Oh, I used to LOVE this car. Now, read that sentence again, this time putting the emphasis on USED TO.

I'm only going to focus on what I do not like about this car. It totally outweighs any good qualities this car might have.

I bought a '96 Neon in 1998. It was my first ever car purchase.. I was 20 years old, and I was suckered into picking that car after being "turned down" by the bank for a loan on an older car (amount too little to finance...).

I must admit, I did fall in love with the Neon. I'll never forget how new the car smelled to me.. and the bright teil green color which was MY COLOR back then. On the test drive, I noticed how smooth the ride was. Great handling and perfect alignment (to this day, I've never had a problem with the Neon's alignment). I bought the car that day.

I was trading an old Pontiac Bonneville 1984 model. This car was great, but it pretty much died. Head Gasket was pretty much destroyed, and the transmission was dead, too. I had loved that car, but I knew that it wasn't worth having the head gasket fixed, and besides, I wouldn't have that problem with the Neon, right? ... RIGHT????

Less than 2 years after purchasing my Neon, what happens??? Oil leak, oil leak, oil leak. I was, and still am, putting in about 2 quarts of oil a week. I had the problem checked - HUGE HEAD GASKET LEAK. Well, that's just PERFECT. I can't get Chrysler to agree to help me with getting the problem fixed, and I do NOT have the money to have it fixed. I also cannot afford to be without a car until I can pay something like that off... HECK, I'm still payin' on the CAR!!!!! So I'm between a rock and a hard place right now. I've heard several other people talking about Neons and their oil problems.. I just wish I would have heard this before I bought one.

Other things about the Neon...

The brakes have squeaked since the 3rd day I owned the car. Had them checked, they are fine, but they squeak so loudly and with such a high pitch that it makes me weak in the knees!

Left turn signal won't stay on on its own. I have to hold the lever to keep the light blinking!

The speakers (great speakers when they work right) in the front have shorts in them. When it's cold outside, sometimes they won't work at all.. and sometimes when they ARE working, all it takes to get them to STOP working is to flip on the right turn signal!! Of course, this sometimes toggles them to WORK again as well.

Something really weird happened... one day my radio stopped picking up signals from any station on the "left" or "lower" side of the dial. Once below 102.9 FM, it was pure STATIC. At least I could pick up the ones above that range... until about a week later, when the whole dang range of frequencies became unavailable to me altogether! I've never heard of anything like this happening. It's not the fuse, because the unit works. It's not the antenna. How could it be when I was picking up half the range at one point?? It must be a computer problem.

Oh, and yesterday??? MY SPEDOMETER QUIT WORKING. So now I have no idea how fast I'm going... Oh, well, great excuse if I get pulled over, at least.

I have decided, once and for all, I'm trading this car. I don't want it fixed; I want it GONE. OUT OF MY LIFE. FOREVER.

Never again will I be careless in my purchase of a vehicle.

Any recommendations on a good vehicle for my next purchase??! ;)

Jennifer
Amount Paid (US$): 10,000
Condition: Used
Model Year: 1996
Model and Options: Automatic