Hi everyone! I've lurked in this forum before, seems like a pretty tight group and you guys sure know your stuff. I used to drive a Chevy Cavalier (first car) until I totaled it. Fun. While I had my cavalier a friend of mine had a red 1997 5 speed Neon, and man that thing could go! After riding in his neon for a summer I was really impressed and knew what I wanted my next car to be. Now under some unfortunate circumstances (sure it was jsut a cavalier but smashing a car is never good) I have the opportunity to buy another car. I'm going to look at a '96 Neon tomarrow. Looks like a deal from the ad on craigslist, only 63000 miles on it. Its not the base model, I can tell by the picture but I can't quite make out what it says besides neon on the back. I'll put the picture up, maybe theres some telltale feature I don't know about. Anyway back to the point, I'm wondering if there are any well known issues with the '96 4 door automatic models I should keep an eye out for when I go to see this car. Any help is much appreciated.. thanks!

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its an expresso... still a neon just has a fancy name... just a base model...

 

neon expresso SOHC

 

Head gaskets? Around those miles. I always get my neons with over 100,000 so they have already been changed. Keep it in mind. I think the go out between 60,000-80,000. Good luck. Get a 5 speed they r way funner.

 

Is it a 5 spd? How much $$

 

you could do way better then that neon.

 

my neon has about 140xxx miles and my gasket looks and feels fine to me, but how is it when it goes? compression or the loss of oil?

 

oil loss mostly from under the exhaust header. differential compression test should give a goodindication