Here's the real reason why the Plymouth Prowler only lasted five years

now hey hey first things first all right let's go grab ourselves yeah back in 1993 Chrysler revealed the concept of a retro styled Roadster named the prowler at the Detroit Auto Show thanks to an enthusiastic public response as well as the backing of Chrysler president Bob Lutz the prowler was approved for production as a halo car for Chrysler's struggling Plymouth brand in 1997. utilizing a then revolutionary aluminum body on frame design the prowler was a test bed for aluminum manufacturing but would be plagued by complaints from Hot Rod enthusiasts for its own hot rod like V6 and an automatic transmission but there's more to the story as to why the prowler only lasted for five years and it's not because it didn't have a V8 this is the story of the Plymouth Prowler and this really is my old car here take the wheel foreign so yes finally an episode on the Plymouth Prowler a car which is truly my old car is I have owned a yellow 2000 model year Prowler since 2016. you may be wondering why it took me over two years to finally devote an episode to an old car that I still own I even had my first YouTube channel devoted to this car I'll talk more about that later if you already have some knowledge of this car chances are you probably already have an opinion about it and for many of you that opinion is far from good when seen from afar and only looking at the surface of its history some of you probably think it belongs in either of the last sales flops episodes I did but in reality there are other reasons why the prowler's production run was so short-lived I'll also dispel some myths you may have heard about it too as an old car Enthusiast I'm definitely biased but I don't envy anyone buying a new car in this auto market I mean you're either dealing with part shortages production delays model recalls or if you're lucky you could be paying twice as much as you would have before the pandemic all this on top of the historic Market crashes and the cost of living in crisis you might be better off just settling for an old car I mean maybe not one of the old beaters we covered on my channel but certain vintage cars can't appreciate in value over time seriously you can still find real opportunities to try to profit in markets like these and you don't have to do any leg work or maintenance to find them last year a hot luxury collectible on the market outperformed classic cars wine jewelry and Furniture prices according to Barons Fine Art prices led to all collectibles with a 29 increase in 2022 and today's sponsor Masterworks has made it possible for almost anyone to get an opportunity to capitalize on that appreciation Masterworks is the first company that allows you to invest in shares of Blue Chip contemporary artworks think legendary names like Picasso Monet and bansky qualified with the SEC allowing investors like you to potentially profit from investing a fraction of their full value while stocks and real estate were decimated the Art Market had a record setting in 2022 and in that time Masterworks paid out over 25 million dollars in total to their investors over 650 000 people have signed up so far and with the markets turning upside down potential investors are signing up every day but my subscribers can skip the wait list and get in the market today by clicking the link in the description so if you haven't seen a Prowler before or even know what it is that's not unexpected you could win this 1999 Plymouth Prowler in the kiss between 1997 and 2002 only 11 703 were built it was never sold new outside of the U.S or Canada although several have made their way overseas since then as I live in the Detroit area where the prowler was originally designed and assembled it has a better than average chance of being recognized here yet I still can't drive anywhere in this car without getting some quizzical looks the first myth to put to rest is who was the original designer behind the prowler the name that has been often accepted as fact is Chip Foose as he once submitted a sketch of the car to Chrysler that did look similar but even chip himself has stated that although he helped Inspire the final design he played no part in the car's actual development to say that I designed the prowler as a slap in the face to the engineers and designers that finished that car but it was definitely the shall we say the birth point of the car the mines behind the original idea came in 1990 from Bob Lutz and Tom Gale who at the time held the roles of Chrysler president and director of styling respectively both Lutz and Gail had conceived the idea of the Dodge Viper just two years earlier Prowler keeps our sense of focus sharp just as with Viper this is an exercise in polarity those who don't get it or don't like it never will and that's fine with us but soon after the release of the first production Viper in 1992 the first concept version of the prowler was shown at the Detroit Auto Show in 1993. the plan was to market the prowler under the Plymouth brand which although had been in existence since 1929 and pretty much lost all of its identity and every Plymouth model with a simple re-badge of a Dodge or Chrysler branded model so the Hope was the prowler could rejuvenate the brand in fact the prowler would be the first car platform dedicated just to Plymouth since the Barracuda in 1969. it would also bring back a paint color from that era a unique purple shade that Tom Gale had planned for one of his own personal hot rods the public response was just as strong for the prowler as it was for the Viper maybe even more so but not all of that response was positive as the prowler was admittedly treading in Dangerous Waters his triangular shape and open front wheels was clearly an attempt to mimic a hot rod from the 1930s hot rods by their very nature were not production cars they were heavily modified road cars turned into racing genes so the very idea of creating a production hot rod seemed like a contradiction and as such it receives some backlash from Hot Rod fans especially when the prowler requires certain features to make them road legal something a true hot rod didn't need to be concerned with such as requiring fenders over the front and rear wheels and front rear bumpers the bumpers in particular would become the most controversial part of the car's exterior styling although Chrysler had no immediate plans to consider selling the prowler outside of the US or Canada it still caught the attention of car fans overseas in this old episode of the original BBC show Top Gear may have helped with that and the name is perfect because you don't drive this you prowl around in it looking for admiring glances an adventure this was Top Gear long before Jeremy Clarkson became synonymous with the show so I often wonder how he would have responded to it I suspect his take on it would be similar to how he responded to Chrysler's next retro style car with the heaviest Chrysler PT Cruiser considering he held the role as Chrysler's president I suppose Bob Lutz could have Justified the existence to the prowler simply as a pet project which was in a sense earned due to the success of the Viper but in reality it was more than that the prowler was instead an experiment in aluminum construction as its entire frame and many of its body panels were aluminum something no other Chrysler vehicle had up to that point any body panels that were not aluminum were either a plastic composite or fiberglass the prowler was also a rear passenger car at that time to be body unframe and in fact made no attempt to hide that fact as the connection of the body with the frame can easily be seen in the rear wheel wells as part of the early Road testing of the aluminum frame before the body design had been finalized the engineers temporarily fitted a Jeep Wrangler body from the windshield back on top of the prowler frame the resulting Frankenstein light creation was often referred to as the Wrangler and sadly none of these test mules are known to exist today unlike the Viper whose biggest selling point was its V10 engine designed exclusively for that car the prowler would instead receive an existing engine from Chrysler's lineup specifically an iron block 3.5 liter V6 that was already in use in their LH sedans such as a Dodge Intrepid yes the engine was a V6 and one of the biggest complaints from so many then and now was its lack of a more typical hot rod V8 yet despite so many out there that complain what they don't seem to realize is that Chrysler's existing V8 available back then was not only too big to fit in the prowler's tight engine bay the horsepower in that V8 was comparable to the V6 anyway although admittedly the v8's torque was better the increase in torque would likely have an adverse effect on the prowler's aluminum frame considering the long-term stress such an engine would create however that hasn't prevented several examples of V8 swaps done since then but they are with newer more compact Hemi V8s the Chrysler parts van was also used in the prowler's exterior door handles that came from the neon its front brakes that came from the Caravan and several interior parts shared with multiple while other models such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee steering wheel and even the interior door handles came from the Viper in the end about 45 percent of the car's dollar value would be in carryover parts from other models which makes sense when you consider the car's 80 million dollar development budget which at the time was quite small for such a radical car design well it's not exactly for everyone is it that's kind of the point the Viper and Prowler shared one important feature where they were built in the Connor Avenue assembly plant in Detroit and like the Viper each Prowler was hand assembled in individual stations the production of the body panels was outsourced to a plant in Shadyside Ohio which when other colors were later added to the prowler lineup could only do one color at a time with several days of downtime between color switching like the Viper the prowler looked vastly different to anything Chrysler had produced before and a major contributor to that look were its Wheels the prowler staggered wheel sizes had the largest difference in sizes front to back for any Chrysler or any production car up to that point the rear wheels had larger size for a production car at the time at 20 inches in diameter and nearly a foot in width the front wheels were a more normal 17 inch diameter and about 3 inches Less in width Goodyear was chosen as the exclusive supplier of the tires a matched set of run Flats complete with tire pressure monitors an uncommon feature back then but were absolutely necessary since there was no room to keep spare tires of two different sizes on board also non-typical was the car's placement of its transmission being located in the rear and mounted as a transaxle although this provided better weight distribution it was necessary due to lack of space under the hood the transmission itself was otherwise based on the four-speed automatic that was also available in the LH cards complete with the feature then known as Auto stick which provided the option to shift the gears manually in the LH cars the car's computer would up shift on its own if the driver allowed the revs to get too high while in manual mode however that safety feature was notably excluded in the prowler also inside the dashboard mimic cars of the 1930s with all the gauge is in the center the panel behind the gauges was color matched to the car's exterior and the gauges themselves were white with black numbers although that was the style of Chrysler was already using in their other cars at the time and yes having the gauges positioned in the center can be a bit of a pain to get used to although not all the gauges as attack was attached to the top of the steering column to mimic the look of old hot rods because of the rear mounted transmission which in turn required the fuel tank to be mounted above it this meant the prowler had just a sliver of trunk space as an option Chrysler worked with an aftermarket supplier to build a custom-made fiberglass trailer that was designed to mimic the back end of the prowler I have one of these myself and although they are admittedly a pain to back up it really does take the car's bizarre look and kicks it up a couple notches when seen on the road with a platform that shared nothing with any other Chrysler model the rollout of the prowler was slow with only 457 cars built in 1997. 61 of those cars were essentially pilot cars used for testing so those 61 were never sold to the public with a sticker price of around and forty thousand dollars which is around seventy five thousand in today's dollars it was far more expensive than any other Plymouth nothing was optional when purchasing the prowler you got power windows and locks leather seats and a CD changer the latter two features were not even an option for any other Plymouth at the time with only around 213 horsepower not everyone was enthused with a car's power not to mention the car's ride which was extremely rough thanks mostly to the rock hard run flat tires but also due to the inboard front suspension enough reworking was done that by the time the next model was ready for sale it debuted in January of 1998 as a result of its late arrival there was no 1998 model and a 1999 model would be in the end the model year with the most Prowlers built as cars that would otherwise been 98s were instead 99s the most beautiful car in the world I don't know about that that's pretty arguable but it's pretty crazy looking 1999 Prowlers had a 253 horsepower 3.5 liter aluminum block V6 which would also be in the Chrysler 300M and later the Dodge Intrepid RT the fact that the prowler shared an engine with the LA sedans has also hurt its reputation due to the well-known fact of those cars having a serious defect with oil leaks what about the prowler you get one of those for 20. a Prowler do you like the prowler uh I like the way it looks I love the way it's beautiful however that problem occurred in a smaller 2.7 liter V6 that was available in the base model LH cars and that engine was a much different design than the 3.5 liter used for the prowler the guys who own them will tell you did oh 0 to 60 and six something that's fast like ahara well no and yet too often you hear people worried about the prowler potentially having the same oil leak problem despite it not even having the same engine at least of the motor blows you probably get one of the salvage yard for 500 bucks do blow right isn't that isn't that yeah yeah big problem with the intrepids yeah 1999 we've introduced new color options beyond the original purple first was yellow then later black and then finally red the addition of yellow is what really got me to like the prowler back when it was new as admittedly I really didn't like the purple these other colors would prove so much more popular that 19.99 would be purple's final year during 1999 an upgrade was offered from the car's silver painted Wheels the chrome wheels making it the only real option the prowler had but even that choice was short-lived as the chrome wheels proved to be far more popular leading to the chrome wheels soon becoming standard for the 2000 model year more improvements were made to the car's suspension and Goodyear made some improvements to the tires to be slightly less like riding on rocks but it was still a rough ride inside a trip computer was added to the rear view mirror and the bumpers were now molded in black plastic as opposed to gray silver was added as a new outside color option as well as a black and red two-tone which they called the Woodward Edition named after the famous thoroughfare north of Detroit which is also the home of the annual Woodward Dream Cruise at which I have cruised every year since I got my Prowler in 2016. this color option was limited to only 151 models and as such these models tend to get huge markups by dealers and private sellers alike despite Chrysler's hopes that the prowler would help turn around the struggling Plymouth brand not my fault sales are the remaining free Plymouth models the Voyager Breeze and neon didn't improve which even at the time should not have been a surprise as there was Zero overlap in the customer base between those cars and the price dollar and the prowler by its very design was going to have a very limited demographic to increase the sales for Plymouth by any significant amount in fact I personally think it is astonishing that the prowler itself lasted as long as it did considering Chrysler's pairing with Daimler bends it started in 1998 had the merger with Daimler started a few years earlier before so much had already been spent on the prowler I think it is certain that the prowler project would have been scrapped so instead Daimler who was pretty much in charge at that point despite the whole merger of equals thing The Cider shutter the Plymouth brand entirely with its official shutdown near the start of 2001 the Plymouth Voyager Breeze and neon were gone although their Dodge and Chrysler twins remain amazingly the prowler was spared but with the Plymouth brand Now history the prowler was rebranded as a Chrysler however looking at a Chrysler Prowler the only way to tell the difference was the change in badge on the hood and the Plymouth name was removed from the left rear bumper there was also a new color offered just for the Chrysler Prowler called Mulholland blue named after the famous street near Santa Monica and Beverly Hills and is the only Prowler that was offered with a dark blue top instead of black orange was also offered as a new exterior color for 2001 and along with silver are the only two colors for 2001 that was shared with Plymouth and Chrysler 2001 Plymouth models were also available in another limited edition two-tone this time black and silver called the black tie Edition which also only had 151 sold for the 2001 model year nearly 3 000 Prowlers were sold its second best sales year only behind the extended 1999 model year that had over 3 600 sold for a hand-built car demand was still decent enough to continue for the 2002 model year that began in July of 2001. yellow was brought back as well as a new Inca Gold color however the prowler in its original form was about to run out of time in regards to several major changes the car would need to remain compliant with safety regulations that were required for 2003 although Chrysler execs had claimed that the original Prowler project was only intended to have a five-year run the end of production was officially announced in December of 2001. the cost to rework the car's design to remain compliant was simply too high for such a low production car not to mention that the look of the car would change significantly and in the end they had to consider the prowler's original purpose to be a test bed for manufacturing cars with aluminum and the learnings from this test were already well established by that point as a send-off the last 300 Prowlers were painted in a darker red officially known as candy apple red however the very last Prowler had its own unique color which they called high voltage blue and had white leather seats this final model built on February 15 2002 was auctioned for charity in New York City the following May for a cool 175 thousand dollars the winning bidder Mike reel also owns over a dozen other Prowlers most being special in their own right such as the first model sold in 1997 and the first or last editions of many of the various colors over the years following the end of production the prowler has arguably become the most modded car out there as so many owners decided that the car are in its original form wasn't wild enough in the spirit of hot rods many Prowlers have had several Visual and mechanical changes made by their owners the most popular being the removal of the front bumpers and many aftermarket parts are available to make up for parts that have long since been discontinued by Chrysler of course there are still several Prowlers out there with almost no miles as their owners hope they'll be worth a fortune Someday by keeping them preserved in their garages but there are also many examples with over one hundred thousand miles being a Chrysler from the 90s some parts were never meant to last that long especially in the interior as huvey and many other YouTubers have made fun of but it's all 90s Chrysler Plastic Fantastic thanks to websites such as prowleronline.com you can join the prowler Owners Association and meet up with lots of current owners to help you with finding many hard to find parts for those of you who watch this channel during this first year or so and watch those episodes up until nearly the end you may have seen me try to promote my first YouTube channel that I started in 2020. I did film myself for those episodes demonstrating all things I learned about the car I also did several interview episodes via Zoom being limited with travel that year thanks to covet my 31 plus year it career ended that year thanks to the pandemic and doing the prowler videos gave me something else to do while I tried looking for a new IT job which I ultimately never found instead with so few people watching my Prowler videos I came up with the idea for the channel you're watching now which I'm happy to say is doing a little better than the first one just before the my old car Channel started picking up more viewers I took my Prowler on a cross-country road trip in 2021 and made several videos for my first channel along the way to Showcase other Prowler owners and their cars it was a long hard trip over 8 000 miles in three weeks my Prowler didn't make it through completely unscathed but I won't reveal anything else so you can watch it yourself I will leave a link to my other channel in the comments thanks for watching if you like this video click the like button and subscribe to my channel if you once owned a car from the 80s to mid-2000s that you rarely see today and will like it featured in a future episode leave a reply in the comments or contact me at the email shown here see you next time [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: My Old Car

Views: 323,554

Keywords: Plymouth Prowler, Chrysler Prowler

Id: hxGMPEesztk

Length: 20min 14sec (1214 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 22 2023