The banana-pad problem can occur with a combination of a fairly heavy car (or at least heavy front end- i.e., FWD), single piston calipers and a long pad. A Neon qualifies on all counts. I've seen it on my Nissan 200SX (2850 lbs) and my old Dodge Charger (2300 lbs and FWD). I don't know there is really a solution except the one noted of cutting a pad with a thicker backing plate to your shape. And that's not easy to do with a pad as big as the Neon's. Cooling helps, but not much. I've also tried using a second backing plate once you've worn down the pads, but if it's as bad as you describe, by then the pad's already dead.