1998 Plymouth Neon Expresso DOHC from North America

Summary:

I will never own another one of these!

Faults:

Head gasket went out a month after I bought it.

Then I had a real crisis, when I made left turns the car suddenly died and the fuel pump fuse would pop. Turned out (after many days tacking wiring) that some of my wiring harness had melted. I fixed all areas with loads of black tape. never had that problem again.

2 years later. Water pump seized then shattered ripping timing belt.

General Comments:

I have the automatic version of this car and it couldn't be more dull to drive.

It's a really good daily driver, when the a/c is fresh, but just plain.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 18th December, 2006

25th May 2007, 16:21

Your review is more emotional than facts, you have had two problems or three, a wiring problem that cost you nothing but electric tape, a water pump after "2 years" which is nothing for a crappy old car, I've spent more on crappy cars!

Like $2000 to buy and $4000 in parts to make them run, now that's a messed up situation, and both times the car was a Honda. Just because you have some minor problems with the car, doesn't make it 3/10.

1998 Plymouth Neon from North America

Summary:

If Chrysler had tried a little harder, this could have been a great little car

Faults:

Head Gasket blew at 75,000 ks.

Ball Joints worn.

Brakes not properly installed at factory.

Horn replaced.

Air conditioner EV-AP unit failed.

Air conditioner Compressor failed.

Spark plugs came loose.

Stainless steel exhaust system rusted out.

Burning and smoking oil.

General Comments:

Chrysler needed to seriously look at poor engine design and problems that this car had.

I found the service and response from Chrysler strongly lacking. Everything was a hassle to get them to fix. Even my Warranty was lost in the system twice.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 18th October, 2006

1998 Plymouth Neon Expresso 2.0 DOHC from North America

Summary:

Compact performance on the cheap... but don't expect perfection

Faults:

Needed new muffler, A/C Condenser and Sunroof parts when I bought it.

Cruise control never worked while I had the car.

Automatic Transmission had (and still has) a 'bump' when shifting from 1st to 2nd, really annoying..

EGR Valve got sticky at 110,000km and was replaced.

Trunk was always wet and smelt funky... turned out to be leaky tail light foam pads, I pulled htem off, silicon-ed both sides of the foam and put it back on, has been bone dry ever since. Took about 2 bottles of febreeze auto to get rid of the nasty smell.

Window glass is 'scratching' badly, seems to happen on all neons with power windows... 110,000km I started to notice it.. it was probably where when I bought the car though.

Brakes squeal constantly... started around 120,000km or so.

Blew front driver side speaker... ended up replacing them all with after market stuff.

Key no longer works in trunk. Seems to be stuck.. as of about 130,000km.

Driver side wiper has corroded horribly...

Steering wheel started 'shimmying' as of about 140,000km. Had to have 2 control arm bushing replaced... they had deteriorated horribly.

Ticking noises in upper end of engine... sounds like lifters or something, I'm told all neon's do this after a while...

Some clunk has started occurring in the front suspension since the bushing were replaced. Seems to happen a lot with any bumpy road.

Car overheats when A/C is on, and more than 1 person is sitting in the car. (only fairly hot days.)

Fog light bolts are 'stupid'. They're headless bolts that have to be cut off when they rust... the battery hold down has a similar bolt, that also has to be cut off when it seizes.

Plastic driver side kick panel managed to cut through some of the wires that go to the back...

Around 130,000km.

Air Bag light is on as of 140,000km...

Outer tie rod end is now loose as of 168,000km, should be replaced before it fails.

Dash 'cracked' around 165,000km.. possibly 170,000km.. somewhere in there.. I just noticed it today.

Transmission coolant hoses, are all cracking and need to be replaced... not touching them this month :/

Starting to see oil on the valve cover, and a bit in my parking spot... I suspect its burning a bit too.. as I have to add about a liter between oil changes.

Rust has appeared on the roof... specifically where the metal is cut for the sunroof...

Rust has also appeared on the lip of the hood... the hood also doesn't seem to fit properly anymore.. seems to have been bent up either by wind, or thieves, or something. *shrug*

Some mild fogging and a small bubble on the hood too. Pretty good for 8 years I guess... considering some of the purple and white neons I've seen driving around with no paint ;) I don't feel too bad about it.

General Comments:

Next time, I think I'll buy a car that has more room under the hood.. this one doesn't leave a lot of room to even get any tools in there let alone my arms/hands.

The interior is a little cheap... I find the seats to be a bit uncomfortable for long trips, but I'm a pretty big guy.

The switch pods for the power windows dig into my legs, as does the corner of the center part where the stereo is... but I didn't buy this car for its comfort...

The frame-less windows were sexy when I first saw them.. but now I realize that they allow thieves to get into the car with almost no effort. They also need to be adjusted to reduce cabin noise, as they often get out of alignment/etc.

The car is fairly fast... I can make the tires chip from a standstill just by stomping on the gas... have to be very light on the gas in snow, from a stand still.

Cheap? well.. it should have been. I paid way too much for this car.

Over the 2 years I've had it, this car hasn't been that bad to me... a lot of the problems I've had, as you've read are minor, nit-picky things... It only really stranded me once when it overheated in traffic on a really hot day... it was towed away and the garage couldn't find anything wrong with it. This problem is still unresolved, I've had the cooling system flushed, refilled, checked, etc.. still happens on really hot days. I'm going to replace the rad soon.. I suspect its just clogged or something... it is 8 years old after all. Air conditioning is still ice cold 2 years after replacing the condensor, so that's good.

Hope to at least get 300,000 km out of this car... but it's a gamble considering how hard I drive it.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 1st May, 2006

9th Dec 2010, 11:10

Just my 2 cents on the Neon. My father, who is a notoriously bad car owner owned one for two years and did nothing but brakes, tires and oil changes.

It finally gave up at around 43xxxx kms because of a cooling system failure having overheated. That being said, Neons are much tougher than most people will give them credit for.

11th Dec 2010, 10:47

Yes, they are, and allowing ANY car to overheat destroys the engine... FOREVER. I see so many cars that careless owners have continued to drive after the heat gauge read "hot" and destroyed the engine. Modern cars CANNOT tolerate overheating. My nephew ran his VW Rabbit until it overheated, and the entire engine required replacement. The problem was a loose clamp that allowed the coolant to leak out. The clamp would have cost $2 and taken 2 minutes to install.

A friend ran his just-out-of-warranty Japanese sports car until it got so hot the engine seized. The cost? $7000+. The problem was a pin-hole in the coolant recovery line. The piece of tubing would have cost less than a dollar, and taken about 10 seconds to put on.

11th Dec 2010, 18:24

"Yes, they are, and allowing ANY car to overheat destroys the engine... FOREVER."

That's not always true. I ran my old '76 Nova 6 cylinder one night until it stopped running from overheating, as I was just trying to get somewhere, as I was out in the middle of nowhere. It sounded like a diesel engine sputtering until it died. I walked to get help, thinking I probably seized the engine. I came back after about an hour, poured some anti-freeze into the radiator, and it started right up like nothing happened, and drove fine.