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GM Authority

The Curious Case Of The Cadillac Allante

You could say the Cadillac Allante was an attempt to distance General Motors’ luxury brand, much like what Cadillac is trying to do today with its move to New York City, exclusive engines and more.

But, the Cadillac Allante was certainly not the most business-savvy way to go about positioning Cadillac against the Mercedes-Benz SL and Jaguar XJS, as told by Motoring Research originally.

You see, Cadillac decided to team up with Italian-based coach builder, Pininfarina, for an exclusive convertible which shared no components with any other GM branded vehicle.

Cadillac had Pininfarina build the bodies of the Allante, paint them, trim them and, finally, install their convertible tops. Then, the cars would hop a flight from Turin, to Detroit via a jumbo jet airliner, where the sub-frames, suspension, drivetrain and other components would be installed.

And, thus, a Cadillac Allante was born. Though, it could have really been called anything, as the Allante name was selected from a list filled with 1,700 random computer-generation names.

In the end, it simply wasn’t enough. Pininfarina’s convertible tops were known to leak substantially, and GM pushed the car out to production anyway after identifying the issue, tarnishing the Allante name from the start. Despite improvements each year, the convertible couldn’t truly contest the SL and XJS.

Cadillac wanted to sell 6,000 examples each year, but its best selling year saw merely 4,670 units sold in the end. If one still desires one of these unique vehicles today, low mileage examples can still fetch $20,000.

Former GM Authority staff writer.

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Comments

  1. I bought a 1988 Cadillac Allante and kept it for 13 years. I loved the car and it never failed to attract attention. But as the article says the top was a problem. The fact that it leaked wasn’t that big of a deal because I never drove it in the rain. The bigger problem was that the roof was a major pain in the butt to put up. I considered shipping it to Florida to have a custom power top mechanism built for it, but decided that it would not be worth the expense and traded it in on a brand new 2001 Corvette convertible.

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  2. I own a ’92 Allante that I’ve had for 21 years; car today has 107,000 miles on the odometer. It has been a great car for me; I drive it year round (but never when the streets are snow/salt slush; it still looks and drives like new, as I’ve maintained it. The car also has the hardtop, which I install in the Fall. As for the convertible top leaking–has never been a problem the few times I’ve driven it in the rain; by that point in production, most of the leak problems seem to have been taken care of. The car is still a head turner.

    BTW… the Mercedes SL model at the time also had a manual top, that was also difficult to operate; once you get the ‘hang’ of the Allante top operation, it is not difficult to do.

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    1. I’m about to buy a car and ever since I rode in a Cadillac Allante I’ve wanted one so have you ever seen a leak in the car from the hardtop and where do i get the hard tops?

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      1. I never had leaks on the hard top I’m on my second Hard top Allante. 1st was a 90 and currently own a 92i feel is the best year produced of all years produced.

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      2. I never have had any leaks on the hard tops.
        I’m on my second Hard top Allante a 92.
        My 1st was a 90 and currently own the 92.
        I feel the 92 is the best year produced.
        The 90 was the first of the better and improved models made.

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  3. I remember this car having a product placement on Married with Children in which Kelly Bundy became spokeswoman.
    It was dreadful but is a chunk of Americana trivia.

    Reply
    1. I remember that show when I was very young but did not realize it was a Cadillac because that show did not want to call it Cadillac at that time.

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  4. I remember watching the TV show Dallas and they showed JR Ewing driving one. I remember thinking how hot that car was and how badly I wanted to be able to drive a Cadillac (this was before BMW/Mercedes started dominating the American luxury car market).

    Well, now I own TWO Cadillacs, including a 2012 CTS-V coupe so it’s a good thing I aspired to drive a Caddy like JR did!!

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  5. My father had one. It was a complete piece of junk with a beautiful plastic interior.

    Don’t try to pretend this was a well engineered car. My father switched to Mercedes and never looked back.

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    1. I’m very inclined to agree with Bob. I must admit that researching and looking for one these extremely over-priced pieces of crap guided me to find a 2001 Cadillac Eldorado ETC with the perfected Northstar engine. It has made me lose respect for GM for producing a vehicle with well-known flaws to the public. In addition to the leaking roof and the difficulty in pulling up the top, Cadillac Engineers ignored the fact that no other US vehicle had compatible interchanging parts. Pininfarina parts are both rare and extremely expensive. If we had justice in America, they should have made General Motors compensate buyers for their incompetence and deception to American car buyers! The only bright spot is that they corrected the problem with the engine head bolts to hold down the heads in place to the block in approx. 8 years! they had to be slightly widened and extended more than .5 inches to correct. Otherwise, each time you took the engine to Cadillac for service you were getting raped for $4500-$5,000 for labor, parts, and service that was a temporary fix! I love the older Cadillacs and restore them as a hobby. That’s why I lost so much respect for General Motors over this vehicle. Look at the ratings on my 93 engine compared to predecessors and you will not how I received a $.9 rating (i.e. out of 5) compared to the original Northstar which hardly ever received a higher than 2.5 review for dependability!

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  6. Briefly appeared on Lethal Weapon 3! Looked stunning at the time.

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  7. There’s a Junkyard in Windsor Ontario Canada off of provential road, they always have one or two. I think the guy collects them.

    I’ve never been there but if anybody that come across this article needs parts, it might be worth checking out.

    I have a hard time finding parts for my 86 mustang I cain’t imagine how hard it would be for this thing. Just trying to help out. I think it’s called J and B.

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  8. One thing about Cadillac’s Allante is that it’s ageless as it’s over 20 years old and still looks fresh today; one can just imagine an Allante stuffed with the drivetrain from the upcoming Cadillac CT6-4 with all-wheel-drive, all-wheel-steering and a 400hp twin-turbocharged 3.0L DOHC-4v V6 mated to a 8-speed automatic.

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  9. I own a 1989 Allante’, we have a club here in Atlanta GA, it’s the longest running club since 1993, which is the last year they were sold and 2018 is the 25th Aniversary. We have an annual show in the Fall, last year it was in Savannah, mine won third place in the year class. This Fall the contest will be in Detroit. In May the club is going to Turin for a week to tour the factory and city. There is another club in Florida which has the largest amount of members, go figure Florida have the most of the never aging Allante’. When I take mine out it never fails that someone stops me and comments on its ageless beauty!

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    1. It’s me again, I wish I could post pictures of my Allante’, it’s in the body shop and due finished Wednesday.
      All Allante’s come in one color, I had the opportunity to get a Pearl white hardtop for free from a club member that totaled his 89 in Virginia. I have to tell you when get together every year, last year at Charlotte Motor Speedway we draw a crowd, mine get a loot of likes because the red body white hard top.
      We are cruising together 12/1-3 in Savannah for Holiday tour/show.
      I had the white top painted Red, white and green, the Italian Flag.
      Talk about the conversation piece.
      Yes the 87 models got pushed into the sales arena against Pininfarina urging Cadillac to wait until 1988. Ironically Cadillac promised buyer that they’d hold their value. Years later every original buyer received $4K in a class action law suit. The irony of that is the leaks were corrected in the 88 year.
      I bought mine in 14 from the original owner with 30K miles. The paint looks brand new and turns heads every time I go somewhere.
      The hardtop came standard thru the 89 years and after that it was a $6K option. So when you see them at shows rarely will you see a hardtop. You might think because they are a fair weather car, not really it because most people wanted to save money.
      In 93 they added the Norstar engine, supposedly 100 more hsp, than my 89, but I believe in 89 they undervalued the hsp for insurance reasons.
      Mine if I want to can do a NASCAR burn out where you can’t see the front tires, not to many 1989 front wheel cars did that.
      It was rated the highest horsepowered front wheel drive car in its own time.
      Don’t lol down your nose about the Allante’, buy one and you’ll love it.
      Allante’ Source .com has any part you need and will rebuild any your electronics that go bad. You have to send them your part first so they can rebuild and send back.
      Tom Roner in California has 59 parts cars, parts aren’t an issue.
      Y’all Come On don’t be hating one of the coolest Italian built body high performance front wheel ALLANTE’

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  10. I owned a 1988 Allante for 13 years and loved it, but it had 2 problems: 1) the roof leaked so I couldn’t drive it in the rain and 2) the top was a huge pain in the butt to put up. I considered shipping it to Florida to have a power top mechanism custom built, but after considering the cost as well as the cost of shipping, I decided to trade it in on my 1st New Corvette, a 2001 convertible.

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  11. I waited 25 years to get one and finally got this one this past week. It is in showroom condition with only 72K miles on it. Everything on it works and driving it makes me feel 25 again

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  12. I’m about to purchase a ‘93 Low mileage Allante but you guys are scaring me! 😳

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  13. Bought my ’91 Allante in October 2021. Super looking car and drives beautifully. Most mechanical parts are still available and a couple of Allante specialist clubs in the USA. Few in England even know it is a Cadillac but love the styling. Fortunately, I got a mass of literature from previous owner including workshop manual, even the vhs tape on the salesman brochure and Brookwood limited edition write up with comparisons to the MB SL and Jag V12.
    So far, needed a new water pump, belt, tensioner, thermostat and neck. Set of new Goodyear tyres this year (2023) and an idle motor. All of these items, except the tyres, I purchased from the USA at very reasonable prices, in fact, the whole lot was cheaper than an alternator for my BMW 318i purchased in UK with me fitting it!
    Bodywork shows no sign of corrosion anywhere and when you consider the UK is just like the Rust Belt in the States it’s pretty good going. I have never found either of the tops too much of a problem but the ’91 did have the improvements over earlier models. Once I set the throttle position sensor up correctly, it certainly parts your hair with a terrific growl from up front. Never had so much fun. Try one, you’ll see!

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