1997 Plymouth Neon Highline Coupe review from North America

The car had a cracked piston in the front right caliper and an intermittently soft brake pedal when purchased. I replaced both front calipers, all four rotors and all brake pads then power bled the system. To this day the brake pedal will sometimes for no apparent reason go all the way to the floor before applying pressure to the system. Once it begins to do this the only cure is to stomp the pedal hard enough to trigger the ABS and then all is magically back to normal with a nice firm pedal again. I replaced the rear struts at about 60K when one of the strut tower mounts broke loose from the body. I attribute this to my very aggressive driving style on my over 100 mile a day journey on very poor roads. I'm not one to slow to a halt for every pothole I see so I'm actually very surprised that given the seemingly "cheap" nature of construction on this car that I haven't actually torn it up more. Other than "wearing" items such as tires and now after about 50K brakes again nothing on this car has really failed me. I replaced the spark plugs when I bought it and am due again now and I change the oil every 4K miles or so. I re-charged the air cond. this summer. Other than that all it costs me to own/drive is gas which surprises even me since I would consider myself almost abusive in the way I treat this car.

I'm very happy with the power this car has. It accelerates quickly and smoothly and has a nice broad power band.

The car handles exceptionally well even on it's now worn suspenion. Overall it's a very sporty or racey feeling and driving little car.

The four wheel disc brakes are excellent (when working properly) and combined with the motor brake provided when downshifting the car stops extremely well.

However the car does have a "cheap" feel to it in that there is plenty of wind noise and whistles from the doors and sunroof. The doors, hood and trunk lid all sound like your going to break them when they close, but that is one of the common characteristics of an "economy" or throw away car. They just don't have that solid sound or feel that you'll get from a full size car or even a good Ford Escort.

Also the interior is very cheesy or cheap and not very comfortable on very long trips, but the guages and controls are nicely placed and easy to read/reach.

Being a Japanese (Mitsubishi) engine it is typically reliable and consistent. I would not have bought it if it were an American made 4 cyl. but it is one of the poorest on gas of any 4 cyl I've owned with about 25 mpg on the highway with the air on and driving it hard. Most V6's will give you at least that many mpg's. Also the manual trans. was definitely the right choice to make as it is a simple gear box that generally does not wear and will not fail unless highly abused. The only wearing part is the clutch which is much less expensive to repair than a Mopar auto. trans. which are notorious for being junk.

Another shortcoming is the very low resale value they have which is actually why I purchased mine used. This fairly loaded version I have stickered at just over $16,000.00 when new and I was able to purchase it just about four years later with less than average miles for $4,000.00 "out the door". They're also more expensive to insure than most economy cars.

I would avoid the SOHC models and those with the auto trans; and would also avoid a used one with multiple (especially short term) owners.