1995 Dodge Neon 4dr Sedan (highline) 2.0L, 16v

Summary:

If you like junk, this is your car!

Faults:

Since I have owned this car I have replaced:

2 radiators.

3 radios (wiring fries them out)

On my 5th set of brake pads, about to get 6th.

Rotors replaced 2 times.

Wiring issues with the battery (fusable link caught fire)

Goes through batteries like crazy.

5 starters.

3 Cam sensor seals.

Parking brake doesn't work yet again (3rd time)

Gas gauge stopped working at about 30,000 miles (I didn't replace because the gauge is attached to fuel pump, part is about $400 when it could be $14 if they had designed it better!)

Always leaking oil.

No matter how well you maintain the brakes, they squeak.

Windows are loud and leak water.

Paint peeling off front bumper.

Steering pump squeals in cold or making sharp turns.

Will not stay aligned.

Headlights are not bright enough no matter what I do to them.

Overhead light will not turn off, and sometimes gets so hot it explodes.

General Comments:

The heat works well.

It's fast.

Otherwise it's a piece of junk.

How I ever bought this, is beyond me. I must have had a serious lapse of judgment. I am a car nut, love to work on them, I know what I am doing, and this car drives me crazy. I'd sold it long ago if I could have. Nobody wanted it. I wonder why.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 29th May, 2003

9th Dec 2003, 05:20

Yeah I got a 95 Neon too. With the manual trans-axle. I've had to replace the fuel pump, all the valves and timing belt, the EGR Valve, and an O2 sensor. I bought the car used so I thought it might have been because of a previous owner, but I guess not. I have only owned the car for 3 years, but I've had to replace the battery and brake pads, soon maybe for a second time on the brake pads. I also will have to replace most of the parts in my air conditioner soon. I had problems with the door and rear speakers starting to crackle, but I replaced them. I also had a wiring problem that caused the radio and interior lights to not function. But being an electrical engineer I was able to fix this myself. It has a lot of problems, but it does seem to be generally reliable as long as you keep up on maintenance. It is fast too. I did 0-80 in 9 seconds the one time (don't ask why I was doing 80).

1995 Dodge Neon 4 door coupe 132-horsepower 2.0-liter 4-cylinder

Summary:

Affordable, and fun to own

Faults:

-The side panel on the drivers side door came off. It had to be put back on with expensive little plastic plugs that the dodge dealership supplied me with. How nice of them. (sense the sarcasm) I mean, seriously, $3 for a tiny plastic plug? Yeah, okay, thanks dodge! How about you made the side panel with a little more quality and then you probably wouldn't have to charge 3 dollars for a piece of plastic.

-The blinkers eventually stopped turning off on their own. The right one will turn off now, but must be forced up. The left one won't turn off unless you do it yourself. It could blink blink blink all day. I was informed that fixing this would be over $100. Forget that! I'll save my money for larger problems I sense are coming.

-The farbic on the seats are starting to peel away. I fixed this by getting seat covers. All better. :)

-When it rains the car makes a loud roar when I press down on the gas pedal. I'm guessing it just has human like characteristics, it doesn't like the rain!

-Once on my way to school I was driving up a large hill and the car decided it didn't feel like running anymore and just died, right there. Luckily I rammed her into park and put on the e-brake. No one was hurt. Except myself who was late for school. It took a good 10 minutes for it to run again.

-When I go over 50 miles an hour the wind comes through the little slit at the top of the windows and makes whistle noise. I solve this annoyance by turning up the radio (no CD player, OR tape player in my car) On the freeway, I want to ram it into a tree its so annoying. I hope you liked the Andy Griffith theme song (or large exotic birds), you'll be whistling to it all the time.

General Comments:

Overall, even though sometimes I feel like taking a bat and bashing the car into tiny little pieces, I still love my dodge neon. It was affordable ($2,000) and it's comfortable (the heat and air conditioning work well so far) Although if someone offered me a different car I would probably take it, but until then, It's dodge neon for me!

Also, the car is mighty fast. I can beat anyone to a stop light. Of course it's no Nissan or mustang, but it gets the teenage craving for speed taken care of. :)

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 22nd May, 2003