So far Neon has got 110K miles on it... I feel compelled to make everything I drive fast. However, long before I got in the Supra, I was a devout Dodge man. The Choice to buy the Neon was mainly price. 5 Grand for an 01 Neon R/T. A 5-speed manual, 2.0L "HO" motor (supposedly 150hp to the FW) LEATHER interior, side impact airbags, and the usual go-fast looking crap: wheels, spoiler, lip kit. I find people always have misconceptions about the car. Yes, it's a NEON. Yes there have been recalls, and nightmarish stories about head gasket failure etc.. But this is NOT a surprise to me, since my FIRST car (Supra) decided to blow it's head gasket 3 times. It's a cheaply made car with most of the interior covered in hard plastic, but it IS a fun car, albeit FWD. I can toss it into a corner with much more zeal than I could with some civic or camry. I like to EXPERIENCE the drive in whatever car I'm in. Whether it's about comfort or fun. So whatever you think a daily driver should be, it's not my definition if it isn't this:
"A Daily Driver should be just enough to keep your tongue wait until the weekend comes and you pull your weekend racer out of the garage. It should be fun, and it should be practical. Depending on your preferences, reliability and gas mileage will be up to you. Easy to Maintain (what american car isn't?) , cheap to fix (alot cheaper than that Civic I used to own), and above all else, you should be happy with the car."
This is my conviction. I live by it. I could have gotten a Civic or a Camry, or and Accord or whatever, but those cars don't appeal to my dogma. They are tired, bland, and boring. Because of their popularity, I run the risk of seeing something exactly like it. So far, I have seen 2 R/T's. I've seen more SRT's then that. I like being different. I don't like having what everyone else has. I accept the possible risk and can only hope. To me, a car being "more reliable according to it's brand" is a bunch of bullshit. I admit, I'm probably more jaded than most. I've owend an Acura Integra that developed blow-by then crashed that into a wall, an old Civic whose clutch unwittingly failed on me then gets stolen, another Civic that would eat up brakes every couple of months, and finally, the Wonderfully engineered Supra, that decides to blow it's head gasket 3 times with a 55lb/ft head torque rating. I don't regret owning any of those cars. In fact, each allowed me to be a bit different in the way they looked and drove. And I still love my Supra. More than Turboing the Neon, I want to see her run. But $$ rules the buying world, and deals shouldn't always be passed up. I seem to have better luck sticking to Toyota or DCX products (my cousin's first car was a toyota truck I found online. She drove it until it DIED at almost 300K miles). My mom wrecked our old Dodge Caravan that was going on to 160K miles. Our current Chrysler New Yorker has about 140K miles on it. The worst that happened was a seized A/C compressor. I could go on about cons and pros, but I figure, if you don't take risk you'll end up regretting what COULD have been, rather than taking the risk and whatever happens, you may or may not regret it, but you have that chance of not. If you let the opportunity slip by, you WILL regret it guaranteed.
With that essay being ripped out, I decided that Yes, I will turbo the Neon. I don't care if it's a Neon. I care that it'll be fun. Take precautions in reliability as much as I can, but you can't predict what you don't know. Only make assumptions.. and I'm not too keen on making those. I'm not going to be dumb and boost 10lbs into the motor until I decide to get headwork/gasket redone. At the very LEAST it will not be as finicky as the Supra. However, I won't have a place to work on it until winter break. Plus I got to figure out how the hell I'm going to move the Supra (apparently the construction worker's need "room" to work.) Slackers.
Either way, thanks for everyone's opinions, it was good to see how other's view the situation.
