Its larger relatives the Jeep family may grab all the headlines, but the Chrysler Neon is doing very nicely as well, says Ross Finlay

It is a rare situation for any importer when its saloons are swamped, at least in numbers of units sold, by off-roader 4x4s. The big sellers from the Chrysler catalogue are the Jeep Cherokee and Grand Cherokee, but the Neon, introduced here exactly two years ago, is doing away quite nicely.

All Neons are built in the factory at Belvidere, Illinois, which produces them at the rate of more than 1000 per day, and has already passed the one million mark of home and export sales.

That success is partly due to the fact that Chrysler's design team came up with a compact car whose cab-forward layout liberates plenty of passenger space. The Neon is also highly individual in external appearance. Its styling relies, not on embellishment, but on line.

The first Neons sold here were the two-litre LE and LX. Last October the GLX appeared, with walnut veneer trim and Bridge of Weir leather seat facings. Now Chrysler has added a sportier two-litre CS at #15,495 and a budget-price 1.8-litre LE, which squeezes in at #11,995.

Outwardly, you can tell the CS because of its fancy 15 in alloy wheels and low profile tyres, which have the usual effect, despite the lowered suspension, of not filling the wheel arches. Other standard features include a rear spoiler, stainless steel sports exhaust pipes, one of those hardly necessary power bulges on the bonnet, rather naff ''CS'' motifs on the rear quarters, and smart Platinum Silver metallic paint finish.

The engine is in the familiar 131bhp tune. A combination of quite high gearing and the fact that the engine wants to rev rather than slog means that when driving a CS hard you are often better to drop a gear to keep it on the boil. Chrysler has plenty of information about handling, thanks to the Neon race programmes. As well as having lowered suspension, the CS features uprated springs, with the extra stiffness biased towards the front.

Does it work, though? Well, the test route for the CS and the 1.8-litre LE was sensibly chosen. It included motorway driving in the Manchester area, where the city has excellent modern road links with the surrounding towns (compare this with the infinitely more feeble network whose suggested completion is causing so much aggravation in Glasgow) as well as plenty of mileage in the Pennines.

The Neon is light and agile on winding and undulating B-class roads of the Pennine persuasion, and the CS is one stage forward for anybody wanting still more sporty handling.

Given its head on open moorland roads, it holds on really well. The ride is firmer, of course, but I found practically no surfaces where it down-rated itself to jarring.

On these roads, where the drop in power output from 131bhp to 114bhp did not make much difference, the 1.8-litre LE was also an enjoyable chuck-around. Its handling characteristics mean that it operates comfortably within itself.

When you compare the gearing and power output of the two models, the LE is just as relaxed at motorway cruising speeds as the CS. Admittedly, doing without ABS and air conditioning may not appeal to everybody.

But the unexpectedly good passenger room, the capacious boot with space-saver wheel under the floor, the intriguing fascia layout and dinky door mirror controls are all there regardless of which model you choose.