Spotted in China: Chrysler Neon

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A very dusty Chrysler Neon, Spotted in China on a car market in east Beijing. The poor vehicle was in a very bad shape and clearly abandoned, and somebody put a pair of shoes on the windshield! The horror. The Chrysler Neon was manufactured from 1994 until 2005. This green car in Beijing is a first generation example that was made from 1994 until 1999.

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Hard plastics will survive nuclear war. The Neon was sold under the Chrysler brand in Europe, Japan and Australia. In most other markets it was sold under the Dodge brand. The Neon was the successor of the Plymouth Sundance/Duster & Dodge/Plymouth Colt. The Chrysler Neon was never officially exported to China so how this dusty green example ended up in the capital is a mystery.

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A rather large wing for sporty and lettering in neon colors, because Neon. The Neon was available with two 2.0 four-cylinder engines, one with 150 hp and one with 132hp. In some markets a cheaper 1.8 was available as well. The Beijing Neon didn’t have any engine or trim badges but it seems to be a top-spec car.

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A fine American compact, too bad she ain’t riding no more…




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5 COMMENTS

  1. This is no ‘fine’ American compact. This car is utter shit, conceived by a shitty company, executed by a shitty team, and produced at a shitty factory. Its ride is shitty, build quality is shitty, handling is shitty, and reliability even shittier. All this shittiness contributed to the shitty Chrysler’s eventual bankruptcy and being taken over by a slightly less shitty company: Fiat.

    ‘Fine’ this car is not, and shitty it truly is.

    • Just kidding…I’d prefer a car like that over a Ferrari. I owned one in 1969 and it didn’t have any problems. In my opinion it should now be priced as much as 250000$. Truly a masterpiece that is.

  2. I agree wholeheartedly with Jeff’s first comment above. A truly dire car with no redeeming features whatsoever. The sort of deeply cynical, cheaply designed, cheaply engineered, cheaply made junk which led its maker to bankruptcy. Unsafe as well.

  3. The Neon was Chrysler’s first try at an “international” sub-compact. It was premiered at the Frankfurt motor show. As Jeff said, it was a disaster. I’m French and so is then-VP Francois Castaing. Castaing had to advocate the Neon in the french press, claiming the built-quality was “good enough”.

    About China, at one point, Chrysler wanted to built cars through their joint-venture with BAIC or with FAW. The Neon was among the cars considered for China. I think that a few Neon were made by FAW in the late nineties.
    Later on, Chrysler created the CCV, a modern Citroen 2cv for China. The study cost a lot of money and in the end, China (FAW ?) refused it. Castaing, who was involved in the CCV, served as a scape-goat.

    • Hello Joest,

      yes indeed, a few Neons were assembled in China at Beijing-Chrysler, but nothing came of it. The cars were basically hand-build and quality was horrible. as far as we know all were destroyed. the CCV was a response to a Chinese government program inviting foreign car makers to come up with a cheap car for the Chinese market. Porsche and Ford, among others, built concept cars as well. I am planning a series of articles on the program! (when I have time…).

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