Other than the known blow-by,(mild) nothing! "Got catch cans!"
The seats are comfortable, hold you in place.
Interior? Love the seats, shifter, boost gauge, working tempature gauge, the white faced gauges with silver trim is a nice touch. Over all 10 out of 10. My interior does not rattle.
Eng noise is no problem. Never over bearing. I did add the Mopar blow-off valve. Since the blow-off valve is pretty much next to the fire wall, it will create more noise, but not enough to be annoying.
This car demands respect at every stop light and gets it! No, I do not race on the streets. Yes I will get on the throttle every now and again... and again, and again, and again!!!.
The cars handling may not be the greatest, but is well more than I myslef will ever need to use.
Dodge got it right this time. Low cost + Big horse power = Lots-o-fun!
Insurance is a bit expensive even for being married, multiple car discount & Good driver rates.
Seriously if you want a car with fun in mind this is your car.
The 7 year or 70,000 mile warranty on a car like this made my mind up pretty quick for me.
I am 6'-2" tall. This is one of the few cars that I did not feel trapped in from the moment I shut the door!
The car does not seem to run out of ponies till mid-to-top of 4th gear.
If your going for 5th with your foot on the floor on a another wide open throttle shift you better be on a drag strip.. or looking for a ticket, because you are already way way way over the speed limit!
Low cost + big horsepower really = lots of repairs on a poorly made car. You get what you pay for... There has to be some major corner cutting to release a car that performs this well for around $20K. I'd sacrifice a little off the line acceleration and handling and go for the proven WRX (which has AWD to boot)! The 2006 even has the 2.5 boxer which will eliminate a lot of the turbo lag. Keep us posted. I'd love to hear how your SRT is doing after you drive it awhile...
I've put close to 30 k on my srt-4 and I drive it HARD! I love this car and you can't beat the performance for the money. Never had one repair done (never needed one) and the car stands almost stock with the exception of the exhaust and an up-graded BOV. This car was built much like most engines built with turbos... or in other words it is solid. Not to bash the WRX because everyone knows how killer of a car it is. Too bad you have to dump a lot more money into that car though to put it at over 300 hp and even to get it as fast as a stock SRT-4.
The WRX wasn't really intended to be an off the line street racer. It is a rally car and is proven as a winner. The quality of the WRX surpasses the SRT-4 by a long shot and it is worth the extra money (a lot of which is because of the AWD system). I wouldn't ever buy a car that I can just afford. You really do get what you pay for. The Neon line is known for cutting corners and sloppy design... I wouldn't expect that this car is any different. If you want a good performance car for $20,000 a used WRX or even a used Mustang GT is a better choice. The major advantage of the WRX, however, is the year round ability in the winter climates. If you are stretching to afford the SRT-4 then you obviously can't swing a winter car and these cars are terrible in the snow from what I've read...
I waste srt-4 in my stock 94 mustang.
"I waste stock SRT-4 in my 94 mustang"
Well when you learn grammar you come see us and we talk like big big people OK?
That was a childish stab at a fast, good looking and seemingly well desgined car. I don't know about the longevity of the SRT-4, they just haven't been around long enough yet. But right now, I don't think you can get a better deal for performance. I don't know of any other turbo production car that can get to 300whp for only about $1000 of aftermarket modifications. That is insanely cheap for that kind of power, and the block and internals have been proven time and time again by drag racers to withstand 500whp consistently, before you need to upgrade to heavy-duty forged internals. They have massive potential, and although they aren't the fastest thing on the road, chances are your mustang isn't, either. It doesn't take much extra money to put a "stock" SRT-4 at a level that would destroy your stang, and a lot of other cars. But like I said, there is always something out there that's faster than you. Let these guys enjoy their SRTs. If they all start imploding at 60K miles, well then I guess we know that something went wrong in the design process lol.
I agree. It figures that a mustang driver would come here to start trash-talking a four banger, even though he probably just lost to one and needed to make his manhood feel better again.
Back to the point, I don't really think its right to compare the SRT-4 to a Subaru WRX just because they are both turbocharged... they are two TOTALLY different classes of cars. That's like comparing apples to grapefruit. Yeah, the WRX is probably more reliable in bad weather thanks to the AWD, but it's in a completely different price class... speaking of which, I don't think it's necessary to dive in to how much money people can afford to spend. That's their business, not yours. The fact of the matter is that the SRT-4 is a pretty fast car, and doesn't cost all that much for what you get. $22K is comparable to the Acura RSX-S, Honda Civic Si, Mitsubishi Eclipse GT, and other similar "reliable" brand cars in its class. It's not like they fall into the same price bracket as a Kia, so what's the problem?
A regular neon? Yeah, I've driven two and they aren't all that great. But the SRT-4? I don't think Dodge would place their coveted performance badge on a poorly designed and manufactured piece of junk. Don't forget that there are several other $30K+ cars that wear that same SRT badge. It would make DaimlerChrysler look pretty silly if one of their SRT vehicles fell apart after a year of use. I don't think anyone should shoot the SRT-4 down until theres a reason to, even if you've had poor past experiences with regular neons...clearly the SRT-4 isn't a "regular" neon.
I'm going to agree with one of the previous comments about the WRX and the SRT-4 not being in the same class... for starters.. AWD... and a huge difference in price! If you wanna compare your WRX to something, try comparing it to a Lancer Evo. Both cars are nice, but I would rather have the Evo.
If you compare the SRT-4 to anything else within 15-25 grand, it will outperform everything. If I took the difference in price between the SRT-4 and a WRX STi and put the difference on the SRT-4 in performance parts, it would spank the STi and send it home crying back to mommy.
As for the comment about figuring a Mustang driver would talk bad about a 4 banger.. I sold my 89 Mustang GT with a good deal of mods done to it, that was running high 13's on good days, and the SRT-4's will give it a run for its money and sometimes win.
I think the SRT-4 is an awesome idea that Dodge came out with. Although we can't tell much about reliability yet, I guess only time will tell.
Yeah bull about spanking an STi with an SRT-4, if you are talking about a straight line, yeah, probably, so what. Because you know it's funny, I don't see any SRT-4's winning WRC or ProSolo. They don't win anything, but burning the rubber off of a cheap set of tires and not doing much better than that. If you want a real car for 15-20k, buy a MR2 Spyder for 13k and put a 4k Hass Auto Turbo on it and run in the 12s... AND its convertible.
"If you want a real car for 15-20k, buy a MR2 Spyder for 13k and put a 4k Hass Auto Turbo on it and run in the 12s... AND its convertible."
That's silly, just buy an Omni GLH for 2k-3k, then replace everything in it for 5k, and have a happy little sleeper for 8 grand! But that's just crazy talk. Comparing the STi and the SRT4 is apples to oranges. The SRT4 is a one-trick pony (but it's VERY good at that one trick); it goes very fast in a straight line. The STi is more rounded, and does very well in a rally style race. Both cars have their individual strengths and weaknesses, and it's a matter of personal preference which ones you want to overlook for each car.
The point is, the STi won't do as well on the strip because its AWD system adds weight. Conversely, the SRT4 won't do as well in a rally because it's got a ridiculously light rear end. And it's unfair to say that the SRT4 hasn't won any rally races when the WRX has because the WRX YOU drive and the WRX the RACERS drive are about as similar as my Aunt's Intrepid and the ones NASCAR races.
So I mean really, if you're comparing apples to oranges, who the heck cares how many bananas you have?
Well, throw quality and reliability into the equation and the STI wins hands down.
WTF are you smoking? Were you just not listning? The SRT-4 is not going to compete with with a WRX because its not a rally racer! It is essentially a drag racer. Hey I've got one: the WRX is crappy because it can't tow my boat! Spend a little extra money and get a Dakota or a Chev S10!
When did the having an opposable thumb pre-requisite for getting on the Internet get trashed? Dork.
"WTF are you smoking? Were you just not listning? The SRT-4 is not going to compete with with a WRX because its not a rally racer!"
Oh, I dunno... I think the SRT-4 gives the WRX a run for its money.
Um, stock for stock, in a straight line the SRT will take a regular WRX. I know I had one. wrx's are nicer, but it costs about $5 or 6 thou extra. I refer the subie, bcuz it's a nicer car, but the srt does what it was made to do...I'm actually thinkin about buyin one.
Neons are notorious for horrible reliability so I would check model year to see if yours would spend less time in the shop than on the road.
STIs, WRXs, Imprezas are very very reliable.
You all remember this is a dodge neon we're talkin about right?