I’m not going to lie. I like the nightlife. I like to boogie. (And so on.) I always thought that naming this youth-oriented car the “Neon” was a stroke of brilliance on the part of white-hot, ’90s-era Chrysler Corporation. For me, neon signs conjure up images of nighttime eateries, car washes, discotheques, and just being out and about long after the sun has gone down. Given the fun persona with which these cars were portrayed in their initial advertising campaign, the name seemed to signify a certain amount of carefree cheekiness that perfectly meshed with the attractively styled, fun, affordable cars these were. I’ve observed that many people now dog the first-generation Neon, but a college buddy of mine had a new, first-year Dodge version, and it was one of the nicest small cars I had ever ridden in up to that time.
I like the coupes because they’re relatively rare. I’m not 100% on the model year of this one, but my guess is that it’s from one of the final two model years of the first generation cars by the wheelcover design. The two-door configuration of the Plymouth (or Dodge) Neon was never a big seller. In the case of the Plymouth, the coupe never accounted for more than a quarter of total sales in any given model year. If this one’s a ’98, there were just about 18,500 two-doors sold out of about 87,000 total. Just like the gas after which it was named, this Neon was inert in the early morning hours – and seemed perfectly content that way, parked as it was in front of the local Thai restaurant.
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
(Early) Sunday, March 10, 2013.
Click on these links for related reading from Brendan Saur, and from Marc.
Fun handling. Seemed brisk. Looked “different” enough to draw attention to its basic charms. Outgoing.
Just like someone you’d meet at a bar on one of those nighttime excursions. Beep beep Hi!
And just like that him of her you might take home with you from that bar, it was always a good idea to send them on their way early the next morning. They weren’t long-term relationship material.
But if you kept the risks in mind, they could be fun.
Perfect metaphors! Excellent.
Neons were all over Chicago are, due to the factory being close by, in Belvidere IL. And, also cheap. But, not many left, due to wear and tear, and rust.
I haven’t seen a Neon in a long time. Last one I saw was a coupe being driven by an indifferent teenager who was clearly beating the crap out of the poor thing. My brother’s friend Vaughn had a sedan of this generation, and it was a charming little car. I never thought it was great, but it was cheap and reliable. It’s a shame these are disappearing from the road, as there is nothing else like them.
This picture was taken over five years ago (in 2013), but your comment reminds me of how few first-generation Neons I’ve seen around, even just this year. Of course, I’ll now be paying attention to them more closely. 🙂
A friend had one which served him well…Mechanically indifferent. It was dependable, but there were limits….Had it for years… and it did suffer from Chrysler’s Peel off paint issues. Many did. They are rarely seen even here in Rust free Az….UV light is not kind to 90s plastics.
CC Effect strikes again. My wife and I were walking downtown yesterday afternoon and approached a faded purple two-door 1st gen Neon. I started to reach for my phone and shoot a CC Outtake, as Neons have really become rare around here, when I realized there were two elderly people sleeping in it and based on the belongings crammed inside, it was obviously their home on wheels. I passed on the photo op.
That looks like an unusually subdued color for a Neon. I always kind of thought that was the whole purpose of a Neon – something cheap, fun and colorful. If you want something in silver or champagne, get one of the Cloud cars or an LH.
Great point, JP, about the color palettes of these cars. If I remember correctly, this one was actually that deep, grape-flavored Kool-Aid color – one which I really liked. In the day, this Neon looked like a grape jellybean – in a good way.
I remember these being big news when they came out. I’ve never driven one. We had one as a rental in my early teens on a road trip and I remember 1) the styling and multicolor hues splashed across the interior fabrics made it seem modern and “fun” in a slightly embarrassing way, and 2) my Saab-driving dad looked kind of ridiculous behind the wheel. Still, Kudos to Dodge for introducing something unique and affordable. The second one drained all the fun vibes out of it despite looking very similar in and out. All the magic was gone. This would make any quality lapses largely inexcusable. I’m not surprised there wasn’t a third gen.
3rd gen was the Caliber. Right idea for the time – a mini SUV. Bad execution – kind of like Kaliber non-alcoholic beer. What’s the point?
The Caliber was the worst car I have ever driven….Horribly cheap materials, hard plastics, poorly assembled. The CVT droned constantly and the handling was sloppy and uncomfortable.
Interestingly I drove this from a rental agency. It replaced a PT Cruiser that I had a minor accident in. The PT Cruiser was infinitely better. Nicer interior, better fit and finish and a conventional automatic transmission.
Friend had a 2008 Caliber and the motor flat out died at 110,000 miles, even with steady oil changes. It also had a lot of ‘nickel and dime’ repairs.
PT Cruisers were based on Neon, by the way.
The PT Cruiser is why there was no two door Generation Two Neon. The development money, it was felt, was better spent on a “tall wagon” based on the Neon front suspension and mechanicals, though the engine and automatic transmission wound up different in the PT.
Chrysler decided correctly…
My stepdad had a PT Cruiser. He was driving Herculean miles doing computer sales and support and the cargo room was important. That was a tough little car and served him pretty well for 30k miles a year. I think it had 210,000 on it when he traded it in.
I never liked the look of these but I did like the ad campaign. In 1999, I was rear-ended by a first-gen Neon. Hard. I was in an ’89 Grand Prix. His car looked totalled and I had a broken reflector on my bumper. I was stunned at how fragile it seemed to be. I didn’t even call a cop. Just made sure he was okay and went on my way. Later I got the symptoms of whiplash. Oops! But my car was fine.
Great find! I haven’t seen a Neon coupe in ages either.
I’ll have to agree with for what it was, when it was, the Neon was a good effort for a small car. It had its shortcomings and could the prevented it from ever matching the Civic or Corolla in refinement, but it certainly had more personality.
Thanks, Brendan. I remember really wanting these to triumph in the marketplace, and for them to realize their full potential – which, ultimately didn’t happen, sadly.
I saw a Neon just today, it had the glass removed from it and it was painted in all funky colours as if it were to be used in some kind of a race possibly.
I almost bought a Neon in 1996 but a Cavalier came out the preferred choice at the time. We came to regret that decision due to some costly maintenance issues on the Chev in later years. Not that many years either.
Great find! Thanks.
Yes, first gen Neons are terrors on local short tracks both dirt and paved. That’s part of the reason you don’t see first gen Neons anymore. Don’t forget, these cars dominated SCCA Showroom Stock when they were new.
I owned a 1998 Dodge Neon coupe in the same Brilliant Platinum for 10 years. The Neon was probably the best package Chrysler Corp put together since the 70-73 340 Duster, at least considering performance vs cost. If I’m ever able to find a nice 98-99 Neon R/T I’d buy one in a second.
Excellent find Joseph. And a nice tribute to the two door Neon, with a homage to Alicia Bridges in your first sentence. 🙂
The Neon will forever be remembered as a meteoric bittersweet icon of the mid 90s. Sadly, they seemed to disappear just as quickly as they became popular, after holding so much initial promise. I will always visualize the two door Neon in either lime green or magenta. Sadly, typically with flaking paint, in either color.
The Neon reminded me a lot of the legacy of the Renault Alliance. A well conceived design, with unique charm and character, that faded from popularity too soon.
Thanks, Daniel. I like your reference to the ’90s. When these cars were new, I was a college student and expanding the boundaries of my taste in music. These cars are almost tied in my head to what was being played on college alternative radio: Portishead, Alanis Morrisette, New Order’s “Regret”, etc. Thanks for bringing that back to the forefront of my memories.
And your Renault Alliance metaphor is apt.
I’m pretty sure I’ve made this analogy at CC before, but I suspect the career trajectory of the Neon matches up well with that of Hootie and the Blowfish. 🙂
A case could be made that the Neon was “Iacocca’s Last Gasp” at Chrysler. I don’t think his input was all that great on the car except for one quite important thing: the round headlights. Supposedly, it was upon his insistence that the Neon got the ‘eyes’ that it did. Iacocca was on his way out but he still had enough gut instinct to give the little Neon the personality and character it needed to be a success.
I might go so far as to suggest the Neon was the de facto ‘car’ of the nineties (the ‘vehicle’ of the nineties was probably the Ford Explorer). The thing that set the Neon apart was that virtually anyone could afford one (and they were everywhere). The Explorer was priced quite a bit higher and more difficult to attain for someone on a budget.
And, yet, today, all the Neons are gone. An occasional old Cavalier may pop up from time to time, but the Neons just weren’t worth repairing once they had a major breakdown and are all now Chinese steel. I guess the same could pretty much be said for any nineties Chrysler product relative to their Chevrolet counterpart.
I havent seen a live Neon in a very long time, dead ones yes, they were rubbished by the Aussie motoring press when released there for being below average in their class with poor fuel economy, there used to be a few around here in NZ several years ago but theyve been parked up since.
I so very badly wanted one of the R/T versions of these. I had two small children at that time and too many bills chasing my money. So, to compensate, any time I traveled and rented a car, I specified a Neon. 9/10 of the times I got one, too.
Of the big three’s subcompact cars of the time, the Neon, Cavalier and Escort was the order I would have ranked them. By a large margin the Neon was the best to drive, the Cavalier was not bad, but heavy feeling and a bit underpowered with the 2.2L motor. The regular Escort was a slow little beast. I don’t think I ever got an Escort GT as a rental.
But, life moved on and I never got a new Neon. I’ve not bothered to look for one as a hobby car, as someone else further up the string mentioned, they make great dirt and asphalt cars, so the ones that survived got snapped up for that duty. Besides, the Cloud Cars came out shortly after, and I had a new muse.
I had a 99 Sport DOHC coupe with the 5sp manual that I bought new. It was fun to drive and a close facsimile to the ACR Neon that had its own SCCA class for a while (iirc). By 99 Chrysler had worked out the paint and head gasket gremlins, and it was a reliable, fun transportation option. I would still be driving it if it hadn’t been t-boned by the uninsured driver of one of its larger cousins, a Plymouth Breeze.
Last time I saw one of these, I was stuck behind it on a curving 2 lane road in upstate NY. Based on the exhaust note, I suspect the muffler had a hole or the exhaust manifold was cracked. The tin worm was attacking the rest of the car and a tail light was out. The driver was more focused on flicking cigarette ashes out the window then driving the car. When I finally got around, I notice one of the headlight was out.
Never drove a first-gen, my grandfather has a real jalopy of a second-gen. That 3-speed certainly makes it an… idiosyncratic choice of vehicle. I think it had that 3-speed until like 2003, which, maybe this makes me spoiled for choice, seems absolutely insane.
The Neon was another car that was touted to be able to “take on the Japanese”. Did it succeed in that endeavor? Not really, but for a domestic effort, it wasn’t all that bad and sold well, at least in the first few years. It certainly looked better than its domestic competition, particularly the first generation cars..
On the downside, the Neon was the car that really cemented the death of Plymouth. There was, quite literally, absolutely nothing that separated a Plymouth Neon from a Dodge version, other than one badge that said ‘Plymouth’ instead of Dodge.
One of the more esoteric things I remember about the Neon was how the rear seat sat on a squared-off floor stamping. I mean, you had a rounded-off cushion sitting on a rectangular base that was plainly visible on the corners, like the designers, somehow, managed to misjudge the sizing between the cushion and the base upon which it rested.