Missing cars

I just realized I haven't seen a first-gen Neon in forever, even here on rust-free Vancouver Island where K-cars and '80s Nissan Stanzas are common and the odd Hyundai Pony still trundles around. What happened to them all?

My buddy and I were just waxing poetic the other day about his old R/T after we spied a mint example on the highway.

Someone told me that the neon really was a 90k mile chassis. It was a completely disposable car.

I want to say that "someone" was a Chrysler engineer or mechanic, but for the life of me can't remember where I heard that.

in the early 90's I had the opportunity to drive several pre-production Neons. Granted they were pre-production, but they were terrible cars. I assumed they sorted out a lot of stuff and a few years latter I rented one...still terrible.

In other news, it seems the first gen Chrysler Pacifica has all but disappeared.... at least in my area.

I had 2 '95 Neons and I wouldn't call them terrible by any standards you'd judge a car with a $10k-$12k new price tag (in 1995 $). Both of them were a hoot to drive, and other than the infamous headgaskets, never gave a lick of trouble.

I still see them here in the Midatlantic from time to time. Seeing a nice first-generation one makes me miss mine.

I find it kind of amusing that everybody complained about the first generation - kinda small, kinda rough, kinda noisy - but when Chrysler made an effort to solve those issues in the second generation, the same people complained that it was fat and dull now.

I see one every time I go out in the garage.

Or to rallycross.

Where I haven't seen one in a while is 2 out of the 3 local self service junkyards.

They had four problems. Cheap head gaskets, short suspension travel due to the styling of the day, frameless windows, and they were sold as a cheap throwaway car. And Duke is 100% correct. The second gen car was, in most ways, pretty much as good as the 2002 Accord my ex wife had, for Civic money. It solved the first three issues, but was tainted by the first gen car. My daughters 02 RT with leather was a perfectly nice car when we drove it across the nation and back two years ago.

It is also a hell of a lot more fun to drive than a Caliber.

You just need to drive a little south. There is an R/T in my driveway and one in my sisters a few blocks away.

As to 90k throw away cars, my coworker was amazed mine has 180k and still runs great since as part of the engine team at Chrysler, he knows they didn't run them in any test over 99k miles.

Streetwiseguy wrote: They had four problems. Cheap head gaskets, short suspension travel due to the styling of the day, frameless windows, and they were sold as a cheap throwaway car.

Five problems. People would misdiagnose a leaky cam position sensor as a bad head gasket.

The cam sensors almost always leak. It's just a really, REALLY bad design.

I saw a really clean example when I was out on the bike earlier today. They still exist here in the Portland/Vancouver area.

I see an SRT-4 on the road once or twice a month but never a plain Neon.

In reply to Knurled:

The oil sender will leak, and that's in the same area too...

White block Volvo will leak from the rear cam seal, and it will run into the bellhousing...like the V6 Hyundai with the oil sender that has a drain hole into the bellhousing...

Let's just say I'm pretty cautious when diagnosing leaks.

This is almost like the anti-unicorn. Cars that should be common, but have disappeared​.

I rarely see any neons these days, I also rarely see first gen Honda insights, which were really common in my area when they were new. Surprisingly I still see K-cars, GM J bodies and '90's Prism/Corolla fairly regularly.

In reply to HappyAndy:

I probably shouldn't talk when it comes to this subject. We don't all drive sub-10 year old cars here because we're rich, we do it because cars just don't last that long. Old cars are what people with a lot of money drive because they can afford to have three or four cars. Barring project cars, I typically have the oldest car in our parking lot and I have a 2002 Volvo, which has flappy fenders and I'm still debating on whether to throw a couple thousand bucks at the bodyshop to get that fixed or just throw the car away. (The floors are solid, and I have the chassis sorted, but the rockers and front fenders have kinda gone AWOL. Nothing under $2k is going to be any better and probably will be a lot worse)

I can't remember the last time I saw A Neon on the road, of any generation. Or anything with "Geo" in the title. Or any pre-Cobalt J-body. Or a pre-GenIII engined GM truck, or an early Mod-motor Ford truck, let alone an I-beam Ford.

I saw a square body Ranger last week and did a double take.

I remember seeing the early Plymouth Neons everywhere in that periwinkle blue that would be more primer than paint. Now, I can't remember the last 1st-gen Neon I saw.

The EA82 Subaru is a whole family of cars that have vanished off the automotive landscape. GL, DL, Loyale, RX, BRAT, they're all gone.

Great thread

The 1st gen neons vanished here as well

I have not seen:

MN12 thunderbird/cougar on the road in at least 5 years

A probe, either generation, in 5+years

A geo storm, metro or tracker in 3-5 years

A z32 z-car in at least 2-3 years (I see the older ones all the time)

A running Mazdaspeed protege in 1-2years

In reply to NickD:

A few months after I sent my GL to the big scrapyard in the sky (or, well, the next town over), I moved to Columbus, a couple hours southwest and on the other side of the ridge that separates the Great Lakes watershed from the Ohio/Mississippi River watershed. Go to a junkyard and there is a whole LINE of DL/GL/Loyale in far better shape body-wise than the one I just scrapped. I jacked one up by the rocker seam and it actually lifted the car!

A few years ago, many years after my Subaru experience, I helped a friend out at Sno*Drift up in the middle finger of Michigan's mitt. (It was subzero temps most of the weekend, and fitting to the thread, he was rallying a Neon) There was a lifted TORSION BAR era Subaru wagon. It's too cold for salt to work so you see a lot of old cars up there. Probably too cold for chemical reactions half the time, too

Was just wondering where all the e36s went around here. Then again the newest is what 18 years old?

I say a Plymouth Neon the other day.

What I haven't seen in a while is a Dodge Shadow. They were everywhere when I was in high school.

First gen solara.

Both of my neons had 175k+ when deer and rust took them, respectively. That said, neither had original transaxles, #1 went through 2 engines, and #2 only needed a head rebuild when the timing belt went.

In my area, box B bodies had returned to the earth 15 years ago.

When was the last time you saw a last gen Pontiac Bonneville? Even in the hood they are gone. Same with all but the latest model Chevy Impalas. Oddly enough there are still tons of 99+ Grand Prixes on the roads here in Milwaukee. First and second gen Neons are all gone, all the Chrysler minivans are gone, panther chassis cars are gone. Even early 00s Ford trucks are all gone other than Superdutys. I couldnt tell you the last time I saw a First gen Navigator, F150 in decent shape, or Expedition. The GM counterparts are still out there. I think GM styling and drivelines held up far better.

Yeah, the B-bodys are just gone. Bag on the donk guys all you want, at least they're saving them.

I'll add first gen 4Runners to that list. I've owned mine for 5 years and I've seen 3 on the road. 3 in 5 years.

I can easily tell most folks in this thread are not from the PNW.

My dad drives whatever chryco product is cheap and he said the computers on the 90's cars are going bad; he said it took four junkyard computers in his minivan and he couldn't find a good one for his neon. This is all anecdotal since he stopped working on his own cars twenty years ago and relies on whichever shade tree shop he lives near at the time.