Twenty years on, there’s still a lot to love about the Plymouth (and Chrysler) Prowler

Street rodding was hot in the 1990s. Across the country, enthusiasts were adding modern suspension, brakes, and engines to pre-1949 cars and trucks, or building street rods from the ground up with fabricated chassis capped by new fiberglass coupe and roadster bodies. It was the era of billet, bright pastel paint schemes, and celebrity designers like Boyd Coddington. Amid all of that, the Chrysler Corporation offered buyers something never before seen: a factory-built street rod called the Plymouth Prowler.

The Prowler set aside archaic technology for Detroit’s then state-of-the-art. Gone were flathead engines, temperamental three-speed manual transmissions, buggy springs, solid axles, and drum brakes, replaced with a modern V-6, automatic transmission, fully independent suspension, and four-wheel disc brakes. It was a variation on the street rods many enthusiasts were already building, but engineered by a major car company and for sale with financing and a warranty.

These days, the warranties have long run out, but the Prowler retains a lot of the same appeal it had in the mid-1990s. It’s a classic, open-air, open-wheeled motoring experience without the adjustment of driving expectations necessary to appreciate something older.

Factory color is a major point of differentiation between Prowlers. In the first year, they were all Prowler Purple, but ultimately yellow was the most-popular color, with 1,576 painted that way. There were also three special-edition schemes produced, including the red-and-black Woodward Avenue Edition shown above, which is one of 151 produced.

“It’s a sports car,” says Rich Haugeberg, of Max, North Dakota. Rich has owned an Inca Gold 2002 Chrysler Prowler since

2008, and often tours with a neighbor, who also owns a Prowler. “I’ve had it quite a while, and I’ve driven them a lot. It’s not going to give you a Cadillac ride, but it handles well. It has lots of rubber for its size.”

The oldest Prowlers, from model year 1997, won’t qualify for antique plates in most jurisdictions until at least next year, but already collector interest is picking up. Classic.com estimates a current market value of $30,442 and rising.

The Mulholland Blue car below is a Chrysler, rather than a Plymouth, as the model outlived its parent brand. Original tires were Goodyear run-flats, which are now out of production, and Prowlers have no spare. Present-day owners will find conventional tires give a better ride but are advised to invest in a patch kit as insurance against puncture.

If you’ve contemplated picking one up, now may be the time. With fewer than 12,000 built across all five model years, there are only so many to go around. Read on to share in the knowledge we’ve accumulated regarding these daring cars—which are coincidentally also the last rear-wheel-drive Plymouth products ever. The Plymouth brand was discontinued after 2000 and the final Prowlers wore Chrysler badging instead, similar to how the PT Cruiser, named in honor of the Plymouth Trucks of the 1930s, wound up as a Chrysler as well.

Body and Interior

When the Prowler debuted, it was hailed not only as a fun, retro-style car, but a high-tech materials showcase: Its aluminum body panels were attached with self-piercing rivets and panel adhesives instead of welding; nonmetallic body parts were produced from an advanced fiberglass called sheet molding composite; and further weight reduction and production economy was achieved by the use of a magnesium instrument panel support structure.

The downside to the high-tech techniques and materials used in building the Prowler, along with its low production numbers, is that damaged cars are expensive to repair, and replacement panels can be difficult to source. At least for now, it’s quite important to inspect closely for heavy road rash and old repairs, which may indicate pricey body fixes will be required in the future.

The good news is that the low-production Prowlers don’t suffer much from built-in issues. Their fit and finish was good right from the factory.

“I’ve never noticed any problems with the body,” Rich says, and notes that although some colors are quite rare, it doesn’t seem to seriously affect value at this point. “It’s a personal preference. I have an Inca Gold; there were only 600 or so of those. Mulholland Blue isn’t common. You see lots of yellow, red, and black.”

Purple is possibly the color most strongly associated with the Prowler, and all 1997s were finished in that color (along with a color-matched primer underneath), but ultimately a dozen colors were offered, including two two-tone combinations: black and red for the Woodward Edition in the 2000 model year, and black and silver for the 2001 Black Tie Edition.

According to prowleronline.com, 1,530 Prowlers were produced in purple, 1,576 in yellow, 1,911 in black, 1,573 in red; 151 as the black-and-red Woodward Edition; 1,342 in silver; 163 as the silver-and-black, Black Tie Edition; 1,039 in orange; 1,278 in Mulholland Blue; 616 in Inca Gold; and the final car produced was finished in Hi Voltage Blue as the Conner Avenue Edition, in honor of the assembly plant where Prowlers were built.

The open wheels of the Prowler are the clearest nod to its street-rod inspiration. For legality and practicality (20-foot rooster tails look cool in the rain, but harsh the cruising experience somewhat), the Prowler received close-fitting cycle fenders up front and truncated rear wings reminiscent of the bobbed fenders popular on ’50s hot rods. The front bumper ran into some criticism when these cars were new, as the highboys that inspired the Prowler usually omitted bumpers entirely, so it’s not uncommon to see cars that have had them removed—some have lost their cycle fenders as well. An aftermarket turn-signal retrofit was engineered specifically for this purpose, but those of a collectability mindset will want to retain these original parts if possible.

If the Prowler has a weak spot in its body design, it may be the folding cloth top. That’s true to the cars that inspired it, but similarly the cloth is easily damaged and the fit often was imperfect even when new, permitting rain to leak in. As these cars age, the carefully balanced folding frame can be bent. When inspecting a car to buy, raise and lower the top a few times to ensure that everything works smoothly, as retuning a damaged top frame can be challenging and/or pricey.

It’s also worth remembering that the Prowler wasn’t designed as a road-trip car. With the top down there is no trunk space. To remedy this, Chrysler offered a matching trailer that mimicked the tail of the car plus the accessories to make towing possible. The trailers are highly sought after these days and don’t often come up separately from the car, so if you think you might want one, it’s worthwhile to seek out a car already so equipped.

Inside, the Prowler may not be the most spacious design, but it used luxurious materials as befitting its status as a pleasure car. The upholstery was leather, and the full gamut of modern conveniences are on hand, including air conditioning, power windows and locks, and a key fob for remote locking and unlocking. The final two years of production sported a self-dimming electronic rearview mirror with a digital trip odometer and temperature gauge. Test all electronic items thoroughly to ensure they’re still in good working order (early Prowler stereos, for example, are known for whining and emitting other strange noises), or be prepared to hunt and pay for either NOS or used parts for repair. The aftermarket is still catching up to the Prowler.

Chassis and Brakes

Part of the Prowler’s striking looks come thanks to its “big and little” wheel/tire combination, utilizing 17 x 7-inch wheels in front and 20 x 10s out back. These were wrapped in 225/45HR17 and 295/40HR20 tires, respectively.

The traditional 5 on 4.5-inch bolt pattern (shared with both earlier Mopars and Fords) means many cars have been retrofit with aftermarket wheels. Factory chrome wheels, introduced for 1999, are sought-after components for many earlier Prowler owners, whose cars came equipped with silver wheels instead. If seeking a set for yourself, or evaluating a ’99 already so equipped, do inspect the inside of the wheel.

“The early chrome wheels,” Rich notes, “had peeling issues on the inside barrel.”

Perhaps the major vulnerability on a Prowler is the delicately balanced top mechanism and its fabric covering. Look for large rips or tears and test the frame to make sure it folds smoothly and easily. If possible, use a garden hose to check for leaks.

The original Goodyear Extended Mobility run-flat tires (necessitated due to lack of a spare that could accommodate the staggered tire sizes) are out of production, but owners like Rich report that a change to conventional tires improves the ride considerably. Rich also urges planning when it comes to tire replacement, as “nobody handles those sizes in stock.” For peace of mind, Rich carries a patch plug kit in his car, which he has put to good use in the past, permitting him to continue touring after a puncture.

The design of the 11-inch front brake rotors is shared with such commonplace models as the 1991 Dodge Caravan. The calipers interchange similarly, with fitments going back to the 1993 Chrysler Concorde and as recent as the 2004 300M. One caveat, however—although the design of the Prowler brakes is the same, the OE rotors were of aluminum-composite construction.” Retro-fitting cast-iron components, while inexpensive, will adversely affect handling as they weigh approximately twice that of the aluminum rotors.

The original Prowler engine was an iron V-6 shared with the Chrysler Concorde, making 214 horsepower.

After customer complaints, an all-aluminum, 253-hp version was substituted for 1999-on.

Engines

Although its performance was viewed as somewhat tepid at the time, the “EGE” SOHC 3.5L V-6 used in 1997 Prowlers nearly met the once-magical one-horse-per-cubic-inch benchmark right out of the gate. That 214-hp/221 lb-ft rating was upped considerably for the next model year, 1999. There was no 1998 Plymouth Prowler—the 1997s ended production in December of that year and the ’99s debuted in January 1998, with production beginning in March, something Rich credits to Chrysler taking the time to respond to consumer complaints about lack of power.

To address this feedback, the pedestrian (and cast-iron) EGE engine shared with LH-platform cars was revised into the EGG, with an aluminum block and tuned to produce 253 horsepower at 6,400 rpm, and 255 lb-ft of torque at 3,950 rpm from the same displacement.

Enthusiasts would have welcomed a V-8 as more in keeping with the traditional hot-rod theme, and indeed, some Prowlers have received Gen III Hemi swaps, but as modern performance cars continue to demonstrate, today’s V-6 is on par with the small-block V-8 engines of yesteryear— even the 2009 Dodge Challenger SE used a 255-hp version of the EGG as its base engine. Certainly, any hot-rodder in the mid-1950s would have been tickled to obtain 250 horsepower from a mild-mannered, streetable flathead V-8.

The battery on a Prowler is located in the nose, just ahead of the coil-over shock absorbers.

As with the braking system, the upshot of the quotidian powerplant is that despite its exotic looks, and in contrast with the body and interior, the Prowler remains just as serviceable as contemporary Mopar passenger cars. Tune-up parts and knowhow remain readily available.

One thing to watch out for on the 1999-2001 engines is that, in the event of a timing-belt failure, there is a real risk of catastrophic damage. The greater valve lift on the higher performing engine means that if the belt stretches or breaks, the valves can hit the pistons, necessitating pricey repairs. It’s cheap insurance to replace the belt at or before factory recommended service intervals.

Keeping one’s eye open for a new-old-stock or good used engine control unit is also wise, as this piece, the “brain” of the engine, is no longer offered by Chrysler. “The ECU is hard to get,” Rich says, “and if the computer goes out, it’s hard to repair.” One workaround may be aftermarket, opensource engine controllers like the Mega-squirt system. Those require an owner or mechanic familiar and comfortable with programming engine control parameters, however, and are not emissions compliant, as they permit tuning beyond the approved constraints contained in the original ECU.

Transmission and Rear Axle

Hot-rodders of yore largely had to put up with 1930s floor-shift manual transmissions. Those units, of varying levels of robustness, lacked a synchronized first gear and rarely incorporated overdrive. No modern cruiser would have put up with such a gearbox, even if anything comparable had still existed in Chrysler parts bins. Instead, Mopar engineers looked once again to the mission of the Prowler and determined that something a bit more ’90s-everyday was in order.

Plymouth did, at least, produce the Prowler in rear-wheel drive, retaining one of the more important retro characteristics

of the traditional hot-rod roadster. The last RWD Plymouth to this point had been the 1989 Gran Fury, with a far more traditional chassis than found under the Prowler, but the task was made easier thanks to the LH-series cars retaining a longitudinal engine installation, despite their front-wheel-drive layout.

Rich Fairservis of Chandler, Arizona, owns four Prowlers as part of his collection: a purple ’97, a red-and-black 2000 Woodward Edition, the dark blue 2001 Mulholland Edition, and a Bright Silver Metallic 2002 Chrysler-badged Prowler.

While no doubt some would have welcomed the option of a five-speed manual transmission, as found in period Dakota pickups (at least one was retrofit with a manual transmission along with a Mopar 4.7-liter V-8), Prowlers were built exclusively with the 42LE Ultradrive four-speed automatic transaxle, mounted in the rear. Power traveled via an enclosed driveshaft rotating at engine speed. This arrangement, similar to the fifth-generation Corvette and other performance machines, permitted a better front/rear weight distribution. For spirited driving, the AutoStick shifter could be used to manually select gears. As with other four-speed automatics of this era, top gear was overdriven, reducing rpm by 31 percent versus the direct-drive third gear.

With a small production run and plenty of fun to be had with such a visually striking little roadster, the Plymouth and Chrysler Prowlers promise to be future collectibles. This overview will hopefully give you the information you need to ask the right questions when car shopping. As always, probably the best thing you can do is to join an organization of Prowler drivers so you can keep abreast of the latest changes to the parts supply and technical knowledge for these interesting pieces of recent Mopar history.

WHAT TO PAY

Low Average High

1997: $17,000 $27,000 $37,000

1999: $19,000 $28,500 $38,000

2000: $20,500 $31,000 $39,000

2001: $22,500 $32,500 $40,000

2001 (Black Tie Edition): $23,500 $34,000 $42,000

2002 (Chrysler): $27,000 $38,500 $44,500

PARTS PRICES

Alternator (100 amp): $500

Brake calipers (front, each): $30

Cast-iron brake rotors (front, each): $30

Front fender (without mounting bracket): $995

Leather seat covers (aftermarket, pair): $480

Neoprene dual-layer seat covers (aftermarket, pair): $270

New/Rebuilt transmission control module (with core): $1,595

NOS convertible top (black, cloth only): $1,945

NOS front fascia nose: $1,495

NOS front grille: $629

NOS headlight assembly: $1,089

NOS trunk lid (in primer): $1,700

Passenger’s-side airbag: $3,295

Rear tires (each): $190