Amy desperately needed a car. We were working different schedules and I needed to be home early for when my son got home from school. Downside is that her credit got royally screwed from her divorce, so no dealer would touch her without huge sums of money.
Off to the classifieds we go. We found a nice little 95 Dodge Neon down in Richmond for sale for $1100. When we got there it was getting a little late but we still got in and drove it around. It looked great. The guy was a mechanic and it seemed like he took good care of it. We made the buy and it made the drive from Richmond to Fairfax with no problems at all. This was a little over a month ago.
Fast forward to yesterday. She calls me up at lunch time to say that she is stuck. She heard a small pop and the car now has no power. I go pick her up and I drive the car to the service station. It’s running on Idle, no power when I press the gas. a mix of white and black smoke coming out the back.
The service station says that one of the vacuum hoses for the fuel injector system blew and they would have to replace it before they can hook it up to the diag machine. No biggie, it looks like fixing that hose might do the trick. Well, after that is fixed and they can run the diagnostic, it looks like hell under the hood. Turns out the fuel injectors are stuck in the open position, the wiring harness is in horrible condition, the computer may be fried because they are getting really bad readings from it.
All in all it would cost well over $2000 to bring it back. I sadly limp it home (less than a mile and it used 1/8th of a tank) Amy is completely broken up about it. I just don’t know what else to do.
I wish I could hug you and Amy too. I have been there and it is hard. Love you, Mom
Look into a “used” engine. Should no be that hard to find in the salvage yards. Find a repair book if you can. Label everything, take pics, remove the hood and go for it. I’ve done it and the car ran great afterwords. Another thought…service stations charge an arm and a leg, plus the other knee cap, for repairs. Get a couple of quotes from qualified mechanics and I think you will see a big difference.
It’s really not worth it, a few of the forums I am on say that the 95 neon is one of the worst cars you can get. We are looking at other options now.
I say have a block party if 500 people show up raffle it off, even if you two dollars a person it will be enough to get another car.