While coming towards the end of my college days and getting ready to enter the real world, I knew I would need a more dependable, and inexpensive car. My neon has served me well.

I bought this car knowing full well that it was a lightweight compact car. It was used, with 12,000 miles on it at the time. It's a four door sedan with drivers side airbag, automatic, no power anything. It has had regular maintenance, oil changes, and brake repairs. In the life of the car, I only had one major repair, which I notice is a recurring problem for Neons that were released in 1997. I noticed a little oil dripping beneath my car and it turned out to be the head gasket. Fortunately, it was still under warranty and has been repaired at no cost to me. It has never given me a problem since.

The car runs well, has a lot of pep. It does get blown around a lot on the expressway, but it's actually a lot more stable than my fiance's Chevy S-10 truck and not much worse than my mother's Intrepid. You can hear the wind, but it's not too bad. I noticed a lot of people saying that their Neon's tend to vibrate at higher speeds. I had that problem, but it was a simple fix. My tires were not balanced. When I rotated my tires (as everyone should do!) and had them balanced, the vibrating went away. I found that my car handles fine in the snow. Sure it's not a two ton plow, but if you've spent most of your life handling cars in snow, you should be fine Because the car is compact, I've actually found that it handled better for me than some of the boats out there. The car does sit pretty low, but it is definitely not lower than most sports cars. My first car (Dodge Daytona) sat a lot lower to the ground than this.

It has a lot of room in the front. It's comfortable for both me (5'2" female) and my fiance (6'0" male) to sit in, so it's accommodating. The back seat is pretty small, but you could fit two adults in there rather comfortably. To fit three, it would be a pretty tight squeeze. The trunk is relatively big for a car this size, and it's nice for groceries and especially luggage. The dash panels are all easy to use (although I've driven Chrysler cars all my life, so I know where to find things...it could be because I'm just familiar with the panels...take that with a grain of salt).

I plan to run this car into the ground before I buy a new one, so I will probably be keeping it for several more years. When I make my next vehicle purchase, I will probably buy a more midsize car, like a Stratus or an Intrepid. I'll be married by then, and assuming that my Neon last 5 more years, I may be considering starting a family. Plus, with any large purchase, you buy what you can reasonably afford, and then upgrade as
you can.
Note for first time car buyers: I say REASONABLY afford. When I bought my $10,000 Neon, I was approved for up to $30,000. I could have made $400 a month payments. I just wouldn't have been able to eat!

When I bought this car, it was the best I could do for the money, and it was money well spent. Anyone looking for a dependable, inexpensive car should at least consider a Neon (especially the newer ones). In my future, I'll probably be ready for an upgrade to a midsize car. Maybe I'll even take a big leap and get some power windows or something...





Amount Paid (US$): 10,000
Condition: Used
Model Year: 1997
Model and Options: Automatic, AC