(Originally posted 6/25/2024) I had a great assortment of toys when I was a kid. Though many of them were shared and/or hand-me-downs as I was the middle son of three, some were exclusively mine. There was a plastic beach bucket of die-cast Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars that were considered to belong to all of us, which I believe was as much a factor in my development as a car fan as growing up in Flint, Michigan, the factory town birthplace of General Motors. There was also a multitude of Lego sets both with and without their original packaging. One Christmas when I was four or five, I got a Pianosaurus toy piano that was both whimsical and fun. I would end up playing the actual piano for years until my early twenties. There was an Erector set my older brother had passed down that I tinkered with often, as I built cranes, buildings, and other types of structures.
With the exception of G.I. Joe or other similar action figures, I had a lot of typical guy stuff and enjoyed playing with those toys. I horsed around with my brothers all the time, occasionally breaking things accidentally. I also had a blonde-haired, female doll whose hair I would braid, and for whom I would sew primitive dresses on my mom’s sewing machine. My parents took that doll away after the second grade, but their doing so didn’t butch me up, so to speak, and I perhaps then missed out on becoming the next Halston. The Dennis house didn’t have a copy of Marlo Thomas’s brilliant “Free To Be… You And Me!” children’s record, but it probably should have. I own it on compact disc today.
I wonder sometimes what my two, straight brothers thought at the time about my emerging, atypical, more effeminate qualities as they started piecing things together. What’s up with Joe? Now, that shouldn’t be… My parents probably just hoped and prayed with all their might that I was just going through a phase. We all know how that turned out. (I’m trying to be careful not to establish causation for those who aren’t familiar with my humor.) I will say with utter seriousness that one of my absolute favorite toys of all time was… my Lite-Brite!
The concept of the early Lite-Brite makes my sensibilities as a seasoned homeowners insurance underwriter visibly cringe and go diving for the first ABC-rated fire extinguishers and eight-volt batteries for the smoke detectors. Let’s take this medium-grade, white plastic housing, screw a regular household lightbulb into a socket (40-watt, 100-watt… who cares what’s on the box, or how hot it gets?), put a piece of black construction paper on the front, and let a child play with it and leave it plugged in indefinitely so anyone who happens to pass by can admire a kid’s glowing, pixelated work of art. A clown, a flower, a house, it didn’t matter what I would make because it glowed. It was magic. There were downsides, of course. Anyone familiar with stepping on Legos in the middle of the night knows how quickly one can go from drowsy to wide-awake. Stepping on loose Lite-Brite pegs embedded in cut-pile carpeting was only slightly less painful.
In my mind, the Lite-Brite was a totally gender-neutral toy that any kid should have been able to feel comfortable playing with without fear of reproach, even in less enlightened days. At some point (and general safety concerns aside), it became totally uncool to play with a Lite-Brite. For some reason, and not necessarily based on an actual memory, I can hear my older brother’s voice telling me the Lite-Brite was “weak”. (He probably did say that.) I admit that even later on, when my younger brother and I would talk as adults about our favorite toys, we’d both end up laughing about the Lite-Brite, how lame it was, and how any such gift I would get for his kids would go straight back to Amazon without even coming out of the box. Well, guess what? I am completely reversing that narrative about the Lite-Brite. I love it and think it’s an amazing, colorful, fun idea that deserves its place in the pantheon of great toys my Generation X cohort was lucky enough to experience. It’s Pride month, and how I wish I had a Lite-Brite to peg a multicolored rainbow right there in my living room.
Let’s talk about another bright light from the ’90s, Chrysler’s Neon subcompact, which was sold in the U.S. under both the Dodge and Plymouth nameplates. Both started production in early 1994 as ’95 models, with the first-generation running through ’99. The second iteration arrived in time for the new millennium, with the Plymouth version bowing out after ’01, but with the Dodge lasting through ’05. Over 2,076,000 were built between 1994 and ’05, not counting the Mexico-market third-gen cars that arrived for 2016. Courtesy of a license plate search, we know this particular car has the SOHC base version of the 2.0 liter four-cylinder, originally rated at 132 horsepower which, according to Consumer Guide, was good for 8.9 seconds to sixty miles per hour – a great showing for an economy car of the day. In a perfect world, this one would have had the five-speed manual for a little extra fun, but it’s got the three-speed TorqueFlite automatic, which means that anyone can drive it in a pinch.
An extra-long inaugural ’95 model year for the Dodge Neon yielded sales of about 179,000, most of which (about 145,100) were four-door versions. (The coupe, added later, never even got close to approaching the sedan in popularity, with only 33,800 sold for ’95.) The midrange Highline trim level added, among other things, what I consider to be a significant aesthetic upgrade: body-colored bumper covers.
I immediately liked these cars. The early Neon had great style, including a glassy greenhouse and a rakish stance. They reminded me more of some limited-production, “boutique” car out of Japan, like a U.S. version of something like Nissan’s Be-1, but sized for North America, intended for the mainstream, and at affordable prices. The Neon’s exterior finishes even had a bright color palette including the wild Strawberry Red metallic hue on the subject car. Thinking about the Chrysler Corporation of the mid-’90s sometimes gives me goosebumps, with all of the promise shown by what seemed like their unstoppable innovation.
As I had learned not to talk about my doll with other kids in the classroom, the Neon also became a model for which I learned not to show too much enthusiasm when discussing cars with others. It was rounded and looked a little like a jellybean. So what? It may not have been the most masculine-looking thing around, but compare it to the utterly joyless look of the Caliber that replaced it. Did DaimlerChrysler’s attempt to make their subcompact five-door look like a Tonka trucklet make it more popular than what it replaced? No. Granted, the Caliber’s hatchback and cargo area that was larger than the Neon’s probably made it more useful, but one could still fold down the rear seat of a Neon and put more things back there than would otherwise be the case.
The bottom line is that at some point, and at least with the people I was talking with at the time, the Neon became something of a punchline. Even now, when I read something negative about a Neon for no other reason than its being a Neon, a little bit of fight wells up in me. They were good, reliable cars, and Chrysler sold a ton of them. Life’s too short not to just like what we like (or love who we love), which in my case includes both the Lite-Brite and the Neon, both of which fall into the category of cheap-and-cheerful. The world could use more of both.
Lakeview, Chicago, Illinois.
Sunday, June 9, 2024.
Here’s my 2016 take on two Plymouth Neons from each generation parked nose-to-tail
Brochure pages were as sourced from www.oldcarbrochures.org.
When I was in Orlando in Jan. 1996, I got a brand new Neon as a rental car. I drove it like I stole it, breakin be damned! Fun little roller skate.
This sounds like the way it should have been! You put it through its paces, and it probably gained some of your respect in the process.
Neons are / were such cheerful cars. While I’ve heard some stories of short life spans, my wife’s sister-in-law had a first generation one that gave her well over 200k miles of service. I’m not sure what happened to it. A coworker in the late ’90s bought a two-door with the more potent engine. His assessment was “it has nuts”.
Speaking of, that brings me to Lite-Brite. My sister had one – a Lite Brite, that is. She would meticulously match the colored peg to one of the templates provided. I thought that was dull and dreary. While I never touched the thing, I did ask to use it one day for creation of something. She thought I was thinking about making glowing recreations of various body parts – which was a good idea. I was likely thinking cars, but I didn’t disabuse her of her erroneous thought.
Jason, this brings to mind just how good maintenance can prolong the life of a vehicle. Like you, I’m sure I’ve heard stories of Neons that didn’t last that long, but I’ve heard far more stories of ones that just lasted and lasted. These were the Valiants and Darts of the ’90s.
And your other story. LOL. This reminds me of me having tried to get my cousin’s Speak ‘N Spell to say bad words. 🤣😆
They didn’t ride too well. Got around and were dependable though. The two I experienced had great “a/c”.
Last time I saw one of these was 12+ yrs ago. Based on the sound it was emitting, either the manifold was cracked or was missing a muffler. The lady driving it didn’t seem to care. She kept flicking her cigarette out the window as she puttered down Hwy 9 in upstate New York.
I loved this visual. In my mind’s eye, I was there.
I had a Lite-Brite as a kid, around 5-6 too. I liked, and still like, things that light up (I’ve done professional lighting specifications, things like figuring out where to space recessed lights, which baffle to use, and beam spread of the floodlamp bulbs themselves) Although I liked Lite-Brite, I found it a bit frustrating because you couldn’t make a vertical line of lights, making many things difficult to render on the ultra-low-resolution screen. These are still around I believe, only now the deep CRT-TV-style case has been replaced with a flat panel with built-in LED backlighting. The pegs still look the same.
If the LB was a genderized toy, I didn’t notice. I had no sisters, so there were no dolls around. My parents abided by all the traditional ’60s gender roles with one notable exception: my dad did about 60% of the sewing. When the old Singer went on the fritz circa 1982, my dad (a gadget lover) replaced it with one of the newfangled computerized sewing machines that could make elaborated sew patterns on its own. My mom has a mortal fear of anything with a microchip in it, so from that point on my dad did 100% of the sewing. I never made doll’s clothes, but I routinely showed my contempt for needlessly genderized products, and still do. I doubt the You’re The One skin cream I bought at Bath & Body Works last week is aimed at guys, but it works well and smells nice so I use it. Likewise Clean & Clear face cleanser, which an old girlfriend kept in the shower and I discovered makes a terrific rotary-electric wet shaving cream.
The Neon was never a bright light for me though. For one, this is when Chrysler finally acknowledged that Dodges and Plymouths were too similar to even warrant different names. I had a friend with a V6/four-speed auto Sundance Duster from the last year they made them. and the Neon felt like a setback in many ways. No more hatchback, no more decent interior colors, no more smooth V6. And a three-speed automatic in the late ’90s, were they kidding? Plus cheap-feeling interior with poor ergonomics (the door armrests seemed designed with disregard that hands are a thing).
Thank you for this! I admire your perspective on unnecessary genderization of certain things. It’s funny that you mention that the L-B didn’t allow for direct horizontal or vertical lines, because a.) I agree; and b.) Something similar was my issue with the Etch-A-Sketch (impossible to do curves for the average kid with average motor skills).
I honestly don’t think of the L-B of a genderized toy, but then I’m also on a constant journey of unlearning a lot of things I used to just take as truth as handed to me with regard to certain things.
While I lament the Neon’s lack of a V6 option, it did get a turbo 4 later, right? I didn’t see the Neon as retrograde compared to the P-cars. I can find things to like about both in 2024.
“Life’s too short not to just like what we like (or love who we love)” so true.
But I sometimes wonder if my love of cars was encouraged by my parents as an attempt to butch me up. Not going to worry about that now though.
Thanks for another excellent piece. Chrysler went to the trouble of making RHD Neons and sending them to the UK, but I can’t remember the last time I saw one.
Thanks, Hummel! I suspect that my story with cars wasn’t dissimilar from yours. My love of and fascination with cars wasn’t shamed, unlike so many other things. I believe in all things for a reason, and here I am, writing about cars instead of designing haute couture.
I believe a handful of these were sold in Japan, as well. It’s possible that CC’s brilliant Tatra87 has profiled this before.
Nice, I haven’t seen a Gen1 Neon in ages. Such promise, too bad that DCX lost their momentum and the Neon withered.
Never had a lite brite, but I did get to try one a couple of times and I preferred the etch a sketch.
Doug, one of my first thoughts when I saw this one was, When did Neons seem so rare to me that I instantly felt compelled to photograph and write about this one? Clearly, 2024 is the answer to that question!
Loved these from the get-go when they came out, and they had the wildest colors: purple, lime green… wow! Too small for our family 5, but would have made a great commuter car from our dairy country location into Baltimore City.
You’re right Joe, these really exemplified the hope that Chrysler’s new innovation would reinvigorate the company before that fool Eaton sold them out to Daimler, who’s arrogance almost wrecked the company. By now they’re on their 9th life (at least!) under Stellantis, but at least the Spirit (ha!) lives on, check out the cool upcoming Charger folks!
I loved them, too. Reading your roll call of all the great colors of the early models actually made me think of Chrysler’s period of the early ’70s, when they were painting cars colors names “Moulin Rouge” and “Limelight”. I wonder if that earlier period was referenced during this car’s development, or if it was just about the colors of bright, neon lights.
The new Charger does look cool. I would love to see another Dodge and Chrysler brand renaissance…
Hi!
Detroit’s freshest breath in two decades upon debut, in my opinion… Great colors, fun to drive, a delightful initial ad campaign, non-traditional domestic styling (The Twingo of sedan-loving America?), only moderately let down by perhaps iffy durability in more than a few cases. And then pretty much left to wither on the vine even though there was a second generation and the short-term-popular yet dead-end PT Cruiser.
A 100-watt bulb that started to flicker ominously and then went dead too soon in favor of the long-life low cost to own LED Japanese bulbs.
I saw what you did there!
I was scrolling through just waitiing for someone to say Hi!
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When I first sat down to write this, I was trying hard to dig into the recesses of my memory to try to really remember just how great and revolutionary they seemed when new. They were truly a breath of fresh air and more than just another aero-shaped small car. I forgot to mention how much I loved the frameless door glass, though I understand from some reports that wind noise was an issue at speed.
I wanted to like the second-generation cars, which were okay, but it seemed apparent not long after the new millennium that DaimlerChrysler seemed to be phoning it in with an alarming increase in frequency.
Count me as a fan of the PT Cruiser, though. It might have been a stylistic and developmental dead-end (how to update a retro car), but it would have been on my short list when new for its combination of style, performance, utility, and price. I know some don’t like the PT, but for me, it’s almost unbeatable for what it was.
My sister and I shared a Lite Brite, probably around the time they first came out. I remember getting bored with it quickly. There were only so many templates and it didn’t really lend itself to freestyle images.
The Neon? By my seat of the pants impression, it was the closest any of the US manufacturers came to the driving characteristics of the Japanese runabouts. They always brought a smile to my face.
JP, I almost forgot about the templates! Yeah, no. I always wanted to just make my own thing. That’s where the black construction paper came in. Way cheaper, and everyone was happy. And I had honestly hoped that when the Neon came out that it would match imports for quality, which I understand wasn’t the case. That didn’t really bother me, as the Neon seemed better than average for its class.
I remember these, the colors were not to my liking but I think anything bright and cheerful is a good thing .
Lite Brite was a fantastic toy for young folks who wanted to try new things, they came out long after I was a child but I’m pleased to hear they’re still being made .
Whatever I do becomes masculine by default and I think the same goes for you Joseph .
-Nate
Nate, thank you, and I like the way you think.
It’s nice to see a Neon still holding up. To me, it’s one of those cars that you used to for a while see everywhere (I remember when rental fleets were well stocked with them…that’s how I got to drive several) and totally took for granted. And then one day they were gone and you barely knew.
Back in the mid-1990s, I had an employee who was desperate to drive and own a “cute” car. She was all about cute things. So she lusted after one of these for some time, but I guess circumstances didn’t allow her to actually acquire one. And then, in 2000 the PT Cruiser came out, and her head nearly exploded over the cuteness factor. She went on a year’s long waiting list for one of those and got it. And in a way, got the Neon she had wanted for several years.
Speaking of wanting things, I REALLY wanted a Lite-Brite when I was a kid. I knew several other kids who had them, and I just thought having one would make my life complete (well, that, and my other favorite light-bulb-powered toy…an EZ Bake Oven). But my parents had this thing where if a toy were advertised and anywhere near popular, they wouldn’t buy it for me. It was always “You don’t need that junk!”; which I actually think was their way of covering up the fact that they didn’t have enough disposable income to purchase name brand, popular, toys. As usual, MY solution was to attempt to make my own version of the Lite-Brite using found objects. I wound up putting a lamp in a cardboard box, cutting a frame in it, and using my own construction paper to poke holes in. Of course, without the colored pegs it was all pretty useless (except as a fire hazard) so I gave up the idea and moved on to playing with more fun toys like empty frozen orange juice cans and gravel.
Jeff, all of this is spot-on. When did most the first-generation Neons disappear?? When was that flashpoint? As I was mentioning to Jim Klein above, I still like the PT Cruiser. I knew a family that paid well over sticker for one of the first ones. I miss those years of Chrysler.
Some of my toys were also homemade. I remember saving egg cartons, tissue boxes, and Pringles canisters out of the trash to build my own structures, also with masking tape, construction paper, and clear cellophane for windows. You and I probably developed some important skills in improvisation and creativity by doing so.
I was hoping somebody would mention the Easy-Bake Oven as that was exactly what I was thinking of when I wrote my upthread post about genderized toys – these had been marketed towards girls for decades, because dudes never cook, do they? Well actually they do, so the manufacturer decided the way to sell Easy-Bake ovens to boys was to make a variant called the Queasy-Bake Cookerator, which included packets of ready-to-cook “Crud Cake”, “Bugs ‘n Worms”, and other things intended to appeal to “boys’ affinity for all things gross”. Introduced in 2002, I’m not surprised that this toy bombed in the marketplace and didn’t last long. More recent versions of the regular Easy-Bake oven are now sold with more boy-inclusive packaging and colors. Also, as with the Lite-Brite, incandescent light bulbs are now gone, and since LEDs don’t get hot enough to cook food, there’s a built-in heating element.
I grew up when Easy-Bakes weren’t sold to boys, so I’d never even heard of them until I found out about the grown-up version, the GE Advantium ( https://www.geappliances.com/appliance/GE-Profile-30-in-Single-Wall-Oven-with-Advantium-Technology-PSB9240EFES ), and bought one for my kitchen. Like the Easy-Bake, the Advantium cooks (primarily) with light, only instead of a wimpy 100-watt light bulb this thing has access to 6,300 watts of power (from a 240 volt/30 amp circuit), cooking food almost as fast as a microwave, yet with a crispy texture that tastes like it was cooked in a regular oven or even on a grill. It’s a wonderful appliance. (note: don’t confuse it was the Advantium 120, which is a 120v/15a version that’s more of a glorified convection/microwave and relies mostly on microwaves to attain its speed).
I recall running across an ad for one of those Advantium ovens a little while back and being delighted with my realization that it was in fact an Easy-Bake oven for grownups!
My first thought when viewing the Neon concept in the “cookie cutter beg to differ” ad:
New Beetle!
It’s kind of hard to remember now, but when round headlights made a return, the New Beetle and Neon were toward the forefront of that, with a few exceptions (’94 Celica?). It was one thing that set them apart.
BMW was the one brand that didn’t hop on the rectangular-headlight bandwagon, going with weird shapes only after others rediscovered round lights.
I just remember the Neon(1st gen especially) as having the lifespan of a mosquito. They were never taken care of and the paint seemed to fall off of them by about year 4 or 5.
They werent all that popular around in my neck of the woods(I lived near the Saturn and Nissan factory), so maybe that was part of it. But by 2008 or so the 1st gen Neons were GONE. Heard they liked to blow headgaskets, which combined with the general neglect these cars recieved took them off the road pretty quick.
I’d be curious to know, as you mentioned, if the geography and proximity of the Nissan and Saturn plants to where you were had anything to do with the Neon being seen as second-tier. By the same token, I wonder if Belvidere, Illinois (where some of the first-generation Neons were built) ended up with a higher concentration of older Neons after production had ended.
I liked the Neon from the start, especially the 2 door version, it’s sad that they’ve all but vanished from the face of the earth. In 1998 while in California, I reserved a rental, and when I went to pick it up, it was a spanking new white Neon w/ only 6 miles on the odometer, just being off loaded from the carrier! Grew up with a lot of shared toys, but no Lite Brite; however, there was the Etch-A-Sketch, LOL!! 🙂
I don’t think I’ve ever driven a car with just *six* miles on it. I came close with a rental with something like 20 miles on it within the past year or so, but your Neon was so new. The design element I liked about the coupes was that forward-leaning B-pillar, which gave it a much different personality than the sedan.
I’m always happy to see a new Etch-A-Sketch for sale in the aisles of Target. It’s a comforting sign of continuity. And still every bit as hard to draw things with accuracy. It’s part of the charm. Etch-A-Sketch is like a metaphor for life… sometimes you just have to shake it and start over with a clean screen.
I’m a lot older than you Joseph, and my kids are younger so I’ve never heard of the LiteBrite toy. At least I assume that’s the reason. I have heard of the Jeep YouTuber by the same name. She looks pretty lite and seems to have a pretty brite personality. As for the Neon, I’ve always found them appealing. And your description of the Caliber as “joyless” is spot on. Insightful, as always.
Thanks, Dman! Sometimes after I complete and re-read a draft, I realize that I’ve found the perfect adjective for the thing I’m trying to describe.
I kind of recall the Neon just being around when I was a kid (millennial). This car and I debuted at around the same time. But I don’t remember it being much of a punch line. That said, you don’t see very many of them around…and I wonder why.
I do recall watching Indiana-based show “The Middle,” in which the mother of the forever-cash-strapped Heck family, drives an early purple Neon. The car is a bit of a punchline in the show, where it’s largely regarded as an unloved hooptie that nevertheless starts every time. There’s an interesting multi-episode plot line in the show in which Frankie’s windshield is shattered by a tree branch. While the Hecks fight the insurance company, they end up stretching Saran wrap across the opening left by the now-missing windshield, which predictably gets snatched away by the wind every time Frankie drives it…since, of course, it’s winter in Indiana. The car is also contrasted, quite negatively, with a sponsored episode in which the Donahues–the Hecks’ “perfect” neighbors–buy a new 2012 VW Passat 2.5 SE, which Frankie temporarily becomes custodian of.
You just reminded me of an event long-buried in my memory. My own first experience with a Neon was when I was at a friend’s house in the neighborhood, spending the night. The next day, we were out in the garage, trying–fruitlessly, I might add–to build a go-kart, when we heard a scream from across the street. Turns out, there was a young woman across the street who had an abusive boyfriend. She wanted to leave, and he wasn’t having it. So, as she tried to take off out of the driveway, he reached in the car and proceeded to rip the entire ignition barrel–key and all–right out of the car, and then tossed it somewhere. And then fled the scene. Like the good little pre-teens we were, we spent quite a bit of time trying to help find the ignition barrel, to no avail. That particular Neon was a second-gen, and this was in or around 2004, so it wouldn’t have been that old. Five years at the most, since they began production of the second-gen in January 1999.
Kyree, thank you for bringing “The Middle” back to my memory! I didn’t watch the entire series, but there was a period for me when it was must-see TV. Sue was my favorite! I did love that show.
And how horrible to have witnessed that incident with your friend’s neighbor. Seriously traumatic. So she was stuck there, *and* her car was busted. You and your friend showed that young lady support simply by caring enough to help her, regardless of the outcome. She probably really appreciated that at a crucial time for her.
Having owned the Shadow, and rented Neons, I wonder if the Shadow’s simpler, more angular lines have aged better? Less specific to the ’90s rounded organic look. Apply modern wheels, and the clean design of the Shadow still looks good. Whereas, the Neon is so embedded in the 1990’s.
The Tubthumping of cars.
Great song.
I do think that the Neon was more attractive. 🙂
Album art and design look and feel, so tied to the 1990’s. 🙂
Like many others.
“Tubthumping”! Sooo reminds me of my college days! I’ve got to say that my gut reaction is that the (first-generation) Neon is the more enduring design, but I can also find things to like about the P-cars, which look good to me again (in four-door form; never cared for the two-doors).
I am an artist. Not a professional one, but I do art. When the Lite Brite first arrived, I didn’t get one until I was able to find one at a garage sale when I was in college. This is what I did with it: I would randomly mix all the color pegs and then place them at random across each row from top to bottom. I filled it up with random colors. Then I would photo it. I kept doing this until I had nine photos of randomly arranged pegs. Then I would enlarge the photos to 9″x12″ each. I would randomly arrange these nine photos into a frame large enough to hold them all across. After a day or so, I would turn each of these photos 90 degrees. Everytime you rearrange the photos, you had an entirely new look of random patterns of Lite Brite pegs.
I worked in primary colors and also discovered that I would take the old color wheels from Christmas displays and by applying primary colored lights onto primary colored canvases. As the colored lights hit the primary colors, the colors would change and cause the art to shift and move.
My living room bachelor pad was filled with art like this and I still create art based on color randomness. Girls loved my place. It was easy to get them to pose for me and be my models in various stages of repose. I had a lot of girlfriends and ended up marrying one who was “drawn” to me, based on many qualities, and art is one of those. She is still one of my biggest fans and wants me to retire and paint.
Art isn’t gay. Neither is the quality of “cute”. What is interesting is why something is interpreted as cute. Why does the Neon appeal as it did? Everyone says it is cute. It was sold as cute. Lots of Japanese and Asian products look cute, while Italian and German design is just as clever, but not cute. I find design endlessly interesting.
I loved the Neon design, but I was too devoted to quality to get one. The Fiat 500 is adorable, but it is downright too “Step 2” toddler-looking to me. The Mini is cute, but my big family life would end up making the Mini a frivolity. Kudos to Chrysler for creating the Neon. The design wasn’t wrong – the market wasn’t strong enough to support it over the competition after a decade. It was a hell of a better design success those those PT Cruisers – (LORD have mercy.) The thinking behind the Neon, did beget the PT – so again, kudos to Chrysler for trying. It’s just that the PT was a cartoon design and too damn Roger Rabbit to find any admiration for me.
Thank you for sharing a part of you in this posting. I like it very much and it really got me thinking and sharing in a way I hadn’t before. Kudos to your bravery!
That’s a really cool idea – thanks for including the visual. I’ve seen Lite-Brite used in a variety of ways, including as signage in small spaces. I think its very design lends itself to adaptability.
I’m totally unfamiliar with the Lite-Brite. It might not have come to my country (we run a different voltage), or it might be because I’m a bit older. I can see the appeal, and that was a great era for light and colour. And shape. I remember having great fun with the Spirograph I was given, and telling the giver “Wow, I’ll never be bored again!” But I was.
By the way, if you think stepping on a Lite-Brite peg is bad, try a Spirograph pin, the little pins that hold the racks or wheels onto the board. Been there, done that got the tetanus shot…..
Gender things were never at issue with me – it was always cars, cars, and only ever cars. Or old buildings, or history in general. Or books. Or music, preferably outside the mainstream. Or drawing, cars mostly. All solitary pursuits. In my teens some nasty kids questioned whether I was gay because I never chatted up girls or took them out, and was always embarrassed around them. Quite frankly that sort of thing simply never occurred to me! Was I asexual? Now that I look back on those years I see so many ‘missed opportunities’, but by that stage I was just totally disinterested in people, period. I had been hurt so much as a child that I had just retreated inside myself, and went through the motions of schooling but otherwise kept to myself. I tolerated people when I really had to, but preferred to avoid them. I’m still reclusive, even if I do write for CC. Go figure. I’m full of contradictions.
BIg jump to the Neon. Chrysler was really on a roll before Daimler took over. The artistic me loved the curvy shape (and still does), but the pragmatic me was doubtful. Chrysler had only just come back to my country after being absent since 1980, so had no reputation to speak of. Mitsubishi had bought out Chrysler here; in the seventies any Chrysler product that wasn’t a Valiant had been Mitsubishis, but this was no Mitsubishi either. What was it? Buying one would have meant ignoring the well-established and well-regarded Japanese brands, in favour of an unknown car, from a different but still foreign country, best known for humungous but relatively crude cars which hadn’t been sold here since 1972.
And yet, Neons were a reasonably common sight here, until they all seemed to vanish from the roads.
I’m trying to figure out the time lines here, racking my brains to figure out what replaced the Neon, and resisting the temptation to google it. Did Chrysler simply abandon the small-sedan market? Like they abandoned attractive curvaceous styling in favour of relative boxiness and crude surfacing?
I think they only sell 300s and Jeeps here now, nothing in the small or medium sector at all. Strange.
Peter, thank you for sharing such great insights, as always. I’ll start with the car stuff, as reading about various Chrysler offerings in Oceania were some of my favorite, little rabbit holes to disappear into at CC. And how it all ended. I still think the Chrysler Centura was a game attempt to salvage the Chrysler 180 in your part of the world.
Pre-Daimler Chrysler really did seem like it was on a roll. It was like a nonstop hit parade, between the LH cars, the Neon, Prowler, etc. I remember reading something about how Chrysler had the shortest time from concept to execution, which allowed them to be first to market with new, innovative ideas.
I’m also moved by your self-assessment of having just retreated in your youth. We’re human beings, and before we know that the world and other people can be different than what we’ve known once we hit adulthood, we often simply try to protect ourselves and that within us that is good. We’re the fortunate ones who live through and past all of that and use the benefit of our life experiences to give hope to others, even if only by talking about it.
Thanks Joseph. The sixties/seventies were an amazing time to be a car guy down here, with the amount of freedom the Big Three were allowed. That Centura was an amazing car around town, with the torque of the Hemi six, but a bit of a lead-tipped arrow on the open road by all accounts. It could have done better if…. but we’re getting off topic here.
The Neon gave us a taste for other cars from this seemingly interesting new-to-us company – which never arrived. No LHs, no cloud cars, but I did spy a nicely accessorised PT Cruiser last week.
And that wasn’t self-assessment; as well as that, there was a fair bit of professional therapy involved. Child abuse is a terrible thing; you grow up being afraid of adults, and then you turn into one.
Back to happy things – here’s that Cruiser. From the last golden age of Chrysler?
I vividly remember the introduction of the first Neon, complete with the disarming “hi” ad campaign. Chrysler really was on a roll in the mid-90s, transforming an outdated lineup sold largely on the basis of price into something really (cab) forward-looking and highly desirable to a discerning buyer, with the Neon yet another cutting edge vehicle in that wave of innovation. I really wanted to see Chrysler succeed and was always angling for a Chrysler product at the rental counter (please – anything but a GM product!) in order to undertake an extended road test of sorts.
Reality was something of a letdown, as the rental Neons assigned to me seemed riddled with poor assemblages of lots of plastic parts and that three-speed automatic cried out loudly for another gear or two. I couldn’t imagine actually owning one, even if the styling and the basic design premise was in sync with my tastes.
A coworker of mine bought one of the first Neons and thrashed it mercilessly, as he did most of his cars; he probably was not a good candidate for Neon ownership. He traded it within 18 months for Jeep Grand Cherokee.
My last impression of the Neon came with a second-gen rental in Orlando on a hastily-booked family vacation trip to Disney World. I gambled that I would be upgraded to a larger car, but got stuck with a well-used Neon with crank windows, which fascinated my kids. For ever more, we remember that trip as being the peons in the Neon.
“The peons in the Neon” – priceless. And crank windows being a source of fascination! I know I’m not the same age I once was when that is a thing.
I had a good college friend who got one of the early Neons in base trim. He liked it okay, and I was in that car for a road trip that lasted a couple hours. I never got to drive it, but I don’t remember him ever complaining about it, and he was a counterculture-leaning guy. Yes, there was lots of plastic on the interior, but what car of that era didn’t have that? It seemed like a cut above all but the Japanese imports.
My Brookfield Collectors Guild 1995 Neon Challenge promo.
That’s just cool. I can’t rememeber ever having seen a scale models of a Neon before.
Its hard to remember Neons at all I havent seen any in a very long time, I was in OZ when they landed the motoring press compared them with a Corolla and didnt think much of them and they never really took off I have seen a couple in NZ but not for many years, I got a good run out of Aussie Chrysler products including one of those Centuras and several Mitsubishis but none of them were newer than 1990.
I appreciate this perspective. If I hadn’t seen one of these for a long time here in its home market, I can’t imagine that there have been a bunch of them still running around in different parts of the world than mine, especially if they weren’t big sellers there to begin with.
These were sold in Europe and Israel (as well as other markets) – not in huge quantities but visible enough. They were the start of something: a US maker getting it in so far as what people wanted outside the US was concerned. The same applied to the Voyager and the PT Cruiser. They all should have provided a catapult for Chrysler to extend its presence outside the US. All that was needed was a diesel option (for the Neon) and sorting out the build quality and they would have sold in greater numbers. Then Mercedes-Benz took over and failed to understand what Renault understood with Dacia or VW has with Skoda and Seat. What a missed opportunity. But hey, GM did exactly the same with the Korean Chevrolets which were starting to gain sales in the EU (they withdrew the make from the EU “so as not to hurt Opel sales”. So now they have nothing in Europe (other than grey imports of pick ups)).
Mweh.
Thank you for this. This perspective makes it all the more apparent how uninterested Daimler seemed in investing in the Chrysler brands and global footprint.
Daimler basically ruined Chrysler. But at least one Neon survived here and it’s for sale:)
https://www.willhaben.at/iad/gebrauchtwagen/d/auto/chrysler-neon-neues-pickerl-mototoel-filter-neu-1644646333
I had to look…
And only 145,000 km! Bit expensive though.
On the page of standard and optional equipment, there is a notice in the far right column discouraging customers from installing after market A/C kits for they may do damage to the drivetrain. The last time a saw an aftermarket A/C unit was on my ’75 Toyota which had installed by the dealer and it didn’t work too well.
I guess the audience for these vehicles were Penny Pinchers Supreme!!
Equal to a Studebaker Scotsman’s of the late 50’s.
I can’t believe that I didn’t comment on this post the first time around, Joe. I loved my (or it may’ve been my sister’s) Lite-Brite. We would both take turns playing with that thing for hours. When we ran out of the premade construction paper designs that the thing came with, we just made up our own designs with plain construction paper. And we were always careful to use a proper wattage light bulb. Even at a young age, we could sense the fire risk!
I loved to draw when I was a kid, which is likely why I went into drafting and ultimately engineering. One could argue that the Lite-Brite and Ohio Art’s Etch-a-Sketch were the first CAD systems. Creativity abounds!!!
Anyway, regarding the Neon… Meh… not my fave of the era, but they were everywhere at one point. What always seemed odd to me was that the nameplate was used by both Plymouth and Dodge at the time. Heck, there was probably a Chrysler version up there in the Great White North. I suppose an Imperial or DeSoto version (had they existed at the time) may’ve been a bit of a stretch though. 😉
The modern day equivalent purchased online as a gift for one of the kids who’s into art… that is if his step grandfather doesn’t keep it for himself…. 😉
The story goes that while Iacocca was halfway out the door during the genesis of the Neon, he was still in charge and made the call on some of its features, most notably his insistance on the round headlights.
Two others that were less successful was the use of a 3-speed TorqueFlite when all other small cars had a 4-speed automatic by then, and the power window option only worked on the front windows on the 4-door, with manual winders on the rear.
The use of the reliable 3-speed auto was probably a blessing in disguise as Chrysler’s development of a 4-speed auto for their FWD cars didn’t exactly go smoothly.
Neons were friendly looking, approachable vehicles that had three things really going for them that endeared shoppers: Space, pace, and price. You felt you were getting substantially more car than you were paying for, which was somewhat true… Why did they vanish seemingly overnight? What they were not was durable or robust. Faults arose early and word of mouth from early buyers likely did little favors. It did not take long for even just casual observers to note this. Paint issues abounded with many of those fun, bright colors that left swaths of bare metal across bodywork. The molded-in-color bumpers would turn chalky and flat. The frameless windows slacked and wobbled, inviting howling and moisture into the spacious cabin. A/C systems were fragile. Water intrusions into the footwell from around the bulkhead and leaky trunks. Head gasket failures early on occurred far too frequently to be solely responsible from owner neglect. Terribly weak headlamps. All these things did nothing to persuade owners they well and truly loved their Neons. Indifferent attitudes lead to indifferent maintenance. Beside all that, Neons were legitimately quick and good handlers; anyone remember the one-make race series “The Neon Challenge”?. The ‘tuner scene’ was approaching much wider popularity as many Neons were now dirt cheap 6ish year old used cars, and I remember a ton of them being snapped up, spoiler’d out, and thrashed into the ground. If you couldn’t afford a DSM, you got a Neon. Mass extinction seemed to follow not long after the ‘scene’ hit its peak in the wake of first couple of The Fast and the Furious movies.
Despite all that, I liked them. I still do. The only domestic small car up until that point that tried having actual personality. There was even a white ‘96 sedan in the family (just like the ads!) I took to despise suffering several of the maladies I mention above. These days, seeing one is exceedingly rare. Ironically enough, the last couple I do recall were ‘modded’ out and looking beat to hell, yet kept going about their business with their likely mechanically savvy owner’s persistence. I don’t recall seeing a bone stock example this decade.