to the Highline trim level, always irked me. It always reminded me of something one of my Midwestern relatives would have said at the breakfast table while observing me with a French press. “Oh, Joe! Are you making an expresso? Can I watch?” “No, Mom. This is just regular coffee. I’m just using this thing called a French press.” “Expresso” just seemed like such a ‘Murican butcherization of something, where this package could have been named so much more effectively. What was wrong with just plain, old “Express”, even if it didn’t go faster than other Neons? I’ll give Plymouth points for effort, but “Expresso” ranks up there with Olds’ “Achieva” as a model name that, when spoken, is likely to make you sound like your I.Q. is twenty to forty points lower than it actually is.
All told, there were about 458,000 first-generation (1995 – ’00), Plymouth-branded Neons, with only an additional 65,000 of the 2nd-gen cars between 2000 and swan-song ’01, for a total of about 523,000. I was sorry that the Neon (and Plymouth, for that matter) didn’t see further development, as a third-generation model could have improved upon the second-model’s strengths while reintroducing some of the first car’s attractiveness – but that was likely never going to happen under Daimler’s (or Cerberus’s) ownership. Still, it was a flavorful treat to see these two Plymouth subcompacts in my neighborhood after what was an otherwise uneventful workday. With that, it is now time for this achiever’s morning espresso.
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
Thursday, March 17, 2016.
Related reading:
- From Brendan Saur: Curbside Classic: 1997 Plymouth Neon – Brightening Up The Compact Class;
- From Tom Klockau: Curbside Classic: 1995 Dodge Neon Sport – Say Hi…To Dashed Expectations; and
- From David Saunders: COAL: 2000 Chrysler Neon – A Good Car (Really!).
the expresso paragraph was fun to read
” “Expresso” ranks up there with Olds’ “Achieva” as a model name that, when spoken, is likely to make you sound like your I.Q. is twenty to forty points lower than it actually is.
Quote of the day!
A pretty perfect purple Plymouth preamble.
The gen 1 car was fun if flawed. The gen 2 car was totally “meh.”
I sort of liked the Expresso trim name. For originality I’d give the personable Plymouth product planners points.
A princely precis! Primo.
It is interesting that even the color on the second generation was more muted, a little less neon. A little refinement is ok, but for Plymouth to retain a presence in a import dominated market, they needed a car that stood out. The first Neon did, but not the second. Reminds me of the 98-01 Altima.
I’ve seen those cars before. That’s a few blocks away from me. I owned a couple of 1st gen ACR coupes. They were fun cars. Never had any problems with them.
It is, indeed, a small world!
I wonder if the same Plymouth Person owns that pair of purple Plymouths? If not, that’s a tremendous coincidence.
For our Canadian friends, this article reminded me of Rex Murphy, from CBC’s Cross Country Checkup. I can just hear him say:
“Perusing this preposterous pairing of purple plymouths, personifying perpetual perkiness, perchance gives us perpensity to ponder the probability of this parking predicament…”
“Now let’s go to the phones.”
PLUS One!
Perhaps people prefer purple Plymouths. Perchance person paid perfect price. Poor people’s pay prevents preferred popular priced performance Plymouths. Perchance persons Pop purchased purple Plymouths?
Oooohh, did we hit a little nerve on the “Expresso” thing? 🙂
Good find, a scene quite rare. A perchance pairing of parallel parked purple Plymouths perks me right up.
I’m laughing right now… JP (and everyone), I honestly didn’t mean to sound “bourgie” (another butcherization) with the whole pronunciation thing. It’s just that when I grew up mispronouncing things (i.e. “real-a-tor”, “jewl-ery”, etc.) that were corrected only later in life, I wonder why I had to be taught to say stuff incorrectly instead of the right way. On a semi-serious note, I’m actually very thankful for having grown up in a very working-class environment.
Believe me – there are things I still mispronounce if I’m not paying attention. 🙂
(Mom, if you’re reading this, I love you!)
Haha I can relate. For example, I always thought that the coffee beverage was called “expresso” when in fact it’s “espresso” with an “S”. And on that note, I have a cousin who owns one of those pricey Nespresso espresso machines, but always adds an “O”, pronouncing it “Neo-spresso”, much to my annoyance. (she doesn’t know this, as I’m too polite to correct her).
Of course, having a relatively simple first name which people still routinely pronounce as “Br-And-On”, not “Br-End-An” as well last name that everyone always butchers (even close acquaintances and co-workers) has heightened my awareness to mispronunciation of words. Probably why I get more annoyed.
For everyone’s general knowledge, my last name is pronounced as if it was spelled “SAWR” or as you would pronounce the “aur” part in the name “Laura”. It is not pronounced “sour” like the taste, as most people believe. 🙂
I was actually OK with “Expresso” on the Neon as it added to the “cute/quirky” image Plymouth was going for, although I thought “Achieva” was an awful name, Olds might have just as well called it “Cutlass Somethingoranother”……OTOH, “Expresso” in print, on a manufactured product probably cemented the incorrect pronunciation of the beverage name for some folks!
“Real-a-tor” grates on my ears, but for whatever reason “Expresso” never bothered me. It was pretty much the standard Americanization, and back in the day, I went to plenty of funky indy coffee places that served expressos. But at some point, everyone realized that Starbucks used “espresso” and silently decided to retire expresso.
However, you’re right and Chrysler was probably about five years behind the curve here.
When I first read about the Expresso model I figured it would be a limited or special edition model painted and upholstered in special shades of brown, black, milky white. But not only was it just a run-of-the-mill option package, the name was also used on the Plymouth minivan.
The car I learned to drive on was a purple 1949 Plymouth 2 door with a manual transmission and I considered buying a very similar Plymouth Neon. When I sat in a Neon at a car show I was favorably impressed by what you got for the price. I thought it was fairly comparable to my 1989 Civic. But I never bought the car, I guess between the “flaky” financial position of Chrysler, and their “here today, gone this afternoon” dealers…I just couldn’t do it. Still looking for a nice 1st generation 2 door, and it has to be a Plymouth.
I once liked the Neon, but no more, and happy I never bought one.
Now, having said that, an old friend in Missouri still has a 1997 white Neon R/T and I think it still runs rather well. He, his brother and me went for a wild drive down the roads of St. Charles County one hot summer day, and me, stuck in the back seat – his is a coupe – felt rather warm. I requested him to turn on the A/C, but no – he said “no air for you”!
Curse you, fixed windows!
We had a ball in spite of the heat, and a few cold beers cured that when we got back!
“Expresso” has always bothered me too. The Americanized pronunciation that bothers me the most is “Notre Dame” with regards to the university. It’s just SO REDNECK!!!! “We went to France and seen that church “Noter Dame” they named after our college”
That’s always bothered me as well. The correct pronunciation is NOTE-ruh DAHM.
I was raised in central Illinois, where there seems to be a regional tendency to mispronounce other words that aren’t that difficult to speak correctly, i.e., ‘sherburt’ for ‘sherbet; ‘excape’ for ‘escape’; ‘you clair’ for ‘ Eau Claire’; and ‘ver sales’ for ‘Versailles’.
The one that gets me (I have no idea in which region it originates) is people who put an extraneous “t” on the end of “across”. “Oh, it’s just acrost the way.”
That’s not just a regional Americanism – I heard it when I was a child.
Plymouth and Chevrolet are also not pronounced as spelled, English is the hardest language to master as for every rule there are as more exceptions to the rule.
Having been raised (way) downstate from you and Joe, I can relate with the wrong pronunciation of words.
In the morning, I read the noose-paper.
The trees in the yard produced pa-caans.
We caught crop-ie when fishing.
A nearby town looked like it was Vienna but was actually Vi-Anna.
Yet it gives me so much to draw from later in my life.
Working in the broadcasting industry for many years as a news reporter I’ve certainly mispronounced my share of words.
It really bugs me when a news reader mis-pronounces Tuesday. It’s not
twos day it’s teews-day.
Non-USAians all pronounce it that way.
On the “Expresso” front a few years ago I saw “cup of chino” written on a cafe’s chalk board, perhaps by someone who had only half-heard the word pronounced.
LOL I had to re-read that! “Cup of Chino”, Ironically almost made choke on my coffee!
Choose-day in Australia.
In all the ire about the name, “Expresso” (too much caffeine this morning?), the first Expresso from Chrysler, a concept car, has been ignored. Expressive, it was indeed! The tall-wagon concept became the PT Cruiser, but without the same cartoonishness.
That looks like a rolling emoji
Just think how that would’ve sold!
That is one car that is guaranteed NOT to get you laid.
Now if Chrysler had had a counterpart to Nissan’s Pike Factory…..
That’s actually a pretty good observation; this, the original Neon concept, Jeep Ecco, Plymouth Backpack, Chrysler CcV, and Plymouth Pronto from this era all had a retro modernism vibe that is very much like what Nissan achieved with the Pike Factory cars, although only the Neon and Pronto made it into showrooms.
Who remembers Chrysler’s Liberty concept car ? I think it was a three cylinder. Seems to have vanished….
1st Gen Neon = Lee Iacocca
2nd Gen Neon = Bob Eaton
Caliber = Daimler
‘Nuff said.
Dodge Dart = Fiat/Sergio Marchionne You forgot that one.
Yep, and news reports indicate that the slow-selling Dart will be the end of the line for FCA in that class of small car which started way back in 1978 with the Omnirizon.
Well said. I agree with you 100% on that one.
I’m with the author on “Expresso”. Just annoying. Period. The first gen Neon is one of those cars that I’m both relieved and disappointed that I never owned. I did put some effort into shopping for one in mid ’96, but dealers were not giving any real breaks on them at the time due to their early popularity, and I couldn’t find one with a 5-speed. I was told multiple times at dealerships that a Neon with a stickshift was like a needle in a haystack. I was NOT going to settle for a 3 speed automatic, so I moved on to a ’96 Sentra, which probably provided a much more trouble free ownership experience anyway (if not a bit boring). I really liked the first Neons though, and I’ve been told that had I found that elusive 5 speed (preferably in coupe form) I would probably have loved it. In the early 00’s when I was again shopping, my youngest brother, who did some time as a tech at our local Chry-Ply dealership urged me to pick up a used Neon, swap in an upgraded aftermarket headgasket and I’d be glad I did. By that time I had moved up the food chain and was driving a Saab, so I wasn’t open to what I perceived as a downgrade, but I do sometimes lament passing up ‘The Neon Experience’. The second generation seemed irrelevant to me though. It lost a lot of character, and just looked and felt like a slightly shrunken Stratus. “Mainstreaming” turned the second gen Neon from a contender to an also-ran, IMO.
Double nice find! Also to note, the Neon Expresso added the fun “Rumba” cloth upholstery pattern.
Ugh, save for the stick shift, (three speed auto) that was the interior of my car. Too bad you couldn’t show the door panels that had the same cloth inserts as the seats. 😮
“It was the 90’s kids, people were coming off of all the drugs they did in the 80’s.”
Forgot to mention in my screed about the Expresso that I owned the unexpected auto trans gearshift function that you could pop into neutral while driving just by bumping it while reaching for the radio buttons. Fun times! Try it at 70 mph on the highway. =:-o
In 1996 I was in Orlando on business, and had a new Neon as a rental car. Had 290 miles on it when I picked it up. Even drove it to to Kennedy Space Center and back, and it did not break.
I would hope a virtually brand-new car could make it from Orlando to the coast and not break! 🙂
re the suggestion to name the trim “Express”, iirc Express was the bottom trim level on the Isuzu sourced Chevy Spectrum in the late 80s. I am pretty sure the Neon’s trim name was intended to make the car attractive to Sarbucks chugging yuppies and wannabes.
Re the first gen frameless glass and wind noise. Cars with frameless glass now have weatherstripping with a channel in it the glass slides into the make a better seal. The downside is the glass has to back out of the channel for you to open the door, and, as a member of this board discovered with his VW Beetle, the glass all too readily freezes in position and refuses to back out of that channel. The window frames on the second gen Neon were do doubt the better choice for people as it made the car quieter without making the doors prone to freezing shut.
Posted this in the Fiat thread a while back, but since the Neon was brought up….can’t help but wonder if the Dart/200’s failure and discontinuation will open the door in the US to the retrimmed Fiat Tipo that is being introduced in Mexico.
There are still quite a few Neons running around Chicago area, and for sale on Craig’s stuff. Being that the plant is 65 miles away
I looked on CL and saw there were a few 1st gen 2 doors for sale, so they are out there.
I agree about “Expresso”, it was more common for people to mis-speak it in the 80’s however.
First generation: great ideas, ghastily executed. And to offer only power windows on the front doors was really a cynical, money-grubbing move.
Power windows on the front doors only of 4 door sedans was actually fairly common on some brands of European cars. I won’t claim to know why.
We tend to forget that cars sold in several markets often have their specifications/options, “tailored” for that market. I would guess that getting a car to a certain price point looms large on whether a feature becomes standard or optional.
And the Neon (and PT Cruiser) were sold in several markets outside the U.S.
Both gen Neons sold ok in the UK mainly to OAPs who like the idea of included
auto transmission. My postman drives a 2000 model with wood and leather trim.
Looks like a 3/4 scale New Yorker!.
IIRC, another major failing was the Neon’s 3-speed automatic. By that time, all other small cars in the same class had a 4-speed automatic.
It was blasted in the motoring press here for only having a three-speed.
Yep, blasted here too. I was so happy when I heard that Chrysler was going to re-enter the Kiwi market with the Neon, and so disappointed when I learned it had a 3-speed auto…
The Aussie motoring press compared them with the class leading Corolla and the Neon came out quite poorly in all respects the tree speed trans was just the obvious fail.
I probably shouldn’t admit that I’ve been looking on eBay for Expresso stickers and a white grill for my beater ’98 Voyager to make into a fake expresso.
A Faux-spresso. I actually think that’s awesome.
I had a black 1996 Expresso sedan with the three speed automatic. Bought it 2 years old with 10K miles. In terms of problems, it was hands down the WORST automobile I’ve ever owned. It being traded in with 10K miles at 2 years old should have clued me in. At the time Consumer Reports rated it a good buy. As if. It completely turned me off from buying another Chrysler product ever again. I had high hopes for it coming off a disappointing ownership experience with a 1993 Duster coupe, thinking a newer used car with less miles would solve the problems. No such luck. The list of problems I had with it would crash the Curbside Classic server due to the sheer volume, but some of the more memorable were:
– Transmission replaced before 20K miles (thank goodness it was under warranty < 3YR/36K)
– Wiring harness for cooling fan replaced before 20K miles (fan stopped running in 90+ degree heat in August)
– Driver's side door trim panel came off the door and slid over the b pillar trim, trapping me in the car (I slid out the passenger side to get out). And that's the ENTIRE panel. All that held it on the door was the window crank and door latch.
– AC Compressor clutch failed, just the same as what happened to the Duster
– The final straw: a MASSIVE oil leak that took 12 quarts of oil to get me home from work one night (4 from the crankcase initially, 8 more bought from two gas stations to keep the crankcase full). Time and pain made me forget what caused the massive leak, but the underside of the car was coated in oil.
And that's not listing the stupid little "this stuff shouldn't break!" problems.
People swear by Mopars, but never again for me. I've told my wife if she wants a Dodge or Chrysler to run it through her company, I'm not giving them one thin dime. I'm stunned the poster found two Neons that supposedly run.
Can we just agree to stop using the tired trope, “well that’s a story for another day”
But, What if there IS another story ON another day?
JustinX, is one of these Neons yours? There was no offense intended. And to James’s point, my mom’s Tempo story would have been one tangent too far – even for me.
What about those of us who look forward to that other day?
Talk about a flash in the pan. These were hot sh*t in the motoring press and among the public for like, maybe 2 or 3 years tops before just the name alone became a synonym for cheesy, disposable penalty box, even among folks who don’t pay much attention to cars. You couldn’t give these away by Gen2 – I remember the local Dodge dealer had exactly ONE for sale when browsing their lot in 2004… which wasn’t even its final year! I think the vast majority of the 2003-2005 models went straight into rental fleets. Then again, Mopar dealers didn’t seem to be pushing any sedans around then until the 300/Charger came along – just rows of minivans and Rams.
These rival J-bodies for how quickly owners stop giving a flip about them – beater city in 5 or 6 years, scrap heap by age 10. Actually, I see a hell of a lot more ’90s Cavaliers than I do Gen1 Neons, which are going extinct. Head gaskets did a lot of the early ones in.
I bought this 2005 Neon in 2010 with about 50,000 miles for $6K.
At the time, a Civic or Corolla or even a Focus for that money was a couple years older and had twice the mileage.
The Neon had big windows and a nice combination of good ride and handling and decent performance.
My daughter drove it, then I did, then I sold it to my brother-in-law.
Between us we’ve put on another 90K miles with minimal repairs, and it still looks like new. (Photo is from 2010.)
I saw a Neon yesterday in going order first one in quite a while.
Almost twenty years ago I was in the middle of a separation and while preoccupied had a relatively minor accident that resulted in my decade old Jetta being written off as a total loss (just 10,000 miles after I had invested in a new clutch). For the first time in memory I was under the gun to find a cheap alternative, quickly! Salvation came in the form of a two-year-old Dodge Neon sedan, in a slightly purplish hued silver metallic with a five speed and less than 10,000 miles. Having owned two VW GTis and the Jetta, I was familiar with the concept of the small FWD Pocket Rocket. Aside from some fit and finish issues, the Neon was a far sportier car than either of the VWs. Fast, nimble an inconspicuous. In a way, with a 2004 PT Cruiser I’m still driving one. Not nearly as sporty, but very practical.
Speaking of the Dodge/Plymouth/Chrysler Neons, it owed its existence from its predecessors such as the Dodge Shadow/Plymouth Sundance, Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon, Mitsubishi badge equipped similar sized cars pictured here and their later “spiritual” successors such as the Mitsubishi Lancer based Dodge Caliber and Fiat based Dodge Dart. I have attached the 4 Door Family Tree here.
Now their 2 Door Family Tree counterparts.
This is now the 2 Door’s New Family Tree counterpart. YES I have included even the Mitsubishi only exclusive Cordia on top into the mix since it replaced the Mitsubishi/Dodge Celeste and Plymouth Arrow before it was replaced by an upscale long running sports coupe called the Mitsubishi Eclipse/Plymouth Laser.
While the Expresso bit is bad, I hated its introductory “Hi.” advertising more than anything.
I forgave the “Hi” on account of the Nitro Yellow-Green.
I just saw my 5 year old comment and I think that was the last sighting of one I had, they have gone from here and took their brother the PT Cruiser with them.
6 years later, Mopar Neons are nearly extinct here in Chicagoland. Even the 2001-07 minivans are disappearing, after years of use as work vans. 2008+ generation vans are the new working vans, even the fancy Town & Country.
Cars tend to last longer in Calif than most of the country, no rust, but smog is our achilles heel, or rather that of the cars here. But jeez, I can’t remember the last one I saw here. it’s a shame, though I admit I never drove one they did make a good impression on me. Memory might be failing me here, but IIRC they had a variety of engines including some good ones, at least new.
But my predominate memory of them would be from a 24 hours of Lemons race. I didn’t stick around for day 2, but on day 1 they clearly outclassed the competition. Visually stock, but it obviously drove like a race car.
I had my own. Here in Brazil the Dodge/Plymouth Neon was sold as the Chrysler Neon. Mine was a Highline 1998/1999 version. Great gas saver. Very peppy and nimble. Loved it.
And a great looking car, as well.
My bother had a white “Espresso” in the mid 90’s. Don’t believe I was ever in it.