Yahoo Autos Plymouth Prowler Makes Hagerty's 2024 Bull Market List for Collector Cars
The Plymouth Prowler is a unique-looking and memorable car, especially for those of us who were impressionable adolescents circa Y2K. But for a car that was designed to be a collector's item as soon as it left the factory, it took its time to ripen into something one might consider an investment.
The Prowler came out in 1997 but the concept, which was pretty darn closely followed for production, was on display at the 1993 Detroit Auto Show. It's not much of a stretch to say we can celebrate the car's 30th anniversary right about now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-HGcmsewY0
Hagerty publishes an annual rundown of old cars its staff reckons are headed up in value. It calls this the "bull market list," and while I don't love the vibe of flipping cars like stocks, that kind of horse trading always has and always will be part of car culture.
Credit where it's due: Hagerty's staff is well-equipped to make such a list, having access to a deep well of classic car valuation data. And for what it's worth, I think the sheet metal profiled this year are all pretty solid financial bets as far as old cars go. One caught my eye in particular, however. The Plymouth Prowler.
"Perhaps surprisingly, members of Gen X (born between 1965 and 1980) are now trickling into the Prowler, slowly supplanting the boomers who were the initial target when the car was conceived," Joe DeMatio wrote for Hagerty. The Prowler list entry ends with pertinent insight:
So-called restomods (old cars with modern guts) are big business these days—customizers regularly charge six figures to fit a fuel-injected engine, disc brakes, etc., into an old rig. It’s only a matter of time before enthusiasts discover the Prowler, which is essentially a factory-built restomod offered at a bargain price.
Hagerty Auto Intelligence
With Prowlers trading hands between $15,700 and $45,500 these days, I'd say that assessment is logical. So why did a car so clearly born to be a car show queen take over two decades to be validated by collectors?
My fellow car fans who were alive when this car was new know exactly why. The Prowler is a cereal box toy—all show and no go. And while this feels weird to say about a retro design, it aged very quickly and poorly.
Old-school Americana had a little resurgence around the year 2000. The Ford Thunderbird, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Chevy HHR, and SSR, all had this kind of techno-rockabilly vibe that was really in back then. The Hard Rock Cafe look was going crazy. I even remember having toys of fictional cars with a similar "American Graffiti but make it plastic" aesthetic.
