Well me and shadygirl took this test drive together cause shes the one who wanted the car to begin with. To start off with the car was blk (which in my opinion shows it off the best) and looked MUCH better in person than in magazines. It was sitting alittle high but thats nothing a coil over set can't fix. The seats were GREAT, some of the best in the market and the overall interior was pretty damn good, expect for the power windows in the front and roll down in the back. The head room was great and high enough for a helmet no matter what your size was.

Now lets get to driving this car. Turn the key and brappp, it sounds like a freaking high strung mustang. The exhuast was making crazy burrbaling noises the whole time and it backfired twice. Shadygirl was in love with the exhaust note. Anyway the gear shifter was cheap and plastic, taken from a PT cruiser and the shifts where definatly not ITR smooth or direct they were kindy sloppy and long to say the least, but they offer an ungraded synco and short shifter kit from the factory to fix that. Off we go, acceration was good, real good, not evo good but good. The exhaust note masks the turbo sound (unlike the evo). So I gunned the car with 12 miles on it and it chirps into seconds and pulls nicey through every gear. I was expecting alot of torque steer but there was NONE. Rev matching was easy and when I got the hang of it I was definatly having fun. Torque feels great, it pulls out of corners nicey and even with the stotck suspension it handles damn good. As for this being a 13.9 second car, I really don't think so. Maybe cause it wasn't broken in yet but I didn't feel a 13.9 from her, definatly a 14.1-14.2 still damn good. The brake where SICK, ITR sick, feels like it had brembos or something cause it broke just as good or better than the evo. On a side note I saw some dude in at a light gave him a rev (which sounds CRAZY, no mufflers rules) and left him in the dust. He pulls up next to me at the next light and is SHOCKED cause a neon just whipped his ***.

Overall for 19,995 this is a steal, best bang for you buck definatly if the dealships would sell them at that price. The dealership wanted 23,500 for it (I paid that much for my ITR) and with taxs and stuff 25,000. Thats still 12grand less than what people are paying for evos and with 12grand worth of FACTORY WARRENTIED upgrades (the FIRST I would do is a freaking LSD) this car would be untouchable.

Sorry for the length


Modified by hooptie157 at 2:48 PM 4/16/2003

 

Needs LSD, and i read somewhere that because of the suspension its going to be very hard to lower.

 

All I can add to this is that yes I did fall in love with the sounds this car was making....but it still feels strange to say that I want a Neon...

 

the srt4 has yet to grow on me, im sure it will sooner or later, but it still hasnt I just dont like the overall look of a neon. Dont let the car fool you, yea its boosted, but its not that fast as people think or its made out too be. just ask me how i know

 

cool. still dont like it

 

I've driven a lightly modified one. Boost slightly turned up and full custom exhaust... It was pretty damn fast and was probably capable of high to mid 13's for sure...
I dislike how cheap they are selling it in comparison to the R's. I dislike the fact that a car called a Neon can currently outrun my car in a straight line. One thing is for sure is that the car will never handle like a Type-R. The Neon stock comes with tokico shocks (I believe) and still don't pull numbers like the ITR does. I consider the ITR the jack of all trades. We aren't the fastest car off the lot in our class, but any other car thats faster we can usually out perform elsewhere.

 

good review but remember its still a NEON thats made by Dodge.

 

Had a neon, Broke 3 tran's!

They are crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

It's a Dodge!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by r1zen &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">. I dislike the fact that a car called a Neon can currently outrun my car in a straight line. </TD></TR></TABLE>

thats what we call 'automotive progress'......

most mid level family sedans will hang with stock Rs nowadays...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hooptie157 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> As for this being a 13.9 second car, I really don't think so. Maybe cause it wasn't broken in yet but I didn't feel a 13.9 from her, definatly a 14.1-14.2 still damn good.

Modified by hooptie157 at 2:48 PM 4/16/2003</TD></TR></TABLE>


You can tell 3 tenths of a second just from your butt dyno?

 

Thanks for the review. The one that I saw also looked like it sat quite high.

The biggest selling point on that Neon will most likely be the price. I want to find out how much dealer mark-up is on them around here.

The local Ford delaers are still marking the Focus up by $3000 for "fair market value." I can only wonder how much EVO's are marked up....

 

for $20k i'd rather build a bad *** eg or something.

 

Everybody has their own thought on it here is mine. I think it's ugly and slow for a 2.4 boosting. My friend has one and the seats suck, interior is ugly, and it is american but hey i also think whatever makes you happy is coo.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ChargedSi99 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Everybody has their own thought on it here is mine. I think it's ugly and slow for a 2.4 boosting. My friend has one and the seats suck, interior is ugly, and it is american but hey i also think whatever makes you happy is coo.</TD></TR></TABLE>

And you forgot to mention you owned his ***, with a stock motor

 

Its still a neon.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 98itR484 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

And you forgot to mention you owned his ***, with a stock motor </TD></TR></TABLE>

oh yea lol

 

Wow you guys are funny. Its a sub 20g car and for the money its great. All I here are comparisions to the ITR or the EVO.

Yeah for 20g less you can have a slower car that doesn't handle as good or have as much potential as an EVO (Not to mention its lack of 2 more doors for family people such as myself). They are meant for 2 diff markets. I would get the SRT-4 if I was single (Or be more apt to get it).

So what if its a didge, so what if its a Neon, so what if it can spank your R on acceleration. Competition is great, even the champ loses sometimes. Modify your R or sell it get something faster. I know you guys didn't buy you R's for anything else but handling.....right

Judge the car on its merrits.....its too new to call it a POS or slow or not all its cracked up to be. Give it a few months....let some people with money get a hold of it and do their thing.....see what its performacne potnetial and reliability is and then you will have hard facts by which to judge.

Just my $0.05

 

still can't get over what dodge did to the neon.. man... i would be interested in seeing what it does in person...

 

This thread tells everyone on the board who the ricers and the real car enthusiasts are, that's for sure.

Hint: If you said, "it's just a Neon", you might be a ricer.

 

you're a closet ricer my man.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ntegraownr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you're a closet ricer my man.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Coming from someone who has to use e-slang for the word Integra in his user name, I'll take that with a grain of salt.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by newt2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">This thread tells everyone on the board who the ricers and the real car enthusiasts are, that's for sure.

Hint: If you said, "it's just a Neon", you might be a ricer. </TD></TR></TABLE>

About time someone said it.

Althought I'd change "might" to "most likely"..

Put the ACR suspension on it and it'll handle a lot better.

Personally I like the car. It does feel cheap inside on most pieces but it's a car that costs less than 20k. IMO A civic feels cheap as hell too (so do accords and integras imo). VW's almost feel solid but some of their interior parts are absolute **** too..

For under 20k this and the 1.8T GTi are both steals. The Neon is def. quicker and I pry to god has less body roll (not a hard thing to do compared to the GTI), but I haven't driven a non-ACR neon ever, except one R/T once..

Oh and for the guy who said "i'd rather build a badass hatch" or something to that effect, go ahead. One's used, one's new. They can't be compared quite that easily for price.. and there are a LOT of used cars for under or at 20k I'd take before the Neon SRT-4 and many more I'd take before building a hatchcrap.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dawhiteboy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Oh and for the guy who said "i'd rather build a badass hatch" or something to that effect, go ahead. One's used, one's new. They can't be compared quite that easily for price.. and there are a LOT of used cars for under or at 20k I'd take before the Neon SRT-4 and many more I'd take before building a hatchcrap.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thats from someone who lives in a dreamworld somewhere. Not only is the 'badass' hatch used but its resale value is about 1/2 what you put into it. On a good day. At least the neon doesnt immediately depreciate 50%.

A friend of mine was looking for an Si hatch for a while and asked a few questions about them on H-T - Questions like, whats the factory spec for compression test, etc - 90% of the response was "dood just buy a Cx and do a swap man its faster". Obviously that wasnt what he was asking, but got plenty of responses from fantasyland.

 

I have to give my opinion on this: (flame if you wish)

Most of you guys have yet to drive the Neon, Most of you have yet to get a ride in one, see one at the track, race one, etc..etc..etc..

#1: the seats in the car, are IMO one of the most uncomfortable, and ugliest seats I have ever seen in my life, i wanna see who can manage to stay in the seat while taking a sharp turn.

#2: The dash.....uhhhh....no comment, its that bad (again IMO)

#3: The tranny....no comparision to the ITR, its like cutting butter w/ a hot knife, compared to trying to saw thru a metal hammer w/ a hand saw.

Yea the Dodge has MASSIVE amounts of potential, just like any other factory boosted car, there is no dobut about that. For less then the cost of a SMS header, you can have those things run circles around an R...on the straights that is.

Suspension...stock vs. stock...again no comaprsion (for me). I think the Neon, needs a little work on the stock suspensin....way tooo much roll, and those seats, like mentioned above, dont hold you in for ****.

Nothing Beats Honda reliability, for those of you who are gonna say..you dont know what your saying..etc..etc...etc...I work for the Auto Club (AAA), if you'd like (the people who are going to disagree on the reliability factor) I can bring you a print out of all the tows, and how many are Dodge Neons compared to Civics/Integras. (im speaking stock vs stock again) Now if Dodge cant seem to make a stock car last, what makes you think they'll get it right w/ the boost? I hope they do, but I wont bet on it.

Wanna talk about acceleration???

JDM ITR motor w/ JDM 4.7 tranny, vs the Neon, (yea in a straight line) Neon was left in the dust.

Hopefully, it will survive better around the turns, but again, im not gonna bet on it.

Thats just my opinion on the car, that comes from getting a ride in one and driving one, many will disagree, not everyone thinks the same

Arno