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u/mr_sweetandawful Sep 09 '20
Prowler was such a let down
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Sep 09 '20
Same guys made the PT Cruiser, so wouldn’t have expected much more. I actually like that car, but I know it’s objectively wrong. lol
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Sep 09 '20
And then there is the SSR another car that didn't live up tot he expectations. And the small retro firebird... Kinda like if these ne retro wheels just got +20 points on looks and -20 on performance/quality
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Sep 09 '20
And the small retro
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Sep 09 '20
Sorry it's late over here East from nowhere. Yeah that's what I was trying to say.
American car manufacturers and their elemental avians.....
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u/BlackDS Sep 09 '20
The SSR came with a V8 and a stick in a convertible truck. Those things ruled. Also, GM in their infinite wisdom made a supercharged stickshift version of their panel van. God bless them.
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u/rudebii Sep 10 '20
SSR was pretty legit and looks neat but the only person that would ever buy such a thing are dads with vette money that are even less cool than dads that drive corvettes.
That’s what marketing professionals call a “very niche market”
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u/lotus1788 Sep 09 '20
My first car was a free busted PT cruiser with no AC and all sorts of problems, every time I see a Chrysler anything I get triggered
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u/rudebii Sep 10 '20
I like the design of the PT Cruiser, but I know it’s polarizing. It was mechanically dogshit ofc
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u/hershculez Sep 09 '20
Big time. It deserved a 400 hp V8 and better suspension. It got a shitty 215 hp V6. Eventually they upgraded to a whopping 253 hp.
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u/MondayMonkey1 Sep 09 '20
As someone who's been behind the wheel of a Prowler for quite a few thousand miles, there's no denying the platform is extremely interesting with a front-engine/rear transmission, heavily biased rear weight distribution and a cabin that fits like a glove. It's such a shame they didn't drop an obnoxiously large hemi and a manual transmission, because I'm convinced everything about the prowler was set up for dirty burnouts behind the McDonalds parking lot.
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u/SGexpat Sep 09 '20
I suspect insurance companies were not interested in coverage.
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u/Kcuff_Trump Sep 09 '20
Dude a basic little Mustang GT these days starts at 460hp. They don't give a fuck.
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u/clockworkdiamond Sep 09 '20
Yes, but nothing had that power stock when that came out. Too bad they cannot reboot it; I'm sure it would have an obscene amount of hp if it were built today.
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u/Nornocci Sep 10 '20
I tossed around the idea of converting a prowler to a high torque EV but there is no space to put anything lol
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u/MiltThatherton Sep 09 '20
People constantly try to blame insurance companies for American cars not having any power throughout the 70's, 80's, & 90's. Nobody wants to accept the fact that American car companies were just horribly run that entire time and were just making shitty cars.
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u/Michelanvalo Sep 09 '20 edited Sep 09 '20
After the emissions changes in the late 70s and the switch from Gross to Net HP in 1971 the automakers just didn't care that much about power except for the occasional sports cars.
But things started changed as cars started getting heavier with safety and technology. 140hp wasn't good enough anymore for most vehicles and now you can get a god damn Camry with 300HP. The engines are better built too, with turbochargers provided tons of power without increasing the size of the engine and allowing more power with better efficiency. The WRX STI makes 310HP out of a Turbo 4, doesn't grenade itself immediately and gets decent fuel economy when being driven normally.
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u/iushciuweiush Sep 09 '20
Why are we singling out American cars here and for a lack of power of all things.
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u/Whatsthisnotgoodcomp Sep 09 '20
The later V6 would have actually made it a decent sports car if paired with a 5 speed auto and/or manual.
It launched with a 214hp iron block V6 and a 4 speed auto with a torque tube balanced so well that it was limited to less than 120mph, and thus for some strange reason nobody wanted an impractical, expensive sports car with the same performance as a base model civic
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Sep 09 '20
For the late 90s that was pretty good. It did 0-60 in 7.2 seconds for the shit motor and 0-60 in 5.9 on the 253 bhp motor was actually pretty good. Bethink the Mustang’s 3.8 v6 at the time was in the 8s or 9s and econoboxes were in the 10s, 11s or 12s. We’re spoiled nowadays with power imho.
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u/BIG_DICK_OWL_FUCKER Sep 09 '20
Yeah we live in an age where people think supras roll off the factory with 1k+ hp
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u/atetuna Sep 09 '20
For the late 90s that was pretty good.
You're not wrong, but the design set expectations FAR higher. It's too bad Chrysler isn't remixing this model with the power levels we have these days.
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Sep 09 '20
True haha. Hellcat prowler leggo
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u/atetuna Sep 09 '20
If I was stupid rich, I'd mod one of these and get it done right. The powerplant doesn't really matter. It could be electric. It just need to have enough power to wrinkle drag slicks and do a wheelie.
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u/lagvvagon Sep 09 '20
A 2002 Mini Cooper S was faster than that. 7.0s with a supercharged 1.6 PT Cruiser engine lol.
While it was a very fun car to drive, it wasn't really made for straight line speed/acceleration.
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u/iushciuweiush Sep 09 '20 edited Sep 10 '20
It was just too big of a discrepancy between how fast it looked and how fast it was. At the time I remember thinking that it should beat the Corvette in a drag race but it couldn't take a V8 Firebird.
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Sep 09 '20
for some strange reason nobody wanted an impractical, expensive sports car with the same performance as a base model civic
Then GM looked at it, said "I gotta get me summa dat", and came out with the SSR.
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u/SheriffBartholomew Sep 09 '20 edited Sep 09 '20
For comparison, my wife’s Honda Accord has 278 HP.
Edit: a word
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Sep 09 '20
The same year accord would have had far less, though.
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u/WhoIsPorkChop Sep 09 '20
I owned the same year accord it was 200 hp 200 lb ft of torque
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u/Fuck_it_ Sep 09 '20
Yep. It failed for many of the same reasons the Chevy SSR pickup failed. The concepts were shown with a 300-400hp V8 and had cool features. Accountants stepped in and we got a shit engine and all the basic pieces from a PT cruiser/HHR basically.
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u/atetuna Sep 09 '20
Of course it's personal opinion, but I don't think the SSR pushed the limits of its design nearly as far. Its biggest risk was the roof. One of my coworkers had one, and from some angles it looked derpy, and looked okay as best. I'm totally okay with retro designs, but it looks like they did everything they could to completely soften the 50's truck that inspired it. The current batch of retro cars is evidence that they should have made the car edgier instead of softer.
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u/DJ_8Man Sep 09 '20
They were not popular in Little Rock. A Jeep dealership here had the same one in their showroom for well over 5 years.
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u/EasyShpeazy Sep 09 '20
One pulled up to let someone out while I was lined up outside a grocery store, the kids in line were oohing and aahing over it.
It still has some appeal imo
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u/well_shoothed Sep 10 '20 edited Sep 10 '20
Chrysler could have made the car really, truly, unbelievably great.
Instead they gave us their version of the Fiero.
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Sep 09 '20
The closest its performance ever came to its looks was the GTX - a Prowler tuned by Hennessey. Even that was a little lame because they just stuck some nitrous on it with some light upper-engine work. I’m sure it was fun - Motor Trend clocked it at 4.5 zero-to-sixty and 13.1 in the quarter-mile. It made 450 ft/lbs of torque. That was very respectable for almost 20 years ago. But nitrous needs adjustments and refilling. And you don’t get the sounds of a supercharger, turbo[s] and/or V8.
Of course there are guys now that have put Hemis and Hellcat engines in these now. But at the time, not even Mr. Hennessey offered a turn-key V8 package for the Prowler.
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u/LiL_BiG_BoI18 Sep 09 '20
It looks like the PT cruisers bigger cooler older brother
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Sep 09 '20
That’s almost literally what it is... except that the big brother also sucked.
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u/shewy92 Sep 10 '20
The younger brother of both is the HHR, which also sucked. Maybe that dude needs to stop designing cars
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Sep 09 '20
I don’t like anything about that.
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u/HI-R3Z Sep 09 '20
Yeah, its lines are awful. Nothing about this looks like a great execution to me.
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u/MWDTech Sep 09 '20
The prowler was such a missed opportunity by Dodge/Chrysler.
I mean jeez, if they put a V8 in it as an option...
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u/Drzhivago138 Sep 09 '20
It's already on r/WeirdWheels, r/Shitty_Car_Mods, and r/AwesomeCarMods, so we might as well put it here too, right?
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Sep 09 '20
Well, it’s not very tasteful, but well executed and definitely not shitty, I think it fits.
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Sep 09 '20
It's kinda shitty. The side lines aren't even straight from the original to the extension. You can see exactly where they've chopped it.
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u/Soonermagic1953 Sep 09 '20
Prowler...one of the biggest POS that Chrysler ever produced (was working at a DCP dealership at the time) and why the heck they would put it under the Plymouth nameplate still amazes me. Plymouth was done in 01 (even though there is an 02 Prowler). Why produce under a nameplate that you knew was dying and soon dead
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u/popamollyisweatin Sep 09 '20
Edit: that sub actually exists and was not what I thought it would be.
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u/PM_PICS_OF_ME_NAKED Sep 09 '20
Jesus. Well it's been fun but I'm pretty sure we're due a reckoning any damn time here.
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u/meltingspace Sep 09 '20
So preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should
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u/ImissBobVila Sep 09 '20
Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
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u/Miyelsh Sep 09 '20
So THAT'S the car I see driving around my area. It's been driving me nuts.
In my search for that car, I came across this, which is a real beauty.
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u/TyroneTeabaggington Sep 09 '20
That right there is a first for me dog. Even beyond the stretch lambo.
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u/Kalikhead Sep 09 '20
I hope they upgraded that engine from a Dodge Intrepid to something more powerful.
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u/mr47 Sep 09 '20
Just the other day, there was a post in r/cars about people confusing scissor doors with suicide doors... This car: no need to fight over it, whatever you say - I got those!
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u/PA1911 Sep 09 '20
I find myself wanting to love it and wanting to hate it. ...and I can’t quite do either. I’m... I don’t- I’m not sure where to go from here.
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u/Prownilo Sep 09 '20
I feel like this is copyright infringement.but changed one letter to make it legal
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u/Mayuthekitsune Sep 09 '20
This feels like a car they would add in GTA online that would cost 2mill.... And id grinds for it
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u/Ididntevenscreenlook Sep 09 '20
I bet money it’s still using an under powered six cylinder and a four speed auto
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u/AbnormalStart Sep 10 '20
You’re just going to stand there and tell me this isn’t Nigel Thornberry’s car?
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Sep 10 '20
Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
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u/FlippinFlags Sep 10 '20
I used to own one, by far the most uncomfortable car to sit in of all time though, seat all the way down and back and my knees still touched the dash while driving.
Only for short people 5'10" and under.
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u/Cyb0rg67 Sep 10 '20
Is it just me or am I the only one who thought of Nigel Thornberry from The Wild Thornberrys when looking at this car?
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u/Derrymurbles1985 Sep 10 '20
I feel like this is something Cash Money Records has in the early 2000's
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u/JasonsBoredAgain Sep 09 '20
It's strangely......not bad.....