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The Neon: design objectives
Although they were the least expensive passenger cars in the Chrysler Corporation lineup, the personality-filled 1995 Dodge and Plymouth Neon were not the product of some company-wide scavenger hunt. When Chrysler's Small Car Platform Team members refer to the Neon as an all-new small car right down to the tires, they mean just that.
At the some time, this all-new car was developed with an investment of just $1 .3 billion. "There is nothing borrowed on this car," said Cliff Davis, executive engineer for body-in- white and chassis engineering. "In no way is the Neon a down-sized version of one of our other platforms."
Of course, team members had to manage their money wisely to create Neon's ultimate unique fun-to-drive personality in the most cost-driven segment of the market. "We asked ourselves up front what were the important things we had to give the customer," recalled Davis. "We knew we couldn't give them everything because, if we did, we'd wind up with a car no one could afford."
Instead, platform team members focused on the 25 or so features that extensive market research told them owners cared about in their cars.
"We decided it had to be a car that is fun to drive," continued Davis. "It had to have good value, quality and offer the ultimate in small-car performance and handling, as well as a competitive ride. "We had to make sure we did those things well. And we feel we've accomplished the job. Neon is best-in-class in several areas, performance and room, handling and steering, to name just a few."
Interior roominess, particularly in the front seats, is such that a driver 6 feet, 6 inches tall can sit comfortably without the head touching the roof. Neon had the only hardtop-style glass door construction in its class, a feature that adds even more to its sleek cab-forward design and also contributes to its low co-efficient of drag (.0328 CD - 23% less than Shadow/Sundance and better than most others in its class).
"The real challenge was to develop door glass that stayed sealed at speeds of more than 100 miles an hour," said Davis. "If you look at it closely, the glass seals right against the aperture. When you open the door, there's no frame over the upper portions of the glass." Hardtop glass creates two benefits, said Davis. "It improves high-speed wind noise, and creates a better appearance because it is flush."
The Neon's structure and stiffness
The torsional rigidity of Neon's body ranked right at the top of vehicles in its segment. Neon's Unibody structure possesses outstanding torsional and bending stiffness with light weight. A measured rate of 6000 Ib-ft/degree exceeds the target value by over 9% and the competitive benchmark by over 12%. The increased stiffness contributes to handling precision, ride quality, low noise and low vibrationÑan overall solid feel. Body bending stiffness (a first mode dynamic bending natural frequency of 25 Hz) exceeds that of benchmark vehicles. It contributes to ride quality, because the body will not resonate with lower frequency inputs coming through the suspension systern. High bending stiffness also reduces the vibration of secondary components such as the instrument panel and steering column, because it does not transmit these frequencies. Weight is minimized through the use of lower gauge steel and more high-strength steel, including the front longitudinal rails and most of the engine compartment, than in any previous Chrysler car. Weld flange width, which usually provides no structural benefit, has also been minimized to save weight.
Hood and trunk lid
The hood has lightweight single pivot hinges at the rear. It is held open for service by a prop rod that is clipped to the radiator closure panel when not in use.
The trunk lid swings forward when open for easy loading on tubular gooseneck hinges. The trunk opening has a raised flange to prevent water runoff from entering. A coil spring counter balance rnechanism on each hinge helps raise the lid and hold it open. The coil springs create minimum cargo volume and pass-through restriction.
Neon's door, trunk lid and hood inner and outer panels are hemmedÑthe outer panel is folded smoothly over the innerÑfor a clean appearance. Appearance is further enhanced by bonding the panels with an adhesive that eliminates the need for spot welds on the hem.
Body shell
One-piece body-side aperture construction provides dimensional integrity for the door openings. It is joined to the roof at a longitudinal recess inboard of the door openings that provides a path for water running off of the roof inboard of the door openings. The joint is covered by an extruded black PVC plastic strip that is bonded to the body. A partially closed cowl plenum contributes to body torsional stiffness, provides an intake point for ventilating air and provides a place to mount the windshield wiper system. A black plastic screen covers the plenum area. A structural shelf panel behind the rear seat also contributes to torsional stiffness. Cars shipped overseas have front and rear towing hooks that are also used as shipping tie-downs.
Grill, bumpers, and fascias
A single grille bar ''floats'' between the leading edge of the hood and the top of the fascia. It is painted dark quartz on the Base series and body color on Highline and Sport series.
Base and Highline series have molded-in-color fascias with a grained finish. The base series fascia color is dark quartz. At introduction, Highline series molded-in-color fascias will be available in white. Later, blue and gray will be added. These colors complement rather than exactly match the body color. Neon is the first US car to have fascias molded in complementary colors. Previous molded-incolor fascias have been black or gray only. Fascias in the other Highline series body colors are painted. The Sport series has uniquely styled fascias with a smooth, two-tone painted finish in body color with quartz-colored nerf strip.
The bumper and fascia system provides impact protection for any part of the body not directly in the load path and for safety-related components in frontal and corner impacts up to 5 mph (8 km/hr). This system exceeds bumper performance requirements in all markets. Molded high-density polypropylene bead foam energy-absorbing material cushions the impacts and helps maintain original fascia shape. Box-section bumper beams of ultra-high strength steel bolt directly to the body structure. The fascias extend beyond the adjacent sheet metal a minimal amount because the combination of foam energy absorbing material and rigid beams is more efficient than the commonly used stroking energy absorbers.
The fascias are molded from TPO (thermoplastic olefin), a mixture of polypropylene and rubber. They define the lower body configuration fore and aft of the wheel openings. For light weight and simplicity, no supporting structure is required inboard of the fascias. The fascias are supported at the wheel openings by slides that allow them to move longitudinally during impact.
Ornaments on the Plymouth and Dodge Neon
Neon exterior ornamentation varies with model and price class. Available items include the following
- A molded black ABS plastic applique on the B pillar provides a pillarless appearance.
- Adhesive-bonded body-side moldings in quartz accent color are optional on the Base series and standard on the Sport series.
- Body-color adhesive-bonded body-side moldings are standard on the Highline series.
- An optional roof-mounted ''life style'' rack has black ABS-blend side rails with fixed cross bar stanchions. The rails attach directly over the roof aperture panel moldings using screws into sealed Rivnutsª. The rack may be factory or dealer installed. Steel cross bars placed 24 inches (610 mm) apart are slotted to accept a variety of carrier accessories for bicycles, skis, etc. These accessories are available from Chrysler dealers. Easilyremovable snap-in moldings cover the slots when carrier accessories are not installed to minimize wind noise from the rack. The cross bars are also removable.
- At introduction, Dodge models have a ram's head decal on the hood. As a running change, this will be replaced by a color-keyed ram's head medallion.
- At introduction, Plymouth models have a corporate Pentastar-in-a-circle decal on the hood. As a running change, this will be replaced by a dimensional graphic medallion of the same design.
- All models have a dimensional graphic "Neon" rear name plate in Iris or Turquoise depending on the color of the vehicle.
- Sport models have a trunk lid tape stripe and script ''Sport'' decal.
Glass on the Dodge and Plymouth Neon
With cab forward design, the base of the windshield is at least 5 in. (125 mm) forward of that on any competitive car and reclined 60.5¡, placing it in essentially the same position as the LH cars - the original cab forward design. The windshield and rear window are mounted flush with the body openings and trimmed with simple push-on moldings of extruded black PVC plastic. The rear window is tinted and includes a black band across the top with a series of decreasing-width stripes that blend into the clear area. Tinted glass in the door windows and windshield is standard on Highline and Sport series and included with air conditioning on the Base series.
Neon corrosion protection and paint
Except for the roof, all exterior body panels are galvannealed with zinc on both sides for life-of-thecar corrosion protection. The body assembly is thoroughly cleaned by immersion and then coated with manganesemodified zinc-phosphate crystals, also through immersion, to improve primer adherence. Primer is applied using an electro-coat process in which the body is electrically charged during immersion in primer solution to assure complete primer coverage. Besides providing a base for the finish coat, the primer is chemically formulated to resist corrosion. If the paint and primer are chipped, the primer resists the spread of corrosion under the paint. For protection against stone damage, an anti-chip coating is applied to the leading edges of the hood and front fenders. Because of Neon's low hood line, this is especially helpful. The lower body sides also receive anti-chip coating. New water-borne base (color) coat enamel is available in 10 colors. A two-component clearcoat gives Neon an exceptionally shiny, high-durability finish. The clear-coat material is specially formulated to resist potentially damaging atmospheric conditions. This is the same finish used previously on the Imperial.
