And then you'd ignore the thousands of folks with those Neons that have had no problems. And compared to the SRT-4 no offense none of those things you listed is even remotely quick much less fast.

Quoted from another message board:

Ever heard of anything like that happening with the Honda, Toyota, Mini?

Would you like me to post the THREE very public recalls Toyota has had in the last month? Or how about how Toyota trying to subvert issuing a TSB by posting on a message forum their FJ is having problems.

No Neons aren't paragons of build quality. But go to that big SRT forum I posted earlier in the thread and ask those folks if they think they drive a hunk of junk. You'll be met with quite a few folks who are running 12s in the quarter in their daily driver with quite a few thousands of miles on them.

actually I have heard of situations like that with MINI in one of the forums that I frequent. Also a VW Charan that died on the way home from the dealership.

All vehicles manufacturers have some stories from Mercedes to Cadillac, VW to Porsche. Given the total amount of vehicles on the road today, the quality of the builds are much better than 2 decades ago.

I've never heard of the other stories, so I'll take your word for it.

Update: It was another plug and wire. It turns out, all of the plugs and wires needed replacing. Now that it's done, the car has turned out to be quite nice. I've driven it almost 4,000 miles in two months (business and girlfriend) and it has held up quite nicely. It feels damn good to kill Camaros and Mustangs off the starting line with a Neon. The look on their faces is pretty damn funny. I've even tore up some Porsche Caymans. The Boxsters don't stand a chance, either. It's not royalty, but for the price, this thing is great. Now that it's stable (ha) and not acting weird, it's a fun car. I won't keep it forever. It's not much of a family mobile. For that, it's Chrysler SRT-8.

And you can't forget people calling it the "pocket rocket" and "death sled" and shit. I took a guy to work one day (his Honda broke down!!!! owned!!!!) and he said "that fucking thing is UNSAFE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want one......."

Good horsepower/torque to dollar ratio.

Downsides, now that I've had it for a while:

The bucket seats are too extreme for road trips for business and stuff. I'm thinking about taking them out and putting in the Neon R/T or Neon SXE seats. They fit right in.

Gas mileage is shit. SHIT. Probably 20 MPG city/25 MPG highway. The cost of having fun I guess. If you drive it like a grandma, 25 MPG city/30 MPG highway.

nice to see you're enjoying it and that it's turning out well for you.

I get the same mileage with an automatic and AC in my plain Neon...

i have a video somewhere where my buddy has an SRT4 and he raced a cobalt SS and lost miserably... the cobaly seemed to be much faster. I will try to find that video and host it

opps! haha i jumped the gun on that post, didnt read the rest of it and didnt realize you already bought it hehe oh well... :P

I'm not blindingly defending my car simply because I own it, but stock versus stock, there is no comparison between a Cobalt SS and an SRT-4....no comparison at all. The SRT-4 is much, much faster than a Cobalt SS. Now if the Cobalt had mods (nitrous, turbo kits, etc.), it could obviously beat an SRT-4. But not stock versus stock.

The SRT-4 has 30 more HP (probably more since the initial HP rating on the SRT-4 was undercut), 50 more lbs of torque, and a full second quicker 0-60 time.