Quote:
Originally posted by Kurt_W
I would imagine the engine and tranny in the car were ill maintained. The engine barely had enough power to get up the hills around here and the tranny clunked readily under moderate and heavy acceleration. It also hunted continuously because it was never happy with the gear it was in, even on flat ground. Aside the drivetrain the Neon was a nice car…however, having a crappy drivetrain really takes away from the car.
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I'd attribute that to 1: it being a rental car (read abused), and 2: having a slug-o-matic in a small car with a small engine. A neon with a 5spd and SOHC is actually a bit peppier than the DOHC engine, even though it has lower peak numbers because the powerband starts at lower RPMS. While I don't doubt your experiences, I'd make sure you catergorize that as a 'rental neon with the wrong transmission' instead of applying that catergorization to all neons.
Automatics suck... for comparison, an automatic neon will run the 1/4 in about 17-18seconds... a 5spd (sohc) will run it in low 16s... and a DOHC will do mid 15s... some as low as 15.3, stock. Pretty big difference I'd say.
- Rob