One of the things I love about this profession is that you’re always learning or discovering something new. You think you know everything about a certain model or company and then boom, something new comes along. This happened to me recently when I discovered something both interesting and weirdly off-putting about the Dodge Neon.
Now we all know the Neon was Chrysler’s small car, sold across two generations for just over a decade before it went out of production in 2005. Here in the U.S., it was sold under both the Dodge and Plymouth brands. But apparently, in more than 17 countries across three continents (South America, Australia and Europe) the Neon was sold as a Chrysler.
While it was Chrysler in each of these markets, it was equipped differently depending on where it was offered. In Australia, it only received two trim levels — SE and LX; Japan only ever received the Neon sedan and it was the first small car sold by Chrysler in the country. Meanwhile, Europe got a special edition CS trim that came with a bunch of luxury features, silver paint and the Neon R/T’s suspension.
What’s more interesting is how the styling differs from the Neon we know over here, especially on second-generation models. First-gen Chrysler Neons were identical to our Neon, save for the Chrysler medallion badge and amber rear turn signal lights. Second-gen Chrysler Neons had a slightly different front fascia and rear end compared with ours.
U.S. Neons had a slotted grille opening with a thin chrome bar that was flanked by amber turn signals and a three-slot lower grille.
Chrysler Neons had, dare I say, a more mature(?) front aesthetic. The U-like design made the front grille a bit smaller, but still large enough to hold Chrysler’s winged badge. Meanwhile, this also separated the turn signal lamps from the inner grille.
Around the back, all Chrysler Neons wore amber rear turn signals set into the top of tail lamps and bumper reflectors, which honestly looked out of place. Things changed even more when Dodge refreshed the Neon to give it its signature crosshair grille, and even more so when the Neon received a heavy refresh towards the end of its run.
However, by the early to mid 2000s, the Chrysler Neon was slowly fading away in different markets. By 2002 it was discontinued in Australia and replaced by the PT Cruiser in Japan. In Canada, it was absorbed into the Dodge lineup and weirdly renamed the Dodge SX 2.0.
I know there were other models that Chrysler did this same thing with, take the Chrysler Stratus as another example. But for some reason, it’s just not as strange as seeing a Neon with a Chrysler badge. It’s weird. Like, make my skin itch while I’m staring at it weird for some reason.
The Chrysler Neon’s existence makes me wonder how cool something like a Chrysler-badged Challenger would have been in Europe had the brand still been the face of the company.