| All New!!! 2003 Dodge Neon SE |
| The Supercrew only gets me 16 MPG, and the van not much better at 20... The Neon is rated at 36 highway. Not a bad ride, inexpensive to buy, and good on gas. Did I mention it is plenty zippy too? Well, I was surprised. The little car gets down the road very well and even pulls mild grades in 5th. The 2.0 liter 16 valve SOHC motor also has 132HP, where as the Focus has a mere 120... Hmmm, did I really get a good deal? |
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| The old minivan was showing it's age. It was needing repair (again). At over 214,000 miles and it had never seriously let me down, no matter how bad I treated it. Sure, it broke down now and again. But never worse than I could repair myself, for the most part. In 97 we traded my 84 Celebrity for the 94 Concorde. That car relegated the minivan to secondary status. As such, it got lots of abuse. When we moved to the desert, the abuse was amplified by several order of magnitude. Well, it had come time to let the van go. As such, I would still need a commuter car for my daily 140 mile roundtrip commute. I needed something with decent performance, great fuel economy and low cost. So after determining a very short list of vehicles to look into, off I went to visit my local dealerships. Many find it interesting I visited my Ford dealer first for a Focus. I didn't feel real comfortable in it. Though the car I sat in was equipped the way I wanted it, I couldn't get the price down to what I really wanted. Satisfied I was getting the best price I could, I next hit my local Dodge dealer. Can you believe, they didn't have a single 5 speed Neon on the lot? However, they looked for one at other dealers (since the nearest dealers are 100 miles away I couldn't check other lots myself...). Since I wanted a light colored car, I had a couple choices, and white was my third. Before the found my car elsewhere, I took another drive in the Neon SRT4. I have to tell you that the SRT4 is an incredible car. I don't care for the seats myself since my backside is a lot wider than they designed for. And that would be my only REAL complaint. Go for a ride in one... A couple hours later and my car was here. Went for a quick test drive and finished the paperwork and took the little car home. Sorry Ford, but they undercut you by over $1000 and besides, the Neon WAS my first choice. |
| Ahhh, the first addition to the Neon. $20 at my local WalMart, Hotwheels brand seatcovers!!!! These covers are really SWEET! Easy to install and they are just plain COOL! And I threw in some floor mats too. Nothing fancy though. Still trying to find Hotwheels floor mats and steering wheel cover. Hmmm, wonder if they make a set for my Supercrew... |
| Isn't that a great blue sky? Another cloudless desert sky. Right now, the desert is green and pretty since we've had a lot of rain in the last couple months. Really makes my desert pretty to drive through... And I imagine you are probably asking when I will mention the car... Did I mention how bright and clear the sky is? |
| Seriously, those bolt-on hubcaps will be gone before long. I've got the 15" Pumpers off my Daytona being stripped I will use. I need to strip and powdercoat them The trunk is bigger than it looks too. And I need to seriously look into getting the windows tinted to the MAXIMUM amount allowed by law. REALLY... |
| My Neon is a very basic model. In fact, I only got one option, AIR CONDITIONING! Well, here in the desert, Air Conditioning isn't really an option now is it? And yes, Buttercup is my co-pilot... Powerpuff Girls are HARDCORE!!!! Yes, she keeps me at the speed limit.... |
| Now first off, I didn't stand on ANYTHING for this angle. I simply held the camera up high and shot. Yes, the car is pretty small, but I fit just fine. Did I mention the car got a 4 star frontal crash rating? Not bad for a small car honestly. Isn't that Hotwheels seat cover neat looking? |
| I'm not planning to do much to this car. But then again, one can never tell. I took the Alpine system from the van and installed it in the Neon. What a hoot that was. I bought the Schosche brak install kit with the mounting adapters. THAT part went well. Bought the wiring harness adapter too, and spent the time to solder it to the harness for the radio. Heat shrink tubing and all. Haha, joke was on me! Went to install the radio, only to find that Chrysler had changed wiring connections... But also noticed that the ANTENNA plug had changed too... Friend of mine helped me find the right adapters and a little soldering was finished up and the Alpine sounds great... Now, I just need some better speakers... And one of these days I'll install the tweeters in the dash... I got the front seat covers installed. I need to hit a junkyard for the Daytona power seat switch. WHY? I have a set of Dodge Daytona Enthusiast seats that almost match in color. This seat is really cool, even if a bit heavy. Not only does it have all the normal adjustments, but thigh and side bolster wings adjust, as well as air adjustable thigh and lumbar support! Also, these seats are a bit wider than the stock Neon seats and I *DO* have a wide posterior... The mounting for these seats is a bit wider too, so I am making plates to make up the difference. Will show them when done... And lastly, I don't want a body kit or anything like that. But I do want to do something with the lower grills. Anyone got a Dodge Ram grill they don't want anymore? Oh, since it seems I am killing lots of bugs on the road, I dubbed the Neon "the Mighty Bug Smasher". But recently, I hit four BIRDS!!!!! Two of them at the same time. No, there wasn't any damage save for feathers stuck in the grill... But that was SO weird... Coming up in September is the next Rally School and Rally Cross held here in Ridgecrest. I'm not going to take the school yet, but will probably participate in the Rally Cross. Stock 2WD class is held first, so the track shouldn't be TOO bad... Yes, I'm nervous about taking my new car "racing", but then, I autocrossed the old Plymouth Champ 2 weeks after I bought it... Honestly, the more I drive this car, the more I like it. The TAO of Neon seems to have fallen on me, and it is a weight I can bear... |
| Current Mileage on the Neon is 27,800 miles as of June 2004... |
| YIKES! The Neon got a new transmission! Read about it here... |