Any NEON owners out there?
I have a 2005 Neon. I think they got better as the years went on. 2005 was the last year and there's probably a reason for that.
I bought it in 2008 with 30k on it. Today it has almost 90k. Things done or fixed: brakes (typical), steering (front tie rod end was bad and gave a nasty shimmy), bad cam sensor (easy fix, threw a code as to the problem so no troubleshooting required).
I also had it throwing codes for a misfire in cylinder 3, probably 50k miles ago. I messed around with the fuel injector wiring and switched injectors into different cylinders to find the problem. Never did as the code went away after that. My guess I knocked loose some debris in an injector when removing and reinstalling.
I also had a leak in the sunroof that had me stumped for a while because of where the water was flowing when it leaked in. It would run down the inside of the front driver side pillar, behind the kick panel, and get the floor wet. Roof was bone dry from the inside appearance of the interior.
The car is very sensitive in the steering. A shimmy returned to the steering wheel about a month ago, but this time only at a particular area of speed. Tires rebalanced did the trick.
Overall most of those problems occured within the first 10k. So it's been an okay car since then. But I've yet to hit 100k so maybe I should get rid of it before then. (I've probably jinxed myself saying what I've said in this post anyways. :-)) I've heard the 1st gen were the really problematic ones. I believe 2000 is the first year of the 2nd gen.
IMO, I would pass on it. You can get more for your money elsewhere.