I would certainly hope so too... although I have seen people who had no clue what a spark plug even is, so then again I assume nothing when it comes to... well, just about everything lol.

 

platinum is supposed to be 'bad' because of the reverse current 'waste spark' in the neon ignition system. This unduly erodes the platinum coating on the one tip, causing them to wear out much faster than platinum is advertised to last.

nobody should notice any real performance 'drop' though, at least not until such time as you erode that platinum coating away.

however, I tried some platinum +4's when i got my neon because the originals were aging and i really wanted to pamper the car. This was before reading up on the neon + platinum debacle. When i realized I had installed the wrong sort for a neon engine, I figured i'd give them a good 20k miles before pulling them out, thinking they wouldn't degrade overnight. strangely I noticed a decrease in idle quality, low rpm performance, and fuel economy, starting about 2 weeks after installation. When I pulled them out, the platinum wasn't eroded yet, i mean i only had them in for a month. They just really sucked as spark plugs in my neon. I suspect gapping was the issue, they just didn't spark well with any soot on them. Replaced them with iridiums, runs great.

So above and beyond platinum issues, I feel that the +2 and +4 design (whether platinum or not) is just a poor match for a neon. most cars have a larger gap than neons do. gm for example usually runs 45, not 35. that's a visually noticeable difference.

wouldn't gappable single prong spark plugs with platinum on *both* electrodes work fairly well though? I forget the brand, but i've seen those around. or platinums with a solid platinum alloy tip instead of a super thin coating? I mean hypothetically, looking at the science of why platinums degrade so fast in a waste spark system, I don't see why those particular sorts would be problematic.

 

Here is my$.02. I will not add all the tech write ups some have. But more my personal experience. I ran platinum plugs after I bought the neon. It ran so bad, wife came out and thought I messed the car up and was really worried. I took them back, I then bought NGK and the car runs a 100x better.

 

been running the NGK G-power platinum plugs for 6 months now, no problems what so ever, plugs look like they are brand new

 

im goin to try the ngks's i've been sticking to champion for the past yrs i never heard ngk's in a american car

 

If you note in the owners manual, you shouldn't have to change the plugs more than every 80K miles. Unless of course, you have figured out a way to put a mechanical distributor in the car.

 

In my 01 Neon I ran the bosch platinum 4's it never had any problems and i got around 30-33 mpg per fill up.

 

My 2000 neon runs rough at idle especially with the a/c running. when I let the car crawl at idle it jerks in drive or reverse. After reading your posts I pulled out my platinum plugs and replaced them with standard NGKs. The car runs a lot smoother now. I found a little oil in the spark plug tubes so I decided to replace the seals at the same time. I think they may have been the original seals because they were hard as plastic. I like easy fixes.

 

Agree'd my$.02 (gcrn7081)