After the aborted beater attempt, I bought my wife a 1998 Jeep Cherokee Sport with the inline six and four wheel drive. Other than moaning a bit about how the brake caliper bolts snapped on me while changing the pads, I don’t really have too much to say about it. So we are going to mostly skip right over it except to mention that its large potential tire replacement cost lead us directly to what was probably the most reliable car I’ve owned. And yes, it really was a Neon!
While we’d had the Jeep a for decent length of time, I can’t say I ever bonded with it. It was really my wife’s desire to purchase it, and once she’d done an unintentional 360 spin with it on the highway in winter, she was less enamored with its truck-ish nature. The automatic transmission clunked into gear even after I changed the fluid and filter, but what really got us looking for something else was the cost of replacing the tires which were now getting rather low on tread.
A quick aside for the American readers: Tires cost quite a bit more here in Canada than down south. I’m not exactly sure why this is. It could be taxes and levies or perhaps it is just as simple as living in a smaller market, but whatever the reason, tires generally cost 25-100% more than in the US. A reasonable set of rubber for the Cherokee had been quoted at a rather larger number than I wanted to put into a vehicle I didn’t particularly like, so it put us into casual car shopping mode.
On a whim, we ended up checking out the local Chrysler/Dodge dealership after receiving one of their rather misleading flyers in the mail. My wife was rather hands off this time, perhaps stung by the Jeep’s failure to meet her expectations, and let me handle the car search within reason. I knew we wanted something with a manual gearbox, and with a small child to haul around, four doors were almost mandatory.
On the lot I spied a sharp looking black Neon with the factory snow flake style alloy wheels I quite fancied. I took a quick peek inside, and sure enough it was a five speed manual. While I wouldn’t have necessarily sought out a Neon, friends of ours had bought one brand new in 2000 and had no issues with theirs. The husband racked up massive miles on the poor car traveling to remote well sites down the rough back roads of Northern Alberta, so they had to be reasonably sturdy. I can’t recall all the details of the transaction, but from what I remember, we were able to trade our 1998 Jeep straight across for the 2000 Neon.
Oddly enough, as I was leaving the dealership an older woman ran up with another salesman in tow and offered to give me a couple hundred on top of whatever I’d just paid if she could have car instead. I found this rather bizarre, and to this day I’m not sure if it was a legitimate offer or some act by the dealership to make you feel good about your purchase. I was actually happy about my acquisition so I didn’t give it much more thought at the time.
Those of you with sharp eyes will notice that the badges on our Neon say “Chrysler”, not Dodge or Plymouth. Generally, Neons (and some other Dodge and Plymouth models) sold in export markets like Europe, Asia and Australia have been sold as Chryslers. In Canada, the first generation Neons were sold under the Dodge and Plymouth name plates, but starting with the second generation Neon for the 2000 model year, they swapped over to the Chrysler name plate, briefly but exclusively. There is some historical precedence for this in Canada as the Dodge Daytona was sold only as the Chrysler Daytona from 1986 on. Plymouth also made an earlier exit from the Canadian marketplace and was gone by the year 2000. To confuse the heck out of everyone, starting in 2003, the Chrysler Neon became the Dodge SX 2.0 in Canada instead.
Our car had the revised 132hp SOHC 2.0L four cylinder engine. The lusty DOHC motor from the first generation was dropped from the line up with the Neon refresh. On real life roads there hadn’t been as much of a performance difference between the SOHC and DOHC engines as the specifications would indicate. The second generation car had gained a few pounds, so the Neon’s reputation for zippy performance had been blunted slightly, but our early build car had the previous ACR five speed manual gearbox which restored most of the acceleration at the expense of extra fuel consumption on the highway. Later Neons reverted back to more relaxed and fuel-friendly gearbox ratios.
It’s amazing what a trim level choice makes to the interior of this era of Neons. Our friends had a base car in brown (he always jokingly insisted it was Cinnamon not brown) whereas ours was an LX in black. The interiors were shockingly different in regards to look and feel. Their car was cheap and nasty inside, while our car not only looked miles better, but the plastics and other materials felt like they came from the next class level up. We also had some rather nice white faced gauges that I haven’t seen very often on many other Neons.
While Neons generally get a bad rap for being a bit cheap inside, I’d argue this applies more to the first generation cars and not at all to the higher trim level second generation cars. Our interior was nicer than most of the “class leaders” of the era. One very odd quirk of this era of Neon is if you opted for power windows you’d only get them in the front. The rear windows would always be crank powered.
The title says “a good car”, and in the introduction I mention that it was likely the most reliable car we’ve owned. The Neon was with us for just over five years, and in that time it required only routine maintenance and even then not much of it. Gas, oil and filters were the only real expenses except for one little issue. That minor issue choose to present its self in rather dramatic fashion, however.
A little background is needed so bear with me. We had an almost-two year-old when our second son was born at the end of January. He was born early but healthy, and things looked good until a nurse punctured his bowel with an unnecessary feeding tube. Leaving out the depressing details, this meant a stay in the hospital of over a month for both him and my wife. We lived about forty minutes away in a commuter town, so every day for a month I’d go to work and then spend some time at the hospital before heading home.
It was an extremely cold February with temperatures ranging from -20C to -35C. The hospital required that one paid an attendant for parking, and as I was leaving, the drive-up I discovered that the driver’s side electric window would no longer go up. I had no luck with the unresponsive switch, so I had to drive for thirty minutes at highway speeds in -25C weather with the driver’s window fully down. I positioned myself as far to the passenger side as possible avoid the worst of the airflow but it was undoubtedly the coldest drive of my life. I retried the switch occasionally on the trip home and it, of course, it finally responded two minutes from home.
The switch was eventually replaced later that month when my wife rammed the Neon into a jacked up pickup truck with a big trailer hitch. The mismatched height caused his hitch to play havoc with our hood. We had to endure a brand new but rather nasty Pontiac Sunfire rental for a few weeks while it was repaired. I never thought I’d miss a Neon so much!
Not long after we got it back, we decided to take our two boys, a two year old as well as the now six month old baby, camping. The road leading to the camp site had quite a few curves and was on the bumpy side. While I was enjoying the drive, the two year old managed to vomit all over the back of the car. This happened shortly after he’d finished a full bottle of milk. I managed to clean up the partially digested milk reasonably well with only paper towels and river water while we continued camping, before getting a proper clean after the weekend. Strangely enough, the car never had a permanent stench to it. Perhaps not coincidentally, my wife got the minivan bug shortly after, and the Neon became our second vehicle (translation: my car). While very practical (see photo above) and even a little sporty, I lusted after something with fewer doors and less seats, so we eventually sold it on to a man buying his daughter her first car. Hopefully it provided her with the same reliable service it gave us.
The only one of my COALs that I regret trading was my 1998 Plymouth Neon Highline Coupe in fire engine red with the 5 speed. And yes, mine was an early enough build that I the ‘Mission Impossible’ headgasket. Like several folks have said, if they’d have spent a few buck more here and there, it could have been a contender.
Curbside effect- there is a bronze one parked outside my building ATM. These are pretty rare here, the first generation seem to have sold better.
The antithesis to your unreliable Civic. Although a car may have a bad (or good) reputation that doesn’t necessarily go for all of them – but it will affect all of them.
Yes. One with the reputation and one without.
These were sold in the Netherlands and if I’d be interested in cheap every day transportation I’d buy one
Never heard any baaaad stories about these.
And have quite a European contempory look about them
I do not even find this car old fashioned at all.
At one time these were so prevalent, yet now most seem to have evaporated.
My sister-in-law had a first generation Neon with an automatic. It was fairly basic but she did ultimately lose the head gasket – at around 230,000 miles. That’s about the time my wife and I sold our ’96 Escort to them.
They’re getting rare on UK roads too.There are either immaculate old peoples final cars or dented and scraped heaps being run into the ground on their last legs.Sold as Chryslers here,boy racers and chavs have ignored them so butchered ones are rare
My dad had a ’95 Neon – the rare 1 year only base model that had the giant grey bumpers instead of body color, in aqua. He traded in a stripped Eagle Summit 3-door that he hated for it.
I learned to drive on that car, and took my driver’s test on it. About 6 months later, he was t-boned by what was probably the last running Renault Encore on the East Coast, and the car was totalled.
I thought it was a good car – reasonably quick, handled well, ect – although to be fair, I didn’t exactly have a lot to compare it against at the time.
I’ve rented a few of these and they always seemed pretty peppy and fun to drive. Interior was always a bit hard but not unattractive, better than a Cavalier or Cobalt… Roomier inside than expected as well.
Funny about the tire cost issue. Do Canadians that live sort of near the border come across to get new tires or build it in to a summer vacation? Can you order from Tire Rack or are their prices higher up there as well?
When Quebec made snow tires mandatory a few years ago, the rush to buy across the border was so intense and long-lasting it created a snow tire shortage in Vermont and northern New York for months.
I havent seen a Neon in ages, where did they all go? Rubbished by the motoring press in OZ on release for poor fuel economy and dismal performance they never did seem popular but they have all disappeared in NZ at least in my district they have.
My wife had a 2000 neon, in black with an automatic. It had the white faced gauges as in the photos above. It was a good car. It was my wife’s car back in college and we kept it for about 8 years total. I remember it was quite peppy in the city but tended to pull high revs on the highway. Gas mileage was acceptable.
Overall it was a good car. We only had one unexpected problem, and that was a crack in the all plastic radiator, luckily about 1 mile from home. I had to replace brake pads and fluids, but nothing else of a major concern. Towards the end, the sunroof motor failed, but we fixed that by closing it manually and disconnecting the fuse!
We ended up selling at about 110K because just had kids and wanted something with a better crash rating, side airbags and traction control. A guy from work bought it from his kid. Sadly it didn’t last much longer for his kid, as the timing belt snapped on the highway somewhere. (Never did figure that out, as we had just installed a new belt a year or so earlier.)
Dave, it looks like you live next to my in-laws above where the General Hospital used to be in Calgary. The Neon always got a bad rap, but don’t they win Lemons more often than others?When I am above the 49th, I always see a different mix of cars. Part of the fun.
“One very odd quirk of this era of Neon is if you opted for power windows you’d only get them in the front. The rear windows would always be crank powered.”
an odd quirk that is back as the Ford Focus S sedan has power front windows and manual rear windows
Another odd one then. At least with power you can lock the kids out of fiddling with the windows
I have created a Photo Montage Compilation of the Dodge Neon Family Tree in which I also included the badged equipped Mitsubishi Models as well because without Mitsubishi, Chrysler Corporation may not be forcefully motivated to build its own home grown entry level small cars during the late 1970s plus some of these models were sold side by side during those eras as well. For added measure, I have even included the 2005 Dodge Caliber and 2013 Dodge Dart since both cars followed after the Neon. This particular photo montage compilation shows the 4 Door Models.
Now these were the Two Door Models but there was no 2G 2 Door Model for the Dodge Neon though.
The Neon seemed to be fairly popular for awhile, and I still see them around occasionally. In contrast, I almost never see a Caliber.
I got a first gen Neon as a rental once, and remember it as being a zippy, fun car to drive. Of course, I owned a Club Wagon at the time.
I always thought the Caliber Was a bit of a let down as a real Neon replacement
I think my auto tech (he’s far more than a mechanic) summed it up. He bought one for his daughter while she was in high school and for some time after. When I asked him about it, he said — “It’s a turd ….. and indestructible turd.”
These are still very prevalent here in Ohio, I traded my 2000 Dodge Neon off for my T&C not too long ago, actually….it was reliable but too small for what I needed it for.
These were the first cars Chrysler sold in the UK after the Horizon, Alpine etc (not really Chryslers). They were considered a bit substandard in terms of dynamics and interior quality and were really only competing with Hyundai, Kia and Proton.
Subsequently they got a poor reputation for reliability (seem to remember steering columns being a particular issue) – and the few that are still around can be picked up for about £600, even in perfect condition with low miles. Seems like the opposite of all those European cars which were considered decent here, but went to the US and were thought of as lemons.
They were badged as Chryslers here because Renault (!) owned the rights to the Dodge name in the UK at the time.
Nice looking car and personally, power windows in the rear would make more sense so you can roll them up while driving. If you want to get picky I would say that it was a bad idea for Chrysler to have the ends of the trunk seam end right there where it is quite obvious. Then again, perhaps that area is the least likely to experience water penetration.
I worked for a dealership right as the 2nd gen Neon dropped. We sold tons of them. Id always liked the R/T coupes from gen1 but once I realized this generation was sedan only, I lost all interest. That said, they ARE good cars. I think their reputation as being turds comes from the ‘perception is reality’ effect. Cheap cars are often neglected and abused…NOTHING will put up with that for long. And if youre coming into it with an attitude of “American cars are garbage’, OR if you bought a subcompact since it was your only option and don’t even like the thing, then any time it needs any maintenance of any kind your attitude will likely be ‘piece of shit, the damn thing just ran out of gas after I drove it 400 miles’ or some such. My uncle who drinks the Honda Toyota kool aid like its the damn antidote was all bragging about how all he has to do to his accord is fill it up with gas and drive it. Never had to spend a dime doing anything but changing the oil. But the cruise control doesn’t work, the alignment is off, the A/C is sketchy, 3 windows don’t roll down and the passenger seat slider is jammed. It doesn’t cost a dime to fix the issues that you IGNORE.
OH! And the most frustrating thing about G2 Neons is that they scrapped the coupe and yet brought out the SRT-4 on this bodystyle. I wonder wtf they were thinking putting such an awesome drivetrain in such an undeserving bodystyle. I owned a PT Cruiser GT which was the same basic thing just a different intake tuned for more bottom end torque and lacking the true-trac style front differential. The PT is a good 500 lbs heavier and with 1 wheel drive up front, they always get beat in a straight line by the SRT4. The G1 neon coupe is even lighter and Ive seen many SRT4 drivetrains dropped into those. Would love to take one for a ride, since my PT was a total rocket ship. Hit 3K RPM when the turbo is starting to spool, drop a gear and punch it….that car went BOOM! Scared a LOT of friends and dates with that thing!
I always thought the first generation 4-door was better looking than the 2-door. IMO, they look like they were obviously designed as a sedan from the ground up and the coupe body was just an afterthought, although one that didn’t look too bad.
The SRT-4 hardware was awesome, but I could never get into the look. Maybe that was the right move, because it certainly stood out and appealed to the people you’d hope a car like that appeals to, but I can’t see anybody over 25 or so wanting to own one. I was younger than that when they came out and would’ve felt a little silly driving one even then. I’ve got the same beef with pretty much all cars like this, and long for the days when you could option out a car to an absurdly specific degree, so it’s not just the poor Neon I’m hating on.
The PT Cruiser’s GT treatment, on the other hand, was exactly what I wish more of them were like!
I owned a Honda that was like that, I asked the guy what he had to do it while he owned it. Oh I haven’t to do anything to it he says, it’s a good car. Yeah he just ignored all the worn out suspension, leaky exhaust and oil leaks that the car had. But as far as the Neon goes, they are actually really good cars, the early first gen cars had head gasket issues but by the time these came out they had that all sorted out. They are a much better car than a comparable Cavalier too I think. I sort of have one now, mine is the SRT4 performance version. It’s a really fun car actually.
Stephen, did you lower your car a bit? That definitely helps out the ‘ass-in-the-air’ look of these cars. The PT cruiser is notorious for that as well. I installed an Eibach Pro-Plus kit which dumps 1 1/4 front and 2 1/2 rear if I remember right, stiffer spring rate, upgraded front swaybar and adds a rear swaybar. Looked dynamite and handled like a GTI at that point.
Sorry for the threadjack, but the Neon and PT are heavily related…so I don’t feel TOO bad about it!
Having driven both the first gen coupe and the second gen sedan the use of framed window glass alone made the latter a much higher quality car in my mind.
Quite a few of these on the road north of Chicago. They still look contemporary.
Most are in great shape too. But some are yielding to the salt, I have a feeling it won’t be long until they are gone. It seems many are the S?? version with the spoiler and more performance. Perhaps these are more loved and taken care of.
Nice Neon story DS, is there ANYTHING that is cheaper in Canada than in the US? I think even maple syrup and igloos cost more here.
I think it’s a combination of:
– Enthusiastic taxation at multiple levels
– Geography, Canada is basically a country 60 miles wide and 2500 miles long with an economy the size of California
– Opportunity, we complain a lot but ultimately accept it
Some of my sportbike buddies go through multiple sets of tires a year, so they order 20 tires online delivered to a warehouse in Buffalo, then go get them with a truck. Totally worth it even after paying the duty.
Nice! I’ve always liked Neons a lot and think their legacy has been unfairly shit on. History seems to have deemed them just another turd in a long line of American compact turds while completely forgetting that they were a real standout in many ways. Yes, they were flawed, but what American small car was better than this? The Focus and Omni owed too much to Europe to be considered purebreds, the “good” US Escort can’t be counted for the same reason (but with Japanese roots), the K-car derivatives were never as coherent or fun to drive, and GM’s efforts were always much more flawed than this – unless we go back to the 60s, and those cars were at least a size bigger. This is it, this is the best we ever did – and it’s not too shabby, all things considered… head gaskets and build quality be damned.
I’m a bigger fan of the first generation than the second, but they’re probably just as good in most ways – they just got less competitive as time went on. I’ve driven one of each, but not thoroughly enough to make a good comparison. Both were excellent drivers from what I remember. DC obviously didn’t have too much love for the Neon, since they replaced it with a small SUV. Ugh, what a shame… it would’ve been so much more interesting to see them continue developing this platform. The Caliber might not be nearly as bad as it’s rep suggests, but that it was supposed to replace THIS is ridiculous.
These early 2nd gen models look so much better than the later ones that adopted the Dodge truck/crosshair-style grille, and this one in particular looks great in black. The Neon I’ve always had my eyes on is the first gen ACR, but if I saw this exact car for the right price, I’d scoop it up. It’s probably 95% as fun to drive as an ACR and much more livable for daily use. I’ve always heard the same thing regarding SOHC vs. DOHC, and I think dyno tests have shown that there really wasn’t much difference in output between them. I have to admit, I never knew they were sold as Chryslers anywhere in North America either. Canada is full of automotive surprises!
I had a white ’95 company car; with the grey bumpers. Didn’t know that designated the base model. The SCCA Neon guys at Sears Point said the SOHC and DOHC had the same output. Did the same lap times with the same driver. They thought it was to get a lower insurance rate, that the base engine was downrated. Kind of like the real HEMI back in the ’60s; 425hp. Yeah right. More like 550 to 600.
Other than a gas gauge that dropped from a quarter tank to empty in 5 miles; nothing broke in 20K miles.
Get a horse!!
Yes my SRT4 is lowered, it also has Eibach springs in it can’t remember how much drop it was. I do also have a heavily modified first gen coupe so I do have plenty of experience with both. This car, while it still has a cheap interior is still an improvement over the first gen car. I’m in Canada as well, and yes everything costs more here. I’ve actually taken advantage of that and have made a decent side income out of importing used boats and Seadoos here and selling them at Canadian prices.