and I'm now broke.............

[Joe Handley]

I finally did it today guys.....and now I won't able to do much else for a while!

Boy is that V-6 strong too!

[george 53]

THANK YOU, for buying AMERICAN!!!!!!

[slantasaurus]

Looks good Joe. my mom is thinking of getting a 200......now you need to make a road trip to Florida to break it in,

[Joe Handley]

THANK YOU, for buying AMERICAN!!!!!!

Thank You George, and proud to do so at that! Beleive it or not, Not only is the 5th American made vehicle I've owned, but it's the third one I've owned that was built in that same Sterling Heights, Michigan plant too!

Here's the last two I've owned that were built in that plant

Looks good Joe. my mom is thinking of getting a 200......now you need to make a road trip to Florida to break it in,

Thanks Ron, so far I love the car and the mileage could be around 10mpg better than my XJ gets too if what I got on the drive home from the dealer is any indication Tell her to take a 200 for a drive if she gets the chance, there is torque steer with the V-6, but nothing worse than what my Lebaron GTS ever threw at me.....and that thing could get down right EVIL if it felt like it

Edited April 8, 2012 by Joe Handley

[Dr. Cranky]

Nice ride. Congrats.

[Joe Handley]

Thanks Virgil!

[Dave Van]

What happened to all the Shadows??? I knew a number of folks that had them....I kinds liked them...but not a one is on the road today........The Plymouth version was????

[Joe Handley]

I've been wondering that for a while now Dave, same with the first gen Neons, used to be tons of them, now they seem to be pretty rare around here. The Plymouth versions were called the Sundance, and the later, post turbo Plymouths were known as Dusters (not exactly slow for their day IIRC, but the Chrysler 4speed Auto's were less than reliable).

Edited April 8, 2012 by Joe Handley

[GeeBee]

Looks very nice !!

[martinfan5]

Congrats on the new car

Same out here, you dont see a lot of Neons anymore, I am sure there a few reason why.

THANK YOU, for buying AMERICAN!!!!!!

You do know that Fiat owns 58.5% of Chrysler, so that makes it more of an Italian company then a US company, the UAW owns 41.5%

Edited April 8, 2012 by martinfan5

[ronr]

Good choice Joe! I bought one just like it 3 months ago. Made a trip to Tenn. and averaged 31.8 mpg. you are right , at 297 hp that v6 has plenty of pep.

[shucky]

congrats Joe! Looks sharp.

[Joe Handley]

Thanks guys, and Mike, keep an eye out for it at the store here shortly too. One I've got it reported to my insurer and can get a card, it'll be my new driver instead of my XJ.

[crazyjim]

Nice looking vehicle, Joe. Congrats. What's going to happen with your Jeep?

[Joe Handley]

Nice looking vehicle, Joe. Congrats. What's going to happen with your Jeep?

It's going to get a new pair of rear speakers, brake job, and new front shocks this spring or summer (got the parts, just need the time to put them on) and I've wanting to replace the dead d/s power seat assembly with a junk yard manual assembly, so if I can afford that too I will. Since like the rear brakes, the u-joints on tne drive shafts are probably factory pieces (I bought it with 54k, so the most likely will be), we need to look at those too and should probably rotate the tires for good measure. while it's in the air for brakes and shocks.

[Deathgoblin]

Very nice! Good looking car!

[Joe Handley]

Thanks Brian!

[Rob McKee]

Oh boy, that is the best model car I have ever seen. The detail is unbelievable!

Really though, the 200 is a nice looking car. Congratulations

[Joe Handley]

Thanks Rob, wish I could get one in styrene, diecast, and even lexan!

[cobraman]

Nice car. Those replaced the Sebring, right ?

[Joe Handley]

Nice car. Those replaced the Sebring, right ?

Yup, it's actually built on the same basic unibody, but the only thing they didn't really alter was the roofline and maybe the door skins when they reworked it for the 200.

[martinfan5]

Whats the trunk space like?, and 31 mpg not bad either

[Joe Handley]

It's deeeep even though the truck lid and opening appear tiny Jonathan, jokingly told a co-worker it would probably fit a couple bodies back there (hey now, I did grow up in the Chicago area )

Gas mileage will be far better than my XJ too, we're going up to Road America for the NASCAR Nationwide race this summer and this will be far more comfortable for the drive than my Jeep besides getting much better mileage.

[JMChladek]

A lot of the Neons went bye bye when it became too much to fix them. I heard a few suffered from Head Gasket failures due to warped heads over 100,000 miles. One mechanic I know said he fixed it on one car belonging to a salesman (who put A LOT of miles on his car), by fitting a heavier duty racing head. It was expensive, but so is replacing the head itself (and the guy tended to put close to 100,000 miles on his car each year from all the traveling he did) and it cured the problem enough for it to last another 400,000 miles.

The Shadows and Sundances were decent, although the bodies tended to go to pot easily from peeling paint and trim. I almost bought a turbo one, but for a kid like me who was in his mid 20s at the time, the last thing I needed was the potential speeding ticket magnet and high maintenance of the turbo, so I passed (it was fun to test drive though with a five speed stick). I have a feeling some of these cars ended up as victims of the car buy back program from a few years ago.

I have to admit, while the Dodges of the 1990s and early 2000s were not what I would call great, the new product line is certainly a major improvement. Next time I am up for a car, I might pay them a visit.

[RodneyBad]

Great looking 200.

Looked into gettin one but I didn't have a decent dealer left in town.

So I bought a Mazda3

Edited April 9, 2012 by RodneyBad