I bought the car as a Dodge program car. First mistake, no warranties are honored, something they don't tell you. The head went bad on a trip to MD for my mom's funeral. In the middle to no mans land @ 1am the check engine light comes on and I have to keep going @ 25 miles an hour. One dealership said it was my gas cap, corrected the problem til the trip home. Same problem at another dealership they said it was transmission fluid. Several hours down the road same problem. Again late at night, no place to go but home. Once back in Kansas City, the dealership tried and had my car for 2 weeks, and of course Dodge would not give me a rental. Finally it came down to getting a new head and again no help from Dodge

As this is the #1 problem with everyone that owns the 2005 neon. I can tell you that it has gone to service at least 20 times and each time I take it they say they fix it by changing the motor mounts. Oh, but when they run out of mounts to change their excuse is that all neons are like that. They all vibrate and shake. I paid 17k for my neon, for someone to come and tell me that the car is just made that way. Then what kind of garbage is dodge selling, what kind of garbage is chrysler making? If you can't return it as a lemon, then call chrysler and fight with them. When you take the car in for the same problem over and over, guess what? the car is defective.

34000 miles on my car and the check engine light comes on as multiple cylinder misfire. I take it to the dealership and they say I'm due for my tune up ($100) and thats the problem. I get a tune up and they replace one of the wires to the plugs cause its going bad. 2 days later engine light is back on with the same problem. They replace other 3 wires to the plugs free of charge and send me on my way. 3 days later light is back on with same problem. They keep my car for a WEEK and this is what the write up on the sheet says "Run PCM Self-test P0304 engine mis at idle, Run compression text #4 70psi air check cyl. #4 ex valve leaking. Remove head for valve jab replace. 1 exh all valve on #4 cyl. 2. fnt run assible. test drive." 45 minutes after getting my car. the light came back on.

I've noticed a couple people have reported problems similar so i'd appreciate any help as to how this finally got resolved.

This problem initally appeared at 33,500 miles. A pretty rough misfire. Dodge dealer told me it needed a tune up (at 33,500 miles??), plugs, wires, etc.. Did all of this and the problem re-appeared 10,000 miles later. Now, I'm no super mechanic, but I'm pretty sure that a newer car should be able to go longer than 10,000 miles without a major tune up. It seems that the same cylinder is continuinally misfiring.

Update from Jun 22, 2010: Just realized I hadn't updated this complaint since initially filing it. So, let's see, this was at approximately 45,000 miles...and the problem continued throughout my ownership. I replaced everything (coil, wires, plugs), and at approximately 95,000, I couldn't get it to pass emissions because it continually threw a check engine light. Long story short, I had my fill of this neon and got rid of it. At the end of the day, something internal to these engines is the problem, either a bad valve or something more interesting. Point being, Dodge really screwed the pooch on these things...apparently, the year 2005 was a bad one for them since my '05 Durango had SERIOUS gas tank issues that Dodge continually denies as a safety recall. That's a story for another day, but after the problems I had with the neon and durango, I certainly would have to think hard about buying another Mopar product, despite being a lifetime loyal owner.