Cheap Turbo: Dodge Neon SRT-4

I met a man who was stopped at the gas station because his air intake flies off if he goes above 20psi boost. I started talking to him about it and mentioned my website after which he stated that these Neon SRT-4s are actually selling for under $3,000. I had gone up to him originally just to check out his build. It looked nice.

The guy owns a graphic design shop with his friend so I guess here's a plug. Hey buddy, maybe you can hook me up with free s***?

I want a decal that says "P***y Monster" (not party...) on top of my windshield. Well, maybe not. That's not VIP. It should say "Clout Nation" or something.

Let's get to this Neon SRT-4. I'm calling it The SRT-4 from now on. I know they have a reputation for blowing head gaskets (is that what it is?) and that would have mattered if the car cost me $15k. Couple thousand... I don't care!

Actually people, this is the best turbo deal I could find. Yeah the Saab is way more comfortable, ergonomic, and unique but for those who just want a car to haul ass, this is perfect.

I did my Craigslist test. Put in a car and set the maximum price at $3,000. Oh, here we go. The first ad is for a clean, running, up to date but modified (I will talk about this later) SRT-4. Clean, no real problems that I can tell.

That one has 109,xxx miles and is being sold for $2,000 leaving you some money to fix any loose ends.

Even the mods look well done at a quick glance. These cars have a similar problem to NSXs - good luck finding an unmodified one. If you do, it will also cost you more. Now buying a modded car is a good thing if everything is done right. You get a bunch of expensive aftermarket parts and the car comes with more power. Great.

Avoid ricers like they have the plague, however. Look at the engines above - they're well done. If it looks like a 16-year-old kid put it together in his parents' garage and made a manual boost controller from Home Depot parts, just leave it. You're going to have problems popping up over and over.

If you find a car like that for really cheap and think you can handle it, at least drive it for like 10 miles. If the owner has deleted Check Engine codes, they should come back up. This is an unsavory practice that might take a couple hundred off the price but just remember that a cheap car that can't be brought back to how it was, ever, is only worth it if you want to have fun until the car dies.

That is clean and well done. The air intake gives it away a lot of times. The real tuners will get a custom one that fits like this one while the aforementioned teen is going to stuff in parts from AutoZone.

In stock form, the car comes with 230 horsepower and gets 22-30 mpg. This is just me but I would do some simple mods to get the car and extra 50 horsepower and enjoy the reliability and gas mileage.

I will admit I never really liked these cars but after learning more, they're definitely a steal especially if you want a turbo front wheel drive car.