1997 Dodge Neon Base from North America - Comments

A week after I bought this car from the dealership, it began to leak coolant at 60,000 km's. The mechanic said it was the O-ring. Replaced O-ring, problem was still there. Turns out it was the "head gasket", a well known problem with these cars. Got head gasket fixed. at 80,000 km's brakes began to squeak at complete stop. Problem seems to never go away, yet another trait for these cars. At 85,000 km's I began to have electrical issues when I opened the drivers door, dome light fails to come on. Yet another regular neon occurance. Car ran flawlessly up until 135,000km's. Then all hell broke loose. Spark plugs are accumulating oil on the ends and no one seems to know why. Engine light is permantently on, covered with black tape. Car doesn't overheat, but definitely has lost its power. Tires are always out of alignment. Water is always accumulating on the rear floors. All in all, a complete nightmare. Oh, and the paint flakes off like nail polish. And the transmission squeaks and slips. Oh did I mention the speakers don't work. And the headlight casing is as yellow as the sun. I could go on for days, but whats the point?

The worst car ever conceived. Looked like a good deal at the time. Being a student, I wanted something that was good on gas and stylish enough to tour around in. What a mistake. The amount of money I could put into this car could be enough for a down payment on a house, but I'd rather just drive this pos the way it is and hope that it explodes. I have nothing positive to say about this car other than it is roomy enough for a homeless person to live in.

Roomy enough to live in?? Are you a midget? I am 6foot two and I hate all these new little car they make nowdays!

You can buy a decent Honda for the same amount as a Dodge Neon, the values are way different. As soon as you leave the lot with any Chrysler product, the value crashes through the floor and the banks are laughing like mad.

However such as the new Magnum and Charger may change things at least for certain cars. The Neon however is known to be trash, leaking head gaskets poor quality materials so the value on those are pretty low.. one exception might be the turbo model offered in the last few years. I think it produces like 230hp, and it most likely will hold its value because of the performance offered.

The Magnum and the Charger will still drop in value as well.

Even the best selling Mustang is being severely discounted around here, something that wouldn't happen if a vehicle held its value.

"Engine light is permantently on, covered with black tape."

That's one interesting approach to vehicle maintenance.

To the poster above: I think the turbocharged SRT-4 engine is designed and built by Mitsubishi.

The Mustang loses value through rising gas price and sheer numbers sold. Charger and 300 seem to hold price very well which is sort of surprising. But this being a early Neon it will have it's shares of problems. In 2001 or 2003 they were redesigned and were much much better.

The concept of "vehicle value" was invented by car salesmen and finance officers to make stupid people think they were being smart for writing a $500 check every month. A vehicle has value as long as it moves under its own power and gets you where you need to go. If you are making a car payment to achieve that objective, then that is a concept known as "over-valued."

No, that is illogical. Few people can write a check for something even as cheap as a Neon was (say $15,000) so have to finance.

So in this day and age value is defined as resale value plus how costly it is to run in the meantime. American cars with very few exceptions plummet in value the second you drive them off the lot (as opposed to Hondas or Toyotas) and so therefore value is defined as the cost of ownership, something which is ultimately very high.