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By
EWAN KENNEDY
5 September 2005
Chrysler
Neon is an interesting American car that was imported to
Australia with a great deal of fanfare on the fourth of July
1996, but which failed to capture the imagination of local
buyers.
The main problem was that Chrysler introduced the Neon at a
premium price, anticipating that buyers would see it as
sitting higher in the image stakes than Japanese cars of the
same size. Despite a substantial price drop towards the end
of 1998, which didn’t do a lot of good to the resale value
of earlier cars, the damage had been done and, though the
Neon struggled on until the middle of 2002, it ceased to be
part of the Australian scene.
The last Neons didn’t sell until the start of 2003. Be
wary of one that is on sale at a supposedly 2003 price,
because it’s likely to drop back to being a 2002 model
(because of its build plate) when you come to trade up.
This little American has interesting styling, with a
distinctive oval-headlight treatment and a stubby bonnet by
courtesy of a cab-forward design. The tail-end is
particularly clean in its shape and is admired by many.
Only one body type was offered on our market, a four-door
sedan, two-door sedans were sold in the States but to the
best of our knowledge none have been imported to Australia.
Neon has sufficient space for four adults if those in front
can give up a bit of their legroom. But tall people may find
themselves cramped for space, even in the front seat. As
always, try for yourself.
Neon is powered by a 2.0-litre engine. Most of its
competitors at the time it was launched had 1.6 or 1.8-litre
units. Though it’s torquey enough and generally gets the
job done the engine just doesn’t have the punch you might
expect. In automatic form the engine was further hampered by
the transmission only having three ratios, a backward
feature normally only found in much cheaper cars. To
compensate for the loss of the fourth ratio in the automatic
it was sold as a new car at the same price as the manual. It
probably comes as no surprise that enterprising used-car
dealers will try to ask more for the auto than a manual.
The new Neon model of April 2001 finally had a four-speed
automatic transmission.
The manual gearbox had the usual five speeds that we have
now come to expect in all cars in this class.
Insurance is normally towards the lower end of the scale,
but there seems to be a bigger than average range from top
to bottom premiums, presumably because of the unusual
history of the car in Australia.
Chrysler Neon has a reasonable amount of underbonnet space
and is a relatively simple design, so an experienced home
mechanic can do most servicing and repairs. Be sure to have
a workshop manual on standby before lifting that bonnet,
though. And please leave the safety stuff to the experts.
Spare parts prices are generally reasonable and we have
heard of no real complaints about parts availability.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
Build quality in the Neon is not quite as good as that
of similar imported Japanese models but that shows more in
cosmetic ways than in any real unreliability problems.
Listen for squeaks and rattles when driving on rough roads.
An engine that has been driven hard to get good performance
(check automatic cars in particular) may be starting to
smoke from the exhaust. The smoking is generally at its
worst when the car is accelerated after it has been
stationary for a minute or so.
A manual gearbox that has been abused will show its first
problems by baulking and becoming noisy on fast changes down
from third to second gear.
Look for damage to the seats and carpet and/or for fading in
the dashboard top and rear shelf.
Also watch out for body damage or for signs of the Neon
having been repaired after a crash. The latter is best done
by looking for ripples in the panels when viewed end on, by
checking for paint that doesn't match properly and also
looking for tiny paint droplets on areas which shouldn’t
be painted.
It’s always wise to check out the complete car yourself
then, unless you are very confident, have a professional
make the final inspection.
CAR BUYING TIP
With practice you will learn to pick which cars have
always been looked after, and the ones that have just
received a major tidy up for resale.
© Copyright
Marque Publishing Company
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