I doubt many of you even know who I am as I hang out mostly with the Ram guys, but there is a strong possibility that I might be joining the Neon crew. lol

Honestly, with gas prices getting outrageous and me driving 105 miles a day between work and school, something has to give. I did some checking the other day and over the last month, around 54% of my income has gone straight to gas and that's sadly including the fact that I didn't travel any extra distances. Not to mention the fact that I really don't like racking up miles that quick on my Ram.

So, in my effort to find something easy on gas, I came across a 2004 SXT 5sp manual. The car has 117,xxx miles on it which for my area isn't too bad. I took a look at it yesterday and the motor, transmission and clutch all feel pretty well solid, but the car does have some issues.

It's owned by a kid who is in school just like I am and a few months back, he managed to rear end another vehicle. When that happened, he damaged the following:

Bumper cover- Seems to have only torn that up considering the bumper still looks fairly well intact.
Radiator core support- Tore the flange on the front of the support up a bit (enough that the hood latch system was weakened)
Driver's front quarter panel
Both headlights- But has been replaced

About a month later, I guess the hood flew up while he was driving on the highway shattering the windshield and putting a nice crease in the roof right by the windshield seal at the top.

So, to break it down, I'm going to need a few parts and so far, I'm seeing that about $600 should cover most of it excluding paint and what not because A. I'm not looking for stylish looks and B. I have the tools here to do a full on paint job.

The motor is leaking some oil at the back and I'm not sure quite what's going on with that. I'm assuming it's a buggered valve cover gasket or the oil sending unit. I have read most of the FAQ here in this section, but I'm still going to ask about what you guys seem to think is the most important items that need to be inspected about these cars. The seller was asking 2000, but I've got him down to 1750 and I'm hoping to go a little lower than that to keep my budget happy.





Thoughts?

 

In here, I've listed all of the Neon-specific things to look for that I can think of. Other than those listed, you've got the rest covered it seems.

 

Don't forget the sway bar bushings. And I've seen it a lot where the shock rods on the rear will start to rust at the top, pull down the boot and take a look, it usually makes a squeak noise.

 

Checked that as well. No squeaky and it looks fairly clean.

My main concern right now is trying to see if anything else was fouled up in the wreck honestly.

I know at some point that the radiator will need replaced because it's bowed as is. Which to me is odd considering they usually just snap.

 

One other thing to check, saw a Neon that got into a front end collision and Dodge puts the PCM right behind the radiator, and on this particular Neon the PCM got shoved into the transmission.

 

I'll keep that in mind, but I don't think the impact was severe enough to do any of that. I mean, the core support was buggered up from the hood flying up not the impact of the other car.

Overall thoughts about the deal on the car though?

 

If the motor/trans/clutch is solid, and the related drive components are also good, then I say buy it for under $2k. You can always probably find a new quarter panel, hood, and bumper from a scrapyard and refinish and paint as you say. This is assuming that the ECU and other components are safe after the impact, which it sounds like you already have a handle on. If everything else is good though, I would buy it. Just don't buy it for the gas mileage though, unless you plan on owning the Neon for more than 3 or 4 years. If you do the math on the gas mileage expenses, then multiply by the time owned minus the amount spent on the extra vehicle, it takes a lot more time to make up the $ difference in gas mileage compared to a truck than some people usually consider.