The Plymouth Prowler exists for one reason and one reason only: Boomers were reaching the pinnacle of their careers at the start of the millennium, and they had money to spend. Chrysler cashed in on this by appealing to Boomers’ seemingly genetic affinity for hotrods, debuting the PT Cruiser in 1999 (that car would go on to inspire the Chevy HHR), but before that, for the well-heeled Boomer, there was the Plymouth Prowler.
You won’t hear any anti-Boomerism here at The Autopian. The Boomer generation loves cars, and many of its members are here in our ranks. Many Boomers love hotrods/street rods — we’re talkin’ Model-A based rods with big crate motors, wacky George Barris Kustoms, Muncie 4-speed-equipped Chevy Novas, and on and on. Having lived in Detroit when retired Boomers ruled the car shows, I grew to love these cars, even if I never had much interest in owning them myself. They’re wild, often absurd, and the community around them is tight.
Anyway, at a certain point, older Boomers had to put up the keys to their ‘rods and replace them with something that doesn’t require regular tinkering. Welcome the Plymouth Prowler:
OK, the one I drove was technically a Chrysler Prowler, since it was built after Plymouth’s 2001 demise. But it’s the same thing — the same insanely odd, modern streetrod-inspired Chrysler product.
Look at the chassis below; this was an all-aluminum, body-on-frame design with a rear-mounted transaxle. The brochure makes sure to start by leaning into a bit of patriotism, saying “PROWLER SALUTES A GREAT AMERICAN TRADITION,” before going on to say that rear transaxle’s location is “LIKE SOME FERRARIS.”
Lest you think that the transmission, a four-speed slushbox, make you a wuss, fear not, as you can “CONTROL ALL GEAR SELECTION. The brochure continues by saying that the front suspension — an inboard-mounted coilover with a pushrod-rocker mechanism — is like that of an INDY CAR, before noting that the European steering “in the grand hot-rodding tradition, was refined from a minivan unit.”
There’s lots of hot-rod mention in here. The brochure says the car has “the rear wheel-drive motivation so clearly demanded by classical hot rod high-boy protocol,” and notes that the Prowler is a “luxury car by hot-rodding standards.”
“Probably NO OTHER HOT ROD ANYWHERE combines the contemporary engineering and commodious creature comfort that Prowler does. For sure, no other rodney complies with federal passenger car safety standards,” the brochure concludes, leading me to wonder what the heck a “rodney” is….
The most interesting part of the brochure, to me, is where Plymouth specifically calls out custom-built hotrods as this car’s competition:
It is priced multiples of tens of thousands of dollars less than similarly equipped street rods custom-built by big names. It can be conveniently purchased through Chrysler Financial Company L.L.C.It is insurable. It can be serviced at any Chrysler-Plymouth dealership.
Yes, Chrysler literally engineered an entire car for custom car-loving Boomers. And I’m all for it.
The Prowler is simply fantastic. Not to drive, to be clear, but in general.
To drive, it’s lukewarm. In fact, I’d call the Prowler a warm-rod if I’m being entirely accurate. The 3.5-liter naturally aspirated V6, which you might find in the Dodge Stratus Coupe, among others, may make 250 horsepower, propelling the sub-3,000 car from zero to 60 mph in under 6 seconds, but it’s not a particularly soulful motor. The Prowler is quick, but that cow-sounding exhaust note, along with the somewhat jerky four-speed automatic transmission, mean the Prowler lacks a lot of the heat you’d expect from a real street rod.
There’s also a lot of cowl shake, which is a bit strange given this is a body-on-frame car. Maybe it usb;t cowl shake, but rather just “shake” in general, with the cowl being along for the ride. Hitting bumps just made everything around me feel jittery.
The Prowler is more evocative of old show rods in that it’s really all about styling, with driving clearly secondary. It’s odd, given how much engineering was put into this chassis, but the car is just not particularly great as a driver. There foot room is tight, there’s basically no luggage space (see above), the engine is ho-hum, the automatic is disappointing, and everything shakes.
But I’m OK with all of that, because the Prowler is just epic in its boldness. It has what looks like an Autozone tachometer on the steering column, because that’s what you’d put in your home-made hotrod. It’s got lots of white gauges. It has chrome wheels and a chrome shifter bezel, it has a wild dual-exhaust system, and it has custom Prowler badges on the key and seats.
The view out the windshield is unlike anything you’ve ever seen — a sharp beak, two “fang” bumpers, and fairings bolted to each wheel’s knuckle:
The Prowler turns heads in a way that aligns with Chrysler’s original intent. People still gawk and wonder: Is that a custom?
No, dear pedestrian, it is not. An actual car company built a life-sized toy for Boomers, and they did so unabashedly, even using a Jeep Wrangler YJ as a test car (leading to the coining of the word “Prangler“). We all should thank Chrysler for their insanity.
These were cool when I was a kid and still cool today. As others have said, even cooler when you look at the sea of grayscale CUVs built today and remember a major manufacturer built this.
I’ve seen a couple of these come through my local Craigslist recently. There is a silver one on there right now. Low miles, but not a museum piece, not a ton of money. Kind of tempting if I had a third garage spot. It isn’t blowing the doors off anyone, you probably won’t see another at Cars and Coffee and convertibles can be just for cruising.
Assuming you could find room for batteries, one of these would be amazing with an electric conversion.