I had both these problems - and this is the main reason I sought out this forum.

About three months after buying my 05 coupe I started having trouble getting into first, and I found the workaround where I would slip it into second, from where it would go into first easily.

I brought it to the dealer and he replaced something in the synchro and now it has trouble getting into second. The dealer's Crossfire specialist said that it is 'normal' for this fix to cause it to take some extra force to get it into second due to the stronger spring in the synchro. The only problem is that it takes so much force that I can't shift from first to second briskly at all - and with first being such a small gear, I want to get up to second pretty quickly. If it takes me an extra second just to move the lever to second, Neons are going to beat me off the line!

I would actually rather have the first problem again. At least going into second to shift into first meant that I was wasting time at a stop light, not while I was accelerating. This is unacceptable to me, but the dealer seems to feel that it is 'normal' and won't do any more.