Faults:

Oxygen sensors had to be replaced 6 times during the life of the car. Earliest Occurrence was at 67,000 miles.

Alternator replaced at 144,000 miles.

Air conditioner failed while under warranty (28,000 miles). Dealer replaced compresor and flushed the system.

General Comments:

This car went well in the snow, which is important here in the great Northeast.

I didn't like the steering wheel positioning, even with the tilt wheel, I never got comfortable with it.

The car was comfortable for one to three people, but anything upwards of three was too crowded.

Faults:

I've replaced the starter. Original o2 sensors went bad at 160,000 or so.

General Comments:

Most reliable, fuel efficient cheap car I've ever owned, and I've owned a lot. Good performance and handling, very low maintenance costs and a simple design. People just need to be nicer to their vehicles, change oil every 3000 miles and do your scheduled maintenance. When I bought this car it had had almost nothing done to it in its life except the recall head gasket when it was almost new, It was two quarts low on oil, looked like it had not been changed in a year, and had never had the timing belt changed at 142,000. I changed the plugs wires, air filter, timing belt, cam and crank seals, water pump and coolant, and it has not missed a beat since. actually, the original starter went out at about 162,000, took about a hour to replace, yeah, pretty terrible car alright.

Faults:

Various wear and tear (it's an old car.)

Clutch at 160K.

O2 sensors at 170K.

Fuel pump at 180K.

Secondary fan at 185K (never replaced)

Windows have never been exactly right.

General Comments:

I own what must be the all-time museum piece Neon. I bought it in '96 brand-new and it now has 202,000 miles on it. It just passed CA emissions and the engine hums along quietly on 89-octane without any noticeable vibration. The clutch was replaced at 160K, but it's still the original transmission. The engine was replaced at 51K due to an accident (I went up over a curb at speed and drove the oil filter up into the engine, causing it to throw a rod.) The new engine came out of a junkyard in Tijuana and had approx. 35K on it when it went in. It's run perfectly ever since. At freeway speed it still gets 35 mpg and cross-country at altitude it does even better. When it was new I got it up to 111 mph in the desert and it will still do 90 or so, but starts to shake around 80, which is OK as I generally drive the limit anyhow.

The primary weakness of this car has always been body trim integrity; the power windows have never really fit right in their seals. Various systems have been repaired over time due to normal wear and tear, but that engine and transmission are still going strong. Every mechanic who sees it is amazed as these cars were just not designed to do this kind of mileage. I've been told it may be because it was built in the newer Toluca, Mexico plant (as opposed to the one in Illinois.)

The hell of it is that at this point I feel like maybe it's time for a new car, but as long as it's running so well I can't justify buying something else. And it's worth absolutely nothing for trade-in or resale so I guess I'm stuck with it.

Faults:

Head gasket blew at 130000.

Break master cylinder leak at 95000.

Fuel leak.

Interior dashboard virtually in-operational.

Speedometer only works on a good day.

Fuel gauge in-operational.

Radiator fell apart (yeah, fell apart).

Stuff inside the car fell apart, such as dashboard, and the panel on the inside of the door.

Windows leak.

Defroster is absolute garbage, must drive with windoews cracked 3 inches to avoid fogging during rain.

AC in-operational.

Replaced all belts, repeatedly.

Various sensors, hoses, and cables have had to be replaced.

Spark plug wires shorted out.

Transmission literally sputters out when shifting from 1st to 2nd.

Trunk seal leaks.

Check engine light stays on, despite the fact that nothing else on the dashboard does. Once the speedometer and fuel gauge quit, so did the mile reading.

Steering wheel shakes!!

Headlight seals wear easily, as do all other weather seals.

Paint falls off in sheets, used faulty primer that year.

The key to the trunk no longer works, you simply have to kick it repeatedly and swear a lot.

Interior fabric wears bad, especially the ceiling fabric. It touches my head when I drive.

General Comments:

Amazingly, this car last me 3 years. I'm glad I only paid $2000 for it, too bad I probably spent more than that on general repairs.

To its credit, the car did last me SEVERAL trips back and forth between Illinois and Kentucky.

I would reccommend this car to no one.