my daughter saw a real nice teal neon on a car lot she fell in love with . It was in the back row. I stopped and asked the price and what is wrong with it. He told me they just towed it back from a test ride. The people are still interested in the car they offered him $450 they were originally asking $2800 they were coming back. He said the timing belt jumped it had no compression. He said it ran good when it left this morning. I turned it over and sure enough it had no compression at all.
I told him I will double the offer if he sold it to me. I bought the car
My son replaced the belt and head gasket while in there and said he didn't think it jumped. After he got the head and belt on he fired it up to make sure it ran. Then he finished putting it back together. NO COMPRESSION. He put air in each cylinder to see if the valves were leaking with the exhaust removed again listening for valve leaks. it was good
I reached in and and turned the key it fired right up. What we found was someone hammered two potatoes up the tail pipes.
Probably done on the test ride.
Like "rat rod al" stated you could have a clogged muffler that rusted apart inside . That would cause low power until it finally totally shut down. You could have burned the valves up from driving it. But I would pull the pipe and see if it starts. Do a compression check with it off. Clogged exhaust will cause your symptoms you described. I have seen many lose power. But that Neon was the only car I saw totally lose compression.
