Car Spot: Plymouth Prowler

Weird but way cool

The 90s was a great time for Chrysler as they cranked out hit after hit. There was the PT Cruiser. Don’t laugh because it sold over a million copies in ten years and might have been made longer if Chrysler hadn’t kind of forgotten about it. They had a total beast of a car in the Viper and then there was the Plymouth Prowler, this week’s car spot.

Tom Gale is the man who helped Motown find its mojo, who besides the Prowler, penned the 1991 Dodge Stealth, the 1992 Dodge Viper, the swoopy Chrysler LH series models which were introduced in 1993, and the 1994 Dodge Ram pickup series. In a Motor Trend interview he said “The [’90s were] a wonderful time … as a guy [at Chrysler] in design, you had the wind at your back.”

The Prowler was a perfect example. The thought was to design a car unlike any car before, or since, and give a shot in the arm to Plymouth that Chrysler was positioning as its youth brand. It’s chopped styling was a page taking right out of the ’32 Ford hot rods that first gained popularity in the 1950s. Everything about it was designed to get attention because of its high beltline, raked windshield, optional matching travel trailer and its cycle-fendered open front wheels, protected by two little bumperettes. It looked like something Boyd Coddington would have designed. It was produced at the Conner Avenue Assembly Plant in Detroit where they are built alongside the Dodge Viper production line with the body produced in Shadyside, Ohio. It’s original MSRP was just over $38.000.

RELATED Spot: The much-maligned PT Cruiser

Prowler first appeared as a concept car at the 1993 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Despite its unique styling, it was a parts bin wonder sharing about 40 percent of its parts with other Chrysler products. When launched i 1977, its 3.5-liter V-6, was borrowed from Chrysler’s front-drive LH sedans (like the Dodge Intrepid, we had a 93, and Eagle Vision) and then turned longitudinally. Same for its four-speed automatic. Its rack-and-pinion steering rack came from Chrysler’s Town & Country, Dodge Caravan, and Plymouth Voyager, and its coil-spring suspension was taken from the Viper.

The remaining 60 percent was a materials showcase. At the time it had the distinction of being North America’s most aluminum-intensive vehicle. The Prowler’s perimeter frame was made of extruded 6061 aluminum tubing bent into shape around mandrels. The main body tub, sheet aluminum held together with self-piercing rivets and industrial adhesives. Suspension control arms were made using a hybrid die-casting/forging operation known as semi-solid metal forming. Rear brake rotors were also aluminum. It was designed to save weight wherever they could. The instrument panel was made of magnesium and combined more than 20 stamping and plastic components in a single casting making it eight pounds lighter than a conventional instrument panel construction. Its aluminum seat save another seven pounds.

More than serving as an aluminum test bed for Chrysler, the Prowler also helped the company test out its new-to-them way of organizing engineers, designers, and product planners on a new vehicle project. A procedure utilized by American Motors that Chrysler discovered after it purchased AMC.

“With a brief chirp from its wide run-flat rear tires and a high-pitched yowl from its pipes, the Prowler hustles to 60 mph in 7.1 seconds and through the quarter mile in 15.3 seconds at 88.2 mph,” Motor Trend wrote in its first test review. “Top speed is limited at 115 mph. Upshifts at the 6,500-rpm redline are a snap with help from the AutoStick standing tall on the center console.” I remember using the AutoStick on our Intrepid and later Chrysler Pacifica. The first one, not the current mini van. While a V-8 was not in the plans for the Prowler, for the 1999 model year, it came with a new aluminum-block 3.5-liter V-6 making 253 hp and 255 lb-ft of torque, dropping the car’s 0­-60 mph time to 5.7 seconds and quarter-mile performance to 14.3 seconds at 95.4 mph.

Originally a five-year run for the Prowler was planned when production started in 1997 but at the end of the 2000 model year, Chrysler killed the Plymouth brand. That wasn’t all for the Prowler as it, the Voyager, and the PT Cruiser moved up to the Chrysler brand, now part of the far larger DaimlerChrysler company. Remember, the “Merger of Equals”? The Prowler would continue for two more model years, but never really fit into the brand was discontinued at the end of 2002.

What are they worth now? Surprisingly even though only 11,702 were produced, they are very affordable. I checked out values on Hagerty and found Fair condition pricing at just under $14K and Concours condition around $45K. I real head-turner at any event, especially if you score one with the matching trailer. I might have found my new shiny bright object! I got to ride in one of these once and they are a total blast!

Thanks for stopping by and checking out this week’s spot. Check back next Friday to see what I found and be sure to check out my other spots. Have a great weekend.