Why Do You Like the Neon

esteinmaier · Post by **esteinmaier** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 6:03 pm

And I would throw things at you for it.

Jenni · Post by **Jenni** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 6:06 pm

nope. more likely a Ford Falcon or such...

Paul56 · Post by **Paul56** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 10:28 pm

Speaking of Consumer Reports...

I happen to have the September 2000 issue of Consumer Reports in which they tested the Dodge Neon.

Some excerpts from the test report:

"Highs: Excellent braking, secure handling."
"Lows: Ride, noise, transmission, acceleration."

"The Neon's ride is buckboard stiff, choppy, and nervous with road bumps and ruts provoking sharp kicks."

"Handling is capable, though not exceptional, with body roll greater than the stiff suspension would suggest."

"The Neon has a spacious interior, and the view of the road is very good."

"The Neon is too new to accurately predict reliability, but the previous generation did not hold up well."

"The Neon's 3-speed transmission hurts overall driveability, noise levels and fuel economy."

g_force58 · Post by **g_force58** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 12:55 am

I bought my first neon in june of 1999, a black Dodge Neon Sport mtx. I had always liked the Neon, the looks, the stance, but had never driven one. I was with my son on the dealer's lot looking for his first new car when I walked by the neon, gave a glance, and knew I had to test drive it. I drove it out of town and dropped the hammer..well...........it took about ten minutes for me to get the paperwork started. I drove it home about an hour later. I loved the way it revved, the way the seats fit my butt, the handling, and the look. Man that thing could put a smile on my face every time I drove it! The build quality was great, paint was awesome, and it had features the big cars had. The dohc engine was the strong suit as it had tons of power and torque for the class of car. Neons do have a heart and soul that I feel in tune with. As for my 2000 ES, they will have to pry the steering wheel out of my cold dead fingers, because most likely, it will out live me.

Midnight_Rider · Post by **Midnight_Rider** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 4:37 am

Paul56 wrote:Speaking of Consumer Reports...

I happen to have the September 2000 issue of Consumer Reports in which they tested the Dodge Neon.

Some excerpts from the test report:

"The Neon is too new to accurately predict reliability, but the previous generation did not hold up well."

Bull****. If owners followed suggested maintenance and didn't beat on the 1GNs, other than the headgasket issue, they were as reliable or even more reliable than most any car on the road at that time. I did have to replace the factory muffler relatively early (still not sure why it started to rust through) but my car's factory headgasket lasted over 100K miles. But I routinely got mileage in the high 30's to low 40's so big deal.

Paul56 wrote:"The Neon's 3-speed transmission hurts overall driveability, noise levels and fuel economy."

Yeah, thanks a lot DCX for not putting a 4-speed ATX in the 2GNs until it was too late to counteract this and similar reviews.

Consumer Reports has had an obvious bias against Mopars for years. If Chrysler Group introduced a car that ran on oxygen and had dollar bills coming out of the exhaust, they would find fault with it.

Swordfish2Cowboy · Post by **Swordfish2Cowboy** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 5:23 am

I've always wanted one ever since they came out in '94. When shopping for a new car, I was dead set on a BMW or a hybrid, but low and behold I remember my love for the old Neons. I wasn't really aware that a new generation had come out, and after checking out this forum and a few others I fell in love again. I think they look awesome. They're horribly easy to work on, and they have a large community of nuts to help you out if you get in a bind. My R/T is quick and gets amazing MPG. I've minor issues with it.
Performance: the fact that it has 4 doors, it's front wheel drive, the motor isn't in the middle.
Comfort: It's really only big enough to comfortably sit two people up front, and children in the back, it's really noisy on the highway, and some of the interior bits feel cheap.

But then I remember that one car can't be everything I want it to be. But I love it anyway, and I treat it right and it does the same for me. Plus it's sexy. There aren't many sexy cars out there.

UriahRR · Post by **UriahRR** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 9:51 am

I killed my 1998 Honda Civic EX in 13 days. Rolled it going 90.
I killed my 1996 Buick Century Custom in 5 months. Killed auto trans doing burnouts.
I killed my 1996 Saturn SC2 in 6 months. Blew apart the motor street racing.

... Somwhere in that period of cars I got my license suspended for excessive speeding as well...

So, looking for a fresh start, I picked up the old green Neon from a friend. I saw the words Dodge and I knew I would kill it in no time. Three years later, here we still are. Unbelievably, man and Neon are still united, now I'm a Mopar fan because of the resiliency of this car. I love my Neon because I beat the shit out of it for three years and it's still here.

heydockyle · Post by **heydockyle** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 11:08 am

I'm almost positive my 1gn has all stock suspension (Besides one strut) and stock bushings in it at 134k.

Both 2gn's needed lca bushings and Tie rod ends wayyyyy before 100k...

Toast · Post by **Toast** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 12:16 pm

First off I'm a Mopar guy, I've owned other brands but I try to give Mopar first dibs whenever I decide to buy. I noticed this Neon R/T while on one of my road trips. I decided to go back and take it for a test ride. I loved it the first time I drove it. It reminded me of driving a go-kart. The price was right and it was too much fun to pass on, so I bought it. Honestly to this day, one of the best purchases I made, fun-factor wise.

C1DoG · Post by **C1DoG** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 2:49 pm

Toast wrote:First off I'm a Mopar guy, I've owned other brands but I try to give Mopar first dibs whenever I decide to buy. I noticed this Neon R/T while on one of my road trips. I decided to go back and take it for a test ride. I loved it the first time I drove it. It reminded me of driving a go-kart. The price was right and it was too much fun to pass on, so I bought it. Honestly to this day, one of the best purchases I made, fun-factor wise.

Pretty much sums it up for me, except it was an SXT.

zhneon · Post by **zhneon** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 7:21 pm

I was fifteen and chose the blue car...

I've had some really stupid repairs on this car, and I still love it. Don't ask me why

non-magnum · Post by **non-magnum** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 7:59 pm

A friend of mine like neons and the first one i saw was that 1st gen blue with white stripes was in 99 i believe

Felt in love since then when second gen came out few years later got it, before that i was diggin talons tsi then a friend of mine gave me a neon disease ;P I believed in neons since the 1gen --> 2gn neons --> srt-4's

Plus on top of all that a lot of mods for neon..

DetergentCandy · Post by **DetergentCandy** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 2:40 am

Parents got into a car accident around 2004.
Their insurance rental was a red 03 atx.
I remember loving it because it was the first "new" car i'd ever driven.
Parents have always owned older cars. Father always had classics. Mother's van was a 95. And my truck was a 75. So an 03 was pretty fancy, for me.

Went through two cars after that, and then picked up my own Neon at the beginning of 2006.
Charcoal 05 atx. Loved the poop out of it, except i'd always wanted a manual - the car was too good of deal to pass up.
It stayed bone stock through 2008...when I sold it to pay off debts, and buy a beat up Civic hatch. x.x

So when I got funds together for another vehicle, I knew exactly what I wanted. And hopefully i'll be replacing it with an SRT-4 soon.

r/tguy02 · Post by **r/tguy02** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 10:51 am

sure i like the neon because i think it looks nice, its easy to work on, and parts are realatively cheap. But the biggest selling point to me and the fact i keep them around is the community behind the neon and the people i've met because of owning one.

Hudson_Neon · Post by **Hudson_Neon** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 11:19 am

well in 2005 i was a senior in high school and driving a 1993 Plymouth Duster with a 3.0L and 5 speed (still have it, still fast as hell). i wanted a new car and a guy i worked with had an SRT so i started looking at them. i found out that an SRT would be hell on my insurance at 17 years old, so in Oct. 2005 i found my 04 SXT for $7000. i couldn't pass on that deal. i know it sounds expensive now, but if you think about it, it was only 1 year old and i got it for 1/2 price of a new one. i started dumping money into it shortly after that and paying it off at the same time. well the car has been fully paid off now for a couple years and all money owed for mods is paid off and it's time to take out another loan to go turbo.

also i was told another reason that i own a neon when i was at Carlisle one year. it's something along the lines of why guys with huge, jacked trucks are compensating for something

UriahRR · Post by **UriahRR** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:23 pm

r/tguy02 wrote:the biggest selling point to me and the fact i keep them around is the community behind the neon and the people i've met because of owning one.

Aww shucks, Gilmore, you dun made me red all over.

All... over...

Neon:) · Post by **Neon:)** » Sat Jan 15, 2011 12:16 am

I love my neon, i just never realized it intill i had bought a POS HONDA. With a neon, life is simple and parts are affordable. with a honda, life is not simple, everyone wants to steal a honda and parts for that car are expensive. And that is why I LOVE MY NEON.

Lufkom · Post by **Lufkom** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 8:18 am

I love the neon because you can whatever your heart contents with it: drag, rally, autox, road racing. I love the simplicity of the car. I love the styling of it. It's an underdog with a lot of potential. And it's a mopar

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 5:59 pm

because my fanboi toyota-loving boss makes fun of them as well as my coworkers '06 grand cherokee.

Post by **Canada** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 7:55 pm

Hudson_Neon wrote:
also i was told another reason that i own a neon when i was at Carlisle one year. it's something along the lines of why guys with huge, jacked trucks are compensating for something

Yes EJ, all of us that were there that year know about your extra large penis, as well as the fact that you are loud during coitus.

ltr450r · Post by **ltr450r** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 8:05 pm

I bought my 03 sxt for gas mileage when I went to school 8 hrs away.. Driving my truck was out of the picture. at first i was just going to drive it but that didn't last long. now i'm hooked to it especially after just doing a MTX swap..

2003se559 · Post by **2003se559** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 2:42 pm

I bought my neon after messing up my transmission on my ford probe. There is a few neons in town and none where modded, and a shit load of hondas and acuras so i didnt wanted to be another one of them. My neighbor has an 05 sxt, and i tought it was a pretty cool car so i bought one and ever since than loved it!

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 5:40 pm

I got my first neon as a hand-down from my sister. When I found out I could kill my friend's 1.9l escort, I started to like it.

Then things just kind of fell into place.

Except for that time I got side-tracked by a certain Audi.

Donkeypuncher · Post by **Donkeypuncher** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 5:42 pm

I like the neon because it's awesome.

sunburnedaz · Post by **sunburnedaz** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 5:57 pm

Why I got it. I needed a cage with AC and this one was 500 bucks.

Why I like it, someone above me said it was like driving a go kart and they are right. It is fun to drive around town.

Why I still like it, its easy to work on. Bolts are in simple obvious places unlike that ***king Honda I worked on before where you had to built like a 95 lbs Japanise man to reach some bolts.

H3LL_RaYzA · Post by **H3LL_RaYzA** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:15 am

I got a neon because It was too easy to build hondas. If I used the budget for my neons, on a honda I would probably have a 9 sec. street car. But then I would have to worry about everybody and their mother stealing my honda. It's not a good feeling coming outside and seeing broken glass where your car was parked the night before. The honda community is filled with haters and schemers. So I quickly sold my accord and got my 2 neons with a goal in mind. Its gonna take me while to get my build into the 10 sec. class without help from a shop. But when i'm done i know it will be worth it. Its not easy building any 10 sec. fwd street car. Especially a car that's not made to go that fast. The main reason I wanted the neon is the srt-4s block is cast iron. That means no expensive re-sleeving and it has low compression. To sum up the reason I bought a neon:

1:Challenge to build
2:Durable performance engine
3:Friendly supportive community

Oh and when people get their ass beat on the road they never know what to say to people.

Donkeypuncher · Post by **Donkeypuncher** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 1:03 am

After I saw what the 1g could do in SCCA races I knew I would have to get one eventually. In 1997 the SCCA actually had to make a new rule to even the playing field for the other competitors because the ACR was winning so much.

They allowed other manufacturers to add optional aftermarket performance packages to their cars so they could be used in SCCA races without breaking the rules.

The entire article is here: http://www.moparmagazine.com/2010/nov-d ... ation.html

My favorite quote from the article--

From Mopar Magazine:

During its run in SCCA Showroom Stock and Solo and Pro Solo competition, Neon was a force to be reckoned with garnering more than 1,000 podium finishes and 25 National championships in addition to raising more than $1 million for children’s charities. Not a bad legacy for a little subcompact Neon that said “Hi” to the public and “Bye” to  the competition.

Midnight_Rider · Post by **Midnight_Rider** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 4:51 am

That is so great!

Post by **occasional demons** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 7:33 am

Kinda reminds me of early 1970's NASCAR. No need to make the other manufacturers step up to the plate.

And I wonder what the dominant engine design is in Top Fuel? Not bad for an engine that was never designed for "straight' line racing.

Donkeypuncher · Post by **Donkeypuncher** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 6:24 pm

That's the history of haters with mopar, if you can't beat 'em, cheat 'em.

2GN.ORG

Why Do You Like the Neon

why do i like my neon?