Usually I find them heart breaking if it’s a modified car. At a certain point after the fire starts, there’s a chance to save your hard work and ambitions. After a minute and some change, it becomes un savable.

I’ve been driving and working on cars for a long time, starting off as a stupid 16 year old, and eventually becoming a stupid 35 year old. I’ve had fuel/oil leaks, I’ve spilled stuff on hot engines, used torches on brake lines to get fittings to come free, had a small nitrous backfire on my old neon I drag raced, had…

They obviously did it for youtube views aka money. But it’s hilarious, and was probably fun.

1) Hopefully your friends driving skills have improved

I’ll second this. You can get suspension parts from a multitude of vehicles, Daytonas, Shadows, minivans, and you can adapt Dodge Neon struts or even PT cruiser coilovers all around. A great beginners platform. Hell, turning the timing up from 12 degrees to 16 makes it way more fun to drive.

They’re just fine as a commuter car or a teenager car. 

They’ve always been great for me. I’ve never been let down by one. 

Either a 1gn Dodge Neon, or an SRT-4.  They’ll teach him how to upgrade and perform basic maintenance.  My first neon was perfect for me as a teenager.

I think it started one generation before, with the neon SRT-4. Cars that came from the factory able to run 13's for under $20k, and with factory backed performance upgrades. For $25K you could conceivably have a car that would run 11's on 100 octane at the track and still get you decent MPG on your commute to work.

No Two Lane Blacktop?

Apparently Courtney Love was the first person to ever go to prom.

I’ve had 3 SRT-4's, currently own 2 of em, along with my SRT-4 swapped LeBaron.  They’re fun cars, other than the 3rd gear issues lol.

They’re pretty easy to work on, fun to drive, quirky in their 90's type of way, and the cars and parts are cheap. I really enjoy them, they’re an underrated enthusiast’s car.

In my opinion? Probably a 1995 Lapis blue ACR coupe. The holy grail would be one with all its paint. Second would be a nitro yellow green ACR sedan, which I happen to own one of. 3rd would be a 2004 solar yellow SRT4, since that was an 03 color and there weren’t many 04’s made in that color.

It’s cheaper than a Meth addiction 

I’ve had 15 or so neons so far lol

I once bought a 95 Dodge Neon off craigslist. I pre-negotiated the price to $200 since the owner said the car “ran fine until it warmed up and then would turn off”. I assumed it was a crank sensor, brought a brand used sensor and a wire pigtail with me since the wiring changed in late 96 or 97. Wife and I hit the road…

Potholes bend aluminum wheels, where steelies don’t bend as easily. Or if it’s really bad, I’ve banged a steelie them back into shape with a hammer and kept on rolling.

I just lost the game.

You must’ve never driven a PT.  Or only one that had a hard, neglectful life.  Although it’s steering wasn’t as precise as my neon on coilovers with an autocross alignment, the PT was just fine for driving, my kids would fall asleep on long road trips, and we put 20K miles on it (from 130-150K).  We only stopped…