I was just reading HJ's auction report and I was really surprised at how cheap the Neon was.
My Aunt is looking at going to auction to buy her first proper car and has a similar budget. I'm very impressed with the spec of the car and it's age for so little money. But I don't know anything about Chryslers, what problems could be expected from buying a 100K mile Neon? Are they any good in the quality and reliabilty stakes?
Any thoughts or advice on the Neon would be appreciated...
Blue
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Blue
I was loaned one of these as a courtesy car by my garage last service. It was of course the lowest spec/cheapest model but I too was impressed with the value for money it appears to offer. My first impressions were:
1. It's very low down to climb into and out of, so if your aunt's getting on or infirm in any way she'd be well advised to find a dealer and take a test drive first. On the other hand, I was just changing from the Jeep Grand Cherokee, so anything's low after that!
2. It seemed a bit sluggish (again, this could either be a feature of a bottom-of-the-range courtesy car or just the change from the G-Cherokee!). Also, it had very few (<4k iirc) miles on the clock, so I'd expect things to still be a bit stiff.
3. Everything seemed pretty well screwed together and once wound up it went okay.
4. With its US roots, I assume 100k would be nothing to a car like this.
All the best, hth
Terry
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HJ - I could have been interested in Joe's services but on the contact page it says "Prospective new customers must be account holders with any of the Auction Houses displayed on the Services Page" which I'm not. I will be looking for a new (2nd hand) Fiesta for Mrs Smokie in the next two months.
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Thanks for the advice people.
Getting in and out shouldn't be a problem, my aunt is healthy and currently gets in and out of my uncle's new Celica, she comments that my Fiesta is very high! :) However, with an upcoming test pass (fingers crossed) she needs her own wheels and needs something more practical than the Celica.
HJ - I thought that it sounded ludicrously cheap, but think it goes to show what she may be able to acheive if she puts her mind to it.
Joe's service looks interesting, I might look out for something like that more locally.
Blue
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Actually says that prospective new TRADE customers must be account holders, i.e., so that they can benefit from the trade rates on commission and so on that the auction houses charge.
Unless of course someone knows different?
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Blue-Oval.... I owned a 1998 Neon 2.0 LX (shape prior to current model) - which, other than the optional Alloys, was the top spec at the time. It was 2 years old when I picked it up with 14k on the clock. I owned the car for nearly about 2.5yrs and 60k and would have to say it was pretty much trouble free for those 30 months. I only got rid of it because I needed something with a big boot (ended up getting a v6 Probe on an R plate).
If buying a 2nd hand one watch out for the main dealer price hikes - they keep them artificially high; when I sold mine (summer 2002) I got £2750, about £2k less than some Chrysler dealers were asking for a similar condition car.
Problems to be aware of are Head Gasket failure after 4yrs - this is apparently quite high though I had no problems myself. Also the fully-folding door mirrors are expensive to repair and mine did suffer from an intermittent problem when attempting to fold them in. Also the headlamp bulbs are an absolute pain to replace - the whole unit has to be removed in order to access the bulb (contrary to what it says in the handbook). Also very few backstreet garages know anything about them so servicing is usually a main dealer process with the associated high prices. I found tyre and brake wear to be quite high too but maybe that was down to the way I drove the car!!
Performance wise... fuel economy was okay - again this was probably worse than it should be due to my driving. To get the car to generally required you to drop through the gears - there's not even any movement if flooring it at 80 in 5th...down to 3rd I'm afraid - maybe this won't bother your Aunt! On the positive side though if you were in a 'pootle' mood 5th being a long low-revving gear meant that you could get decent economy.
I'd have no qualms about getting another one and was tempted by the R/T until I decided I needed a car where the bike can be thrown in the boot rather than strapped to the back.
Hope this helps.... post back if you've a specific question and I'll try and pass on my experience with the car.
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Thanks for that, I thought it would be asking too much to hear from an actual owner, but that's taught me to have more faith! :)
No specific questions really, it's just one of a variety of options, but we'd never considered it before I saw HJ's report.
You're not the first person to say that fuel economy wasn't great though. But then the car does have American roots. :)
Blue
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