I'm looking at a 2003 Dodge Neon SXT that I'm seriously thinking about buying. It's fully loaded and has the 4-spd Automatic. While I was test driving it I had an interesting thing happen. I put the car into gear while in a parking lot and the engine started to chirp/squeel like nobodies business. It sounds like it is coming from under the engine block and will make the noise in any gear (save for park and neutral) consistently. It sounds like the valvetrain problem mentioned in other posts. My mechanic is looking at it today but I thought some folks with years of ownership might be able to glean something into this.

Also... The car tends to shift roughly on occasion. It is most common when i'm really trying to drop the hammer on the throttle. I've read the Neon 4-spd tends to be rough on occasion.

Thanks!
-Hopefully Neon SXT owner in the near future.

 

it does. Every now and then when hammering it, u get a throw and in some cases u get bump stops. as far as hammering the throttle and getting rough shifts, i found that the Prothane MMs have tamed it a bit

 

I have noticed dodge cars in general shift pretty rough. I haven't heard many good things about their auto transmissions

 

Thanks for the input so far. I've only really owned 1 car that didn't have some sort of bug in the works on the tranny side of things.

 

My automatic is rough as hell. I changed the transmission fluid last night so i'll see in these coming days if the synthetic does anything.

Dude get an SRT-4. [&:]

 

I'd love to get an SRT-4, unfortunately I'm trading down from an 05 Mustang which I don't really want to get rid of. I bought the Mustang when I was single and free. Now I'm engaged and in turn my budget and the like have shifted as well. I'm trying to keep my purchase price as close to $7,000 as possible and right now I'm sitting at $7,500 with this SXT and hoping to get it down to $7,250 before I'm done.

Otherwise I'd be looking at the R/T or SRT-4 in a pinch.

Oh the things men do for the love of a woman

 

Speaking of women. My fiance just called me to let me know that my Mechanic flunked the Neon. Doh! Back on the road to find another option.