sharp looking
has decent pick up and go
roomy for a small car

I've had problems with this car since the day I bought it.
First there was a vibration noise from under the hood at certain speeds. When I took the car in, the dealership said that I was driving much too fast and that I shouldent rev it past 3500rpm (can you belive it). Well I brought it in again and they reluctantly took a look at it. 2 clutches and three weeks later I got my car back. The dealership was in no apparent hurry or concern for a NEON owner with an unbalanced clutch. I took the car back 2 months later for another noise coming from the engine. The dealership had the car for a full week when I got a call to pick up my car because nothing was wrong with it. When I went to pick up the car, I flagged down a mechanic to listen to my engine to see if he could find something wrong. It took him about 30 seconds to tell me that I needed a new timing belt. (Is it dodge policy not to believe their customers when they say there is something wrong with their car?) As of today.... my neon has seen the service department for a total of 26 days, and yes, yet again, there is another vibration coming from the engine when im traveling at low speeds! I have had a terrible time with my dodge neon and the dodge dealership (did I mention that this is a 5 star dealer!) since I purchased my car. I wouldnt wish this car on anybody.

Dont buy a dodge NEON!!!!!!!!!
Go foreign and spend a few more bucks. (Honda maybe?)

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Nissan Sentra and 240sx. How does the NEON compare? Well, to tell you the truth it doesnt compare at all.

Comfortable ride. Very roomy for small car. Good gas mileage. Cheap price.

Weak a/c system. Sucks power. Road noise and engine noise.

I recommend this to a beginning driver. It is cheap and cheap on gas. It a safe car too. Don't expect too much because you won't get it here. Just the basics.

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Ford Focus. Focus is brand new so not really fair comparison.

-comfortable front seats
-roomy
-great power
-great handling and steering feel
-good clutch and shifter feel
-brakes are easy to modulate
-great gas milage (29ish/35ish)
-koni struts
-overall great fun to drive

-NOISY on the highway
-frameless windows leak air at highway speeds in cold weather
-rear visibility
-lack of options with the ACR package
-cheap looking interior

This is the car to get for people who want performance, but don't want to pay for it. I can't think of a car within $3,000 that can come close in all areas. Yes you can get a car that accelerates as fast for about the same (Ford Escort ZX2), but nothing can come close as far as handeling not to mention as well as acceleration. Anyways, I dont use the car for what it's meant for. Just for those of you that are curious the ACR package is the "American Competition Racing" package. It comes with alloy wheels, leather wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, a higher (it runs through the gears faster) final drive ratio for acceleration, and the biggie... Koni adjustable struts among a few other little things. A neon ACR package was designed for autocrossing back when racing Neons was popular. It does have good manners around town, but driving on the highway is taxing. The noise coming from the engine from about 65-85mph is something that wears on you as you drive. It actually get's quieter at about 85mph. I don't know the top speed on the ACR, but I do know the governer was removed. I've heard it'll go in excess of 130... I myself haven't takent it over 110, but I can tell you it still was going strong at that point. The seats are quite comfortable... in fact more comfortable than anything else I have driven under $20,000. I have driven neons with the less padded seats and I didn't like them... but the ones in this car are great. The car has been pretty reliable so far. No major problems as of 25,000 miles. There was a time about 8 months ago when I started the car and the idle was so rough the car was shaking quite a bit. It seemed to cure itself on the way to the dealer to be serviced and they couldn't find anything wrong. They thought it might be carbon. Other than that, I happened to run out of freon over winter when I didnt use it at all and no leak was found. I'm not an avid AC user in the first place, so I'm kind of curous about that. Overall, get this car if you want inexpensive performance and dont do much highway driving, but if you're on the highway a lot, I'd steer away from the neon.

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-Pontiac Sunfire- more civil on the highway, but not nearly as fun to drive, gas milage isn't as good, and isnt as good of a value

VERY roomy for a small car, great sound system, very smooth ride, doesn't have a cheap feel 2 it, great price

It shakes a lot when its idling, no button 2 pop the trunk

I would recommend this car to anyone looking for an affordable mid-size car. I paid around 12,000 for mine and i got AC a great sound system and a great car. It's pretty quiet and very very roomy, even w/ three people in the backseat i still had plenty of room. Anyone w/ kids and is looking for an affordable car i would recomend this car.

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geo metro..the neon beats it by a mile

1998 Dodge Neon Highliner.
I have driven it for 2 1/2 years, and 11,000 miles so far. Bought it new.
Fun to drive. Comfortable interior. Lots of room.
Good performance, acceleration. Fuel economy not bad, but disappointing for a small 4 cyl.
Sliding sunroof works well; no windbuffeting; no water leaks.
Power windows (front only) work well.
Speed sensitive wipers work well.
Excellent heater!
Superior A/C performance (although unreliable compressor).
Mainly, fun to drive, even on long trips.

Automatic transmission failure at 10,000 miles! Dealer has overhauled twice on 2 different occasions. Still has intermittant shifting problems. Dealer can't seem to get it right.
Neutral safety switch oil seal leaks.
Both rear brake wheel cylinders leak.
Noisey on highway, engine and windnoise.
Trunk water leaks. Trunk lid will not stay up.
Front brakes squeal loudly cold and/or wet.
A/C compressor seizes after long periods of use.
Smell of coolant from engine, but doesn't seem to be leaking. Probably the beginnings of a head gasket leak.
Interior fogs up easily in high humidity conditions, and will not disappear unless A/C is turned on.

CHRYSLER NEON NOT RECOMMENDED!
An automatic transmission failure at 10,000 miles is inexcuseable!
The mechanical grief I have experienced with this new car is not worth its cheaper price!
I should have paid the extra money and bought an import… Toyota or Subaru.
Biggest overall problem is Daimler-Chrysler's poor quality control, especially the powertrain.
Disappointing, since the Japanese imports blow Chrysler out of the water in this regard!
Chrylser Canada refused help with the transmission… in writing!
Shame on you Daimler-Chrysler!

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I tested Corolla: very nice but very expensive by comparison.
I tested Cavalier, very nice but interior much smaller by comparison. Harsher ride, too.
I tested Subaru Brighton Wagon. This was by far the best choice, but way to expensive… about $5000 more!

1. Small cute looking
2. Good audio when not driving or at low speed
3. Nothing else

1. Terribly noisy above 60mph, from engine, transmission, wind, tire, road, etc. You have to shout to make yourself heard inside the car. Listening to music is virtually impossible at freeway speed unless you risk your ears. Before buying it, I read bad words about the 3 speed automatic transmission from car reviews. But I didn't expect it to be SO noisy!
2. Poorly assembled, all kinds of funny noises from dash board and other plastic materials.
3. Too much viberation, the antana viberates from side to side as much as half inch. Dealer says it's normal. Special viberation noise from the front, took me 4 visits to fix it.
4. Poor gas milage, 22 city / 28 freeway without A/C turned on.
5. Cheap materials, foul/dirt smell from A/C since day 1. 1 month after dealer fixed it, same thing again. I use this car for normal commute and never go to dirt road. Where the hell is the dirt smell from.
6. Too expensive maintenance cost. Front break was changed at 20k miles at $180. Dealer recommended maintenance costs $200-$300 every 5k miles. No replacement car offered under warrant repairs.
7. Poor front and rear view. Uncomfortable rear seats. My head touches the ceiling sitting on the rear seats.
8. Insufficient power, especially when you need it, for ex., freeway on ramp.
9. Manual rear windows

This is the first car I bought. I didn't know anything about car before this. Now it's the biggest mistake I made in my life - I paid so much(16500 before tax) for such a crap. Driving this car is not fun for me, but suffering. I even doubt if the car was new at the time dealer sold it to me. My insurance agent told me to buy a Japenese car, at least not Chrysler. With all my suffering, time, and money on this piece of crap, I now realize that he's ABSOLUTELY correct. TOO late.

SO PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, think twice before you buy a Dodge Neon, even if you don't have to pay that much as I did.

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Honda Civic, Toyota Corola, Chevy Prizm, Nissan Maxima. Any of these is much better than my neon.

Value. Power. Reliability. Roooooom.

Roof/Window construction, AC on with defroster

By far the best car I've owned. Beats the Mazda and Subaru for power, style, driver position and comfort, and for amenities at this price point. More power than any stock subcompact I've driven. Beats most imports off the line and then some, compares favorably with high end Integra. This thing is on rails, hadling-wise. Interior room is better than the larger Ford Contour, which was another good value in a 3-year-old car. Room in exceptional, and that's in comparison to my previous vehicle, a Chevy S-10 extended cab. As for the roof, skip the factory rack and go with Yakima - I can load three bikes and a kayak on this thing and ride without concern. Only complaints: the glossiness of the dashboard - which reflects in almost the entire windshield; and the fact that the defroster forces the a/c compressor to run (this can be modified in 10 minutes). Mileage is great. Drove the 2000 last week and prefer the phase 1 Neons - more room.

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Mazda 323, Subaru GL-5, better than both.

I have a 1999 Neon R/T that is way powerful with mods and is decked with rims,tint,big mouth body kit, touring wing, PIAA foglamps, meatball tailights, huge stereo system, dual exhaust, and much more!Neons are by far the fastest car in it's class. I blow away all kinds of cars (with a lot of mods on engine) that are double the cost and have huge engines in them. Even without mods this baby packs a wallop at the cost. My neon is pushing out 225hp (dyno proven) with only 1000 invested in the engine! Many exterior mods available also which is nice. I like this car a lot because if you deck them out with wings, body kits, rims, etc., and they look absolutely awsome! Engine is awsome for bolt on modifications and you can turn it into a real powerhouse.

The frameless windows (on the coupe) are kind of annoying at times like in the car wash because they leak a little. They also shake when to close the door and it looks like the glass is gonna shadder!

Overall a very good car and I haven't had any problems with it really, Except shorted tailight which was covered on warrenty. The best in its class and even passes up higher classes. I AM GETTING THE NEON SRT RIGHT WHEN IT COMES OUT!!! THIS THING LOOKS AWESOME!!!

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98 civic si Basically same as Neon, stock the neon has a slight edge on speed, can deck it our and it'll look just as good. But it would foolish to try to outhandle a Neon.

The motor, handling, visibility, reliability, low maintenance costs. Never have had a car that was this inexpensive to operate.

Noisy suspension.

I would absolutely recommend this car to anyone in the market for an economy car that is fun to drive. Make sure you get one that was made in the US though. All this car has needed was regular oil changes, tires, and gas. Did have to replace the rear defroster switch once, other than that I've had no problems. This has been the only compact I've had that could take my driving habits. Blown the GM junk, and broken the Fords as well. The neon is definitly the best car for the money.

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Ford and Gm compacts that can't measure up to the neon in any way....

Looks cute and very zippy for a 4cyl. Sound system not half bad and never had any problems with the automatic windows or doors.

What is with the service engine soon light? It comes off and on and the shops cannot figure it out.

Power steering goes out in the rain. Has been fixed by dealer 3 times while under warranty. What a joke.

Bad oil leak since 37,000 miles, barely over warranty. It is the oil sending unit.

Crap, the car is crap.

Do not buy htis car. Do not buy a Dodge. I got this car in mint new/used condition and fell apart 1,000 miles after warranty. JUNK!

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