The first car I ever bought was a slightly-used (it had about 2,000 miles on it) 1997 Dodge Neon coupe. It had the more powerful engine option and a rear spoiler (which didn't seem to make it go faster, really), but as my dad described it, "It feels like the engine is powered by rubber bands."

Pretty nice car. Big difference between 96 and 97! I like that it has a sporty look to it. I got it used but it is in great condition and have not needed to put any work into it yet. If you need a starter car this is the way to go. You can find them pretty low in price.

For what it lacked in over-all performance (even though with the 5-speed transmission it was pretty quick), it made up for in durability and driveability. The car was just short of indestructible and an excellent winter driver. It's still humming along after the front end and head gasket were done (a major flaw in all Neons from that era).

good affordable and good stock performance cheap on part easy to fix and will last along time looks on the other hand are not so good from factory but with some the can look very good tint lights rims body kit and so on

0 to 60 in around 7 seconds. 150hp stock (wipes out the rest of cars in that class), dump 3 grand into this car and expect to smoke vettes. very good on gas. handles great. easy to maintain, but some expensive parts.