Affordable Performance from a Mini-Mopar

What can i say, i liked the Neon so much, i bought another ;)

my first Neon, a '98 Highline, gave me 120,000 miles of fun and spirited driving, and the only problem i ever had with it was the dreaded "headgasket issue", then again, headgasket failures are common on cars that have a cast-iron block and aluminum head, it's not just limited to the Neon, besides, it was covered under warranty, so Dodge ate the cost of the repair

anyway, the other reviews here pretty much cover all the major points about the second-generation Neons, i'd just like to add a couple of comments, as a Neon veteran

Acceleration; to all those people complaining about sluggish acceleration;
1; turn off the A/C, it's a parasitic load that drains power

2; i imagine that most people complaining about poor performance have the automatic transmission, well, duh, if you're looking for performance and acceleration, than the automatic is the worst choice you can make, in my opinion, automatics are the *worst* transmission on the road, i'll never own a car with an automatic.

on average, it's not uncommon to see a 25% power loss just to the transmission alone, 25% of your horsepower gone, just because you're too lazy to shift, to me that's inexcuseable, then again, i admit i'm biased, i hate automatics, most boring tranny on the road

you want to see the Neon *truly* shine, make sure you're driving one with a manual tranny, the difference is dramatic

anyway, it's the little touches that make this car so much more polished than the first-gen Neon;

"Cinema" dome light, the light slowly fades from bright, to dim, to off, just like the lights in a movie theatre, and when you remove your key from the ignition, the dome light automatically kicks on

Aqua blue gauges, the old Neon had boring amber gauges, the Neon's cluster illuminates a cool aqua blue, the same as my beloved old Dodge Shadow did

little "reminder" dings abound, if you leave your turn signal on too long, it dings to remind you to switch it off, if you try to start off with the handbrake engaged, it dings to remind you, if your door is ajar when you start off, it dings to remind you..... yes i know it sounds irritating, but it's unobtrusive

the Crosshair grille, a Dodge signature, is back on the Neon

yes i know, i'm focusing (ICK!, Focus, horrible car ;) ) on the little things, but most of all, i love the car's performance, that's the main reason i bought it, for someone on a strict budget like me, the Neon gives me the most performance bang for my buck

so, for best results, get the Neon with a *manual* transmission, ignore the horrible manual transmission, horrible piece of crap transmission

for a quick performance increase, install a K&N Filtercharger performance filter, i know it really *shouldn't* increase performance at all, but ever since i put in the K&N, the car feels stronger, and accelerates quicker, probably a psychosomatic thing, but i am happy with the results

...and since the K&N only needs to be cleaned every 50,000 miles, think of all the paper air filters you'll be keeping out of the waste stream, a "performance" mod that's also ecologically sound, whod'a thunk' it ;)