I've been in the car business for 8 years...Neons and Malibu's are considered to be pretty unreliable. I would recommend buying a very good extd warranty.
If you want more room because of your height, you may want to purchase a used luxury car. I recently bought a 1998 Buick Regal GS and my husband who's almost 6 foot, said he's happy with the interior roominess. Plus he's enjoying the 240 hsp supercharged engine!
The first time I test drove the GS the dealer wouldn't go any lower than
$12,000.00. And the following weekend I was looking through the AutoTrader Mag and they had it listed for $10,000.00, plus another $1,000.00 off because of a coupon from the dealer in Autotrader mag. Needless to say I went down and haggled a little bit (over my trade-in), then bought the GS.
I'm planning on buying an extd warr. but not through a dealer, because they'll make interest off of it, if rolled into the financing of the car.
Extd warranties may cost some money, but if you might be buying a possible problem child, it will pay itself off and then some!