posted 12-08-2004 08:06 AM                  

They said the car is only good to wash and look at...

Brock Yates trashed the Prowler just 2 months ago saying the owners are embarrassed to drive one.

posted 12-08-2004 08:21 AM                    

what do those people know anyways ??... they just feed off our wallets and probably paid to push stuff whether its good or not...

posted 12-08-2004 09:42 AM                  

Let the jury (public) decide. What percentage of people that you encounter have a favorable reaction to your Prowler? How many stop and look at it? Ask questions? Never seen one before? Granted a small, vocal number dislike the car. I respect their opinions but don't agree with them. I don't like all of the vehicles that I encounter. Personally, I never make negative comments that an owner could hear. The guy that owns (in you opinion) a horrible car, is proud of it. He paid a lot of his or her money for it. Let them enjoy it. As to the jerks that don't respect your opinion of your car dismiss them for the small persons that they are.

If we drove cars that no one objected to, we'd all be driving white or silver Hondas and Toyotas for fear of offending someone. Thank goodness this is America and we have the choice and opportunity to express our individuality!

And yes, Brock Yates has fallen, in my opinion, to just another bumbling, elitist hack with a forum to embarrass himself and disgrace the talented automotive writers out there. I vote with my pocket book. If a publication moves away from what I enjoy reading, I cancel my subscription or simply don't renew. Why has Hot Rod Magazine moved from a two million subscription base to one million? It wasn't by pleasing its readers.

posted 12-08-2004 09:11 PM                  

If a Prowler pulls up next to you at a stoplight, you can't ignore that," says Steven D. Bruyn, Chrysler Corp.'s Plymouth National Brands Marketing Manager.

Folks attending the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this month aren't likely to ignore the Plymouth Prowler, either.

Indeed, Prowler proved to be an instant hit when a fully operational concept version was unveiled two years ago. That warm reception inspired Chrysler to earmark $75 million, pocket change by today's standards, to develop the production version that makes its world debut at the Detroit show. It will not be available, however, until the first quarter of 1997.

Prowler is a throwback in looks and appeal to the famous California hot rods of the '50s built on chassis of cars from the early '30s; it's especially reminiscent, for example, of the 1932 Ford rods.

The low-riding Prowler with its tapered nose, lurking "cat-eye" headlamps, open-wheel front-end design, exposed front control arms and huge 20-in. (50-cm) rear wheels -- 17 ins. (43 cm) up front -- is an instant grabber. It's equipped with Goodyear run-flat tires, so it has no spare. A tire-pressure sensor on the instrument panel signals if the tires are losing air.

Unlike the rough-riding, fire-spitting classic rods, Prowler is a mild-mannered machine with most of the comfort, convenience and safety features you'd find in any other modern car, including dual air bags and side door beams. Prowler has 4-wheel disc brakes, but antilock braking is not available.

Prowler is loaded with advanced technology including massive use of aluminum throughout that shaved something like 700 lbs. (318 kg) compared with the same car built with traditional steel and iron components. First-year output is targeted at around 3,000, rising to 5,000 the next year.

Over its full life-cycle, perhaps 25,000 to 30,000 will be produced. Price: The mid-$30,000 range.

Weighing in at around 2,800 lbs. (1,270 kg), Prowler contains a whopping 900 lbs. (410 kg) of aluminum in the drivetrain, frame, body panels and chassis components. It's powered by Chrysler's 3.5L, 24-valve single overhead cam V-6 that generates 214 hp and produces 220 ft.-lbs. (298 Nm) of torque.

A rod wouldn't be a rod without rear-drive, so Chrysler engineered an aluminum driveshaft connected to the rear-mounted transaxle, which was borrowed from its LH full-size cars.

Although much of the materials technology is leading edge -- it has flexible sheet-molding compound (SMC) front fenders and a magnesium instrument panel support beam -- some 40% of Prowler's components (based on variable costs) are carried over from other Chrysler vehicles.

To keep costs down and reduce complexity, Prowler will have no options. It will come in only one color: A deep purple-red, with a black convertible top. But it will have fully functional side-door windows.

Prowler's mission is not to make big profits, although Prowler Team Executive Engineer Craig Love says that's a distinct possibility. Rather, it's to fire up Plymouth's sagging image while adding to Chrysler's overall cache.

Anyone wondering why Chrysler Corp. has some of the world's lowest product-development costs should visit their local Plymouth showroom early next year. Sitting there, briefly, in a few lucky dealerships, will be one of the more technologically impressive production vehicles to come along in some time.

Even if you hate its retro-style looks, pull your nose up at its mundane 3.5L engine, and sneer at Chrysler's low-cost "let's use only off-the-shelf components from our parts bin" development strategy. No matter what, the Plymouth Prowler is a heck of a showcase for lightweight materials technology, including:

* A lightweight aluminum body structure with full-perimeter frame made of aluminum castings and extrusions and featuring innovative self-piercing rivet and adhesive bonding techniques for critical joints.

* Body panels made of a brand-new 6022 aluminum alloy that breaks new ground in strength and formability.

* Other body panels made of a new SMC (sheet molding composite) that is lighter and more flexible than conventional SMC material.

* Aluminum suspension components made with a new semi-solid forging process that produces engineering properties formerly unheard of for such parts.

* A giant magnesium instrument panel support structure that not only saves weight but consolidates parts and cuts assembly costs.

* Aluminum composite brake rotors that are half the weight of conventional cast iron.

Granted, most automakers are working on experimental lightweight vehicle development programs, but the Prowler -- thanks to heavy technological commitments from suppliers -- is a materials showcase with a difference: It actually will be sold in the marketplace, and quite possibly at a profit.

Coming to Plymouth showrooms in the first quarter of 1997, it has a 5,000-unit plus annual production volume and a semi-affordable sticker of about $35,000. Total program cost: about $75 million. In the world of automotive new-product development, that's postage stamp money. Not bad for a company that less than two years ago was criticized for being too lean and lacking adequate research and development capabilities.

That's not to say other automakers don't have interesting materials projects under way. The Big Three all are contributing significant resources to the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV), a joint research project between the U.S. federal government and their USCAR technology consortium. It's aimed at bringing a Taurus-size family car to market early in the next century that gets triple the fuel economy of today.

What's more, Ford Motor Co. has its aluminum intensive vehicle (AIV) program, a $25 million fleet of 20 aluminum-bodied Sables, plus aluminum-bodied Synthesis and Synergy concept cars. But you can't buy them. General Motors Corp. has its new EV1 electric car, a lightweight technological tour-de-force with an aluminum body structure that goes on sale this year. You can buy one of those for $30,000 pr so, but GM says it will never make a dime of profit on the car.

There also are light-weight, aluminum-intensive products available from Japanese and European automakers, such as the almost-extinct Acura NSX, the Audi AG A8 and the Lotus Elise -- but they are very low volume, very expensive -- or both.

Of course, aluminum-bodied Rover sport/utility vehicles are made in substantial numbers, but they aren't the least bit lightweight. Neither is the aluminum-bodied Hummer. That pretty much leaves the Prowler crouching alone in the realm of real-world aluminum-intensive production vehicles.

Among the most interesting elements of its lightweight strategy is that much of its materials technology has been directly transferred from Chrysler's Neon Lite program, unveiled 18 months ago. The program focused on using advanced -- but semi-practical -- alternative materials to chop the Neon's weight by 600 lbs. (272 kg) and improve fuel economy by about 5 mpg. High-priced exotic materials that clearly couldn't be put into production cost effectively -- such as carbon fiber composites -- were ignored.

That translated into using magnesium, glass-reinforced composites, and lots of aluminum. Francois J. Castaing, Chrysler's vice president of vehicle engineering, said then that the automaker would never introduce an all-aluminum Neon because it would be too expensive, and consumers wouldn't be interested in paying 20% to 25% simply for lighter weight.

However, he did say what was learned would be transferred to "future vehicle programs." He practically mouthed the word "Prowler."

In fact, some engineers at a press event unveiling the Neon Lite found themselves yanking business cards out of journalists' hands because they accidentally gave them new ones featuring Prowler titles -- and a picture of the car.

Saad M. Abouzahr was one such engineer. He supervised materials development on the Neon Lite, and then moved directly from that position to become materials executive on the Prowler program. He says the new car's innovative magnesium instrument panel support structure, aluminum bonding technology and aluminum composite brakes all came directly from Neon Lite research.

However, taking these new technologies and actually putting them into production takes the challenge to a new level. For instance, it was one thing to determine that self-piercing rivets combined with heat-cured adhesives provide the strongest, most cost-effective approach for bonding critical joints in aluminum body structures. It was quite another to actually devise a production system to do such joints, even for Prowler's relatively low volume.

But just as the Neon Lite provided a technological foundation for the Prowler, what is being learned now in Prowler production could lead to innovations on much higher-volume, mainstream vehicles in the future, Mr. Abouzahr says.

Some of Prowler's most significant materials innovations:

* Aluminum supplier Alcoa developed a new high-strength 6022 aluminum alloy for Prowler body panels that hits new levels in strength and formability, Mr. Abouzahr says. A heat-treatable alloy, the aluminum sheet is initially soft and formable, but after it runs through the high heat of the paint bake ovens used to cure automotive paint jobs, it becomes very strong and stiff, like a bake-hardenable steel. This material surpasses other special aluminum body panel alloys such as 6111, which offers good strength, but is not as formable, Mr. Abouzahr says.

* Key aluminum suspension components such as control arms are created using a new semi-solid forging process that makes them stronger, tougher and closer to the desired net shape. In a process similar to plastic injection molding, small billets of aluminum are heated until they are soft as butter and then put into a die. The process changes the texture and microstructure of the aluminum. "We're getting properties you've never heard of getting," Mr. Abouzahr says.

* The Prowler team also broke new ground in the way aluminum is supplied. The light metal has two key drawbacks for automakers, it costs three to four times as much as steel, and its price historically is very volatile because it is traded on world markets as a commodity "like pork bellies," critics often say. The Prowler team addressed the latter issue by negotiating a long-term pricing arrangement with aluminum suppliers to protect against major price fluctuations.

http://www.autoworld.com/news/plymouth/Aluminum_on_Streets.htm
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3165/is_n1_v32/ai_17815597

More articals on prowler
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MXI/is_7_22/ai_112540377

Enjoy the good old days

Don..

posted 12-09-2004 09:07 AM                  

quote:

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Originally posted by mannyd:
[B]What others cars where ours being compared too? [B]

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I think a BMW Z3 was one...it was a comparo of 5 convertibles driven cross country. I think the T-bird was another...I forget the rest.

Anyone else remember..I have to look at my issue to see.