Just got a good deal on a 2000 Dodge Neon. Anyone know much about these? Any common problems I should watch out for? How long does the 2.0 usually last? This one has 168,000 miles on it and seems to run perfect.
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Just got a good deal on a 2000 Dodge Neon. Anyone know much about these? Any common problems I should watch out for? How long does the 2.0 usually last? This one has 168,000 miles on it and seems to run perfect.
my sister has one... i have nothing nice to say about the car... sorry.
It is what it is - a cheaper car.
The 2.0L is actually not a bad motor, should outlast the rest of the car usually as long as it is taken care of.
My first major worries at 168K would be the trans if it is an automatic, particularly if you have no idea if they ever changed the fluid or filter.
Other than that, the suspension to body bushings and ball joints and etc. are famous in a not so good way as well. High mileage it will need them done if it hasn't been. The parts are actually not too expensive if you have the means to do it yourself. You can even buy the entire control are with new ball joint and all the bushings pretty reasonable from like Rock Auto for a quick and easy changeout.
That's about it for major stuff, the rest is as I said its a cheap car so with that many miles expect minor shakes, rattles, and rolls and this or that repairs but in general they can be fairly reliable cheap transport if taken care of.
I currently have 2 PT Cruisers which are pretty much Neons with a different body, and have almost 200K on one without any major repairs including it is still on the original factory clutch, and like 50K on the other with no issues at all - I don't even think I've done front brakes on it yet...
Jim is right....treat the car right and it should last...if not....most things are cheap and easy to fix. Lots of parts are actually interchangeable between the years so it makes finding junkyard parts super easy.
Im thinking it needs some suspension work, at the very least an alignment. The steering wheel sits a tiny bit off center but it still drives straight and doesnt pull, not sure if it just needs an aligment or what.
If it doesn't pull or wear the tires funny, shake, or clunk then don't worry about it. If the alignment is off enough to merit attention it will pull or wear tires funny, if the ball joints or suspension bushings are bad it will start to clunk over bumps and or shake.
Steering wheel off center just means that someone didn't do an alignment totally correctly at one point, or that it is off a little bit. Most of the time it just means someone aligned it at one point by adjusting the tie rods so the tires were aligned correct, but then didn't adjust them both to center the steering wheel.