Keep right of this little Ram...

I just bought a 2005 Dodge Neon SXT 3 days ago. Mineral Gray, standard transmission, with soon to be limo-dark windows. My fiance & I are both Dodge devotees, more specifically Neon fanatics. He first introduced me to the car in 1999 when he bought his blue '96 Neon used from his mom. I was amazed at how fun it was to drive & instantly became a fan. Now, 5 years later, he & I both drive Neons. Why? Well, this long, rambling review will explain that.

The Neon has it all. Unbeatable pricing for a sporty, attractive compact car with decent horsepower(better than my old Eclipse, which was considered a sports car) & versatile enough so that you can add horsies as needed. Throw an exhaust & a different air filter in it and viola, it's a lot faster. The aforementioned '96 blue Neon is now a RACECAR. Yes, a racecar. It's on the SCCA website. These cars also last forever. Throw some clear side markers & some euro taillights on it & it looks bada$$. Like I said, very versatile. It can be a family car or a racecar, it's all up to the driver. Mine will probably be somewhere inbetween, with purple underglows, purple front lights, a Monza exhaust, and a baby seat in the back, ha ha. The blue car has almost 300,000 miles on it & it's still got the original engine. My Neon is a standard, in fact I've never even driven an automatic Neon(I may be a chick, but I can't stand driving an automatic. It makes me feel so... overly girly I guess), so I couldn't tell you what kind of power the automatics have, but mine is pretty darn peppy. I imagine the autos are probably a bit slower. The manuals take off quick, and so far I've outrun everyone I've raced, lol...

The reason I decided to get a Neon, besides the fact that I've always liked them, was b/c of the price and the gas mileage. 29-36 mpg is a godsend in the $2/gal days. I was driving a Suziki XL7 & the gas mileage was killing me. My fiance & I took his Neon down to Corpus Christi TX which is about 600 miles, and we averaged almost -40 mpg- on the highway, and that was with me going 75-95 mph the whole time. The Neon is the most fairly priced car out there. The sticker price on mine was about $15,900 but with rebates & whatnot, it dropped down to about $12,500. You can't beat that for a good car like this one.

A lot of people gripe about the Neon's interior but I LIKE it. It's simple & very functional. 4 cupholders- 2 below the radio, one for the driver in the center of the console behind the shifter, and one on the underside of the console lid. There's a tissue holder next to that one, which I think is just neat, I've never seen a built in tissue holder on any other car. I love the simple black interior, I've always wanted a plain black interior b/c it looks good, and it's easy to keep clean. My old Eclipse had a tan interior & within 6 months the carpets were so badly stained just from normal wear & tear that I HAD to get floormats out of sheer embarrassment. Same with my last car, the XL7. The interior layout is excellent for the most part. Everything is arranged practically & simply. There's a little depression on top of the center radio/AC control console to put your sunglasses/cell phone/wallet/whatever in, and a coin holder underneath the radio. There are 2 little compartments under the radio as well for storage, AND a center console between the seats for even MORE storage. There's no excuse for this car to be messy with all the storage areas.

The Neon's radio is in a good spot where I can manipulate it while resting my wrist on the shifter, and the buttons are large & simply arranged & give good tactile feedback. You can program 3 stations to each button, 2 FM & 1 AM. Push the buttons once for your stations 1-5, and twice for 6-10. The radio is actually really excellent despite being stock. The bass is outstanding, I have to keep it at about 5 or 6(it goes to 8) or else my brains will rattle out. You wouldn't need to replace the stereo to 'bump' music in this car. The tuner is awesome also, it picks up stations that no other car of mine has. One of the 2 Spanish stations in this town never comes in clearly & it comes in enough to be listenable in the Neon. So it's easier for me to make an a$$ of myself blasting my Mexican music as I drive.

There are just a few little things I don't like about it though, a few tiny flaws.

1- the parking brake lever will strike big drinks if you put them in the center cupholder. I've smashed my pinky many times on those giant Taco Bell cups as I release the brake. Bad design there, if the brake was just 1 inch farther away, it'd be fine.

2- the parking lights are too hard to change. You have to take off the black plastic in the wheel wells to change them, which isn't a big deal, but they're held on with torx screws. Come on now, who has a set of torx screwdriver bits laying around? It's impractical to use those kind of screws. I've helped dismantle the fiance's Neon, and those screws are used almost everywhere.

3- the baseline models don't come with a tachometer. This is not good if you're not a good stickshift driver.

4- Even on the SRT-4, the rear windows STILL aren't automatic. That should be an option. It's a safety feature for kids I guess, but still, it should be optional.

5- No 2 door model. I don't care personally b/c I like having 4 doors, but I'm sure some folks haven't bought this car b/c they don't like 4-doors.

That's about it. If you want a cute little car that's very versatile & won't break the bank, get a Neon!