I beleive you are being unkind to the Prowler and its purchasers.
The Prowler is a "retro" vehicle...or an attempt to rewaken memories of
a past motoring age...in this case the American hot rod. A Morgan owner
should have a natural sympathy for the motivation behind any attempt of
this nature.
If we were going to compare a Prowler..the question is to what?
Let's take the Plus 8 1998 (though that year is not the most performant
of the series)
A Prowler puts out 219bhp, the Plus 8 185bhp.
The Prowler weighs 2838 pounds, the Plus 8 2068 lb
Power to weight ratio for the Prowler is 12.96:1, versus 11.18:1 for the
Plus 8
The Prowler has slightly better torque mitigated by an automatic
transmission.
I found the car to be finished as well as any high quality American mass
production car.
The Prowler handles well...sorta like a large go-kart and makes a great
hot-roddy sound. It takes off well from a standing start but loses
something because of the automatic transmission. The Plus 8 has more
pull...especially after the first few seconds and speed control is more
fun with the the short travel gear shift. Though they have similar top
speeds the Plus 8 will get there faster.
The Prowler is listed as much cheaper at $39,000 but the two dealers I
talked to said there is large premium on that price.
In sum...anyone who loves the Prowler...and there will be many..should
adore the Plus 8. (hot rod dreams aside).
Vandergraaf, Chuck wrote:
> I've only seen a Prowler "in the flesh" from a distance. From the
> photographs I've seen, it does look like a mass-produced '50s custom.
> To
> me, it's in the same category as the new VW "Beetle" (oops, Golf) and
> the
> Excalibur. It might be fun to have one of these cars, but it has
> "fake"
> written all over it.
>
> As to a 70 000 $ Morgan, that's 100 000 C$ at the current miserable
> exchange
> rate of the anemic Canadian dollar. Yes, there will be enough Morgans
> sold
> at those prices to keep the factory going, but I wonder how many will
> end up
> in enthusiasts hands and how many will be bought as status symbols.
> Pity.
>
> Chuck Vandergraaf
> '52 +4
> Pinawa, MB
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