A 1991 Cadillac Allanté with just 13,000 miles on the odometer has been listed for sale via Bring-A-Trailer, offering discerning GM enthusiasts the opportunity to put this odd piece of the automaker’s history in their collection.
Unlike many of the brand’s vehicles, the Cadillac Allanté was different in that it shared almost no components with any of the automaker’s other products at the time. To give it some more added prestige, GM had Italian coachbuilder Pininfarina design the car as well as build, paint and trim the bodies. These incomplete bodies were then shipped from Turin to Detroit, where the American automaker installed the sub-frames, suspension, drivetrain and other components. The cost of this convoluted production process, along with the abundance of unique components, ultimately did the Allanté in and the convertible was axed from the automaker’s lineup at the end of 1993.
The Allanté’s uniqueness may have ushered in its early demise, but that’s what makes this low-mileage example so appealing. GM collectors would be smart to put a clean example like this in their garage, in our opinion, as the two-door is emblematic of a time when the auto industry was much different than it is today. In a time when most major automakers are sharing components with each other and not just their own internal brands, it’s hard to imagine one shipping bodies across the world to create a unique luxury convertible.
This like-new 1991 Cadillac Allanté is finished in red with a black convertible and features a black leather interior. It was originally delivered to the Columbus Motor Car Company in Ohio, carrying a sticker price of $56,395 – equivalent to an eyebrow-raising $113,580.85 today! It’s sold with a clean Pennsylvania title and CarFax report, along with the original window sticker, all original manufacturer’s literature and two keys. Check out the listing at this link before the virtual gavel falls on the auction later this week.
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Comments
Interesting that this Allante article posted. I’ve been looking for a clean and factory original (not molested with changes) Cimarron (inject jokes here). Yes, a Cimarron. I just want one. However, I’m not willing to pay the prices for a really clean one and it seems they’re either super clean and expensive or in need of a lot of love/money. So my second choice would be a fairly clean Allante. I’ve been watching and it seems there are a lot of them on the market with prices ranging from around $8000.00 up to around $20,000. I just don’t know enough about them when it comes to what I would need to look for. I’m sure repairs and parts for these could be costly. However, it looks like I could pick up a fairly nice one for around that $8,000 with under 75K.
Serious question though. I’ve tried looking on Bring A Trailer, but is seems you need to sign up in order to actually look at what’s for sale. I really don’t want to sign up for yet another thing. Does anyone know if there’s a way to look at and/or contact a seller on that site without signing up? Thanks.
Interesting you want the Cimarron. My first car was the Cimarron. It was an ’84 model w/ dark blue interior and exterior both matching shade. I somewhat thought that I was into something. The car was very durable for a small car and I was hit from behind with hardly no scratch and dent by a medium size Toyota pick-up. This was back in the mid ’90s.
I saw this car on the tote-the-note lot and there was an ’84 Eldorado on the lot alongside the Cimarron. I liked the Eldorado better but the problem was the hood ornament was broken off and it was a deal breaker for me. But since looking back, I was glad that I got the Cimarron instead because the area where I lived at, the people and neighbors were questionable since I lived in an apartment at that time.
I had that car for four years. The ride quality was taunt and it had O.K. steering feel. The engine noise was unrefined and the car was slow at that time. However, the seats were comfortable and I enjoyed my time with the car.
Even though I thought I was into something, the car was on a shared J body platform internally shared with Olds, Pontiac, Chevy and Cadillac. It would not be fair to say that this was a Chevy design only because no one can argue that this vehicle was used up by four brands.
I don’t see Cimarrons anymore but every once in a while I do see the Allante’. Whatever you decide, hope you find what you are looking for.
Johnls_39. Thanks for the words. Very interesting to hear your story. I’d certainly love to find an 84 or 85 with the 4 cyl engine. I could care less about the extra power with the v6 and for what I want the 4 would be perfect. But I’d take anything decent that I could find within my budget. The way you describe the Cimarron’s ride, comfort and seating reinforces that the Cimarron was much more than just a Chevy in Cadillac name. I’ve done a lot of research on them and know there was a lot more to the car. But for me, I just like the smaller size and uniqueness of it. An Allante would be next up on my list, but I’ve never been a huge fan of convertibles.
On another note, I find it extremely funny that someone (my stalker) not only gave me a thumbs down, but then gave you one as well. How childish. I could care less, but it’s quite sad that this person hates anything I say so much that they project that onto really good comments like yours. Sorry about that.
Absolutely. It is not a terrible car so many people have it out it be. The car sold pretty well during its time in production. The car was not very fast but no car at that same era was fast either.
You cool. This guy you are talking about is a stalker 100% and I agree. I find it funny too that he is so bothered by me and try to bully people and no one is bothered and thinking about him. He is a poor excuse of a human being who does not know how to act like a human being and he don’t have what it takes to make it as a human being.
He is making himself look like an idiot more and more and people on here knows his pattern on here and everyone on here knows he don’t have anything better to do with his time. All I got to say about him is that he is a sad human being and an insolent mark who is miserable in life who does not have a life and trying to make everyone around him miserable. He is crazy and he need to get help but in his case, might be a little too late.
Howdy! You can look at everything that’s for sale on BaT without a login. However, the seller is not listed by name and there’s no phone number shown. You can contact the seller through the site, but that requires a login. Getting a login doesn’t cost anything. Certainly, the seller pays BaT to list a vehicle. BaT insists you go through them to get to the seller since it’s an auction like any other. They want their fee and the seller probably wishes to screen out looky-loos and tire kickers who aren’t serious buyers or who want to snake the site out of its proceeds. All auction sites pretty much work that way. You may be surprised that the bidding may not have taken off and you might still bag a bargain. Not all their cars sell for big bucks. The Allante is a no-reserve auction and bidding is just under $15,000 with bidding ending in two days.
Thanks Itcmgm78. I was wrong on the site that I was thinking about. It must have been classic cars dot com that won’t allow you to even see pics unless you register. Stupid. But I did go on BaT last night and scrolled through all the cars. Appreciate the info though.
Would the ’93 be a better choice because it had the Northstar?
I’m not sure that I would say the Allante’ shared “almost no components with any of the automaker’s other products at the time” as it was built on GM’s FWD E-Body platform that underpinned the Eldorado and also Buick’s Riviera and the Oldsmobile Toronado. Although Allante’ used a shortened version of the E-body, it still shared the basic platform, running gear, suspension, V8 engine, transmission and many other components with other GM products.
It is fair to say that while the US-built mechanical component of the car was a modified E-Body, the Italian component truly did share little with other Cadillac offerings. The body and interior were built by Pininfarina and were completely unique; they didn’t look or feel like any other Cadillacs. The Allante’ Airbridge, as it was called, was also novel where the completed Italian-built bodies shipped directly from Turin on specially outfitted Alitalia 747 jets. When the bodies arrived in Detroit, they were offloaded and transported to Hamtramck where they were mated to the US-built part of the car. If anyone has toured a modern automobile factory, there is a point where the “marriage” occurs meaning the completed body drops down from a separate assembly line and onto the “chassis” which has been assembled independently. Once the two are married, a drivable car is born. With Allante’, that body was built in Europe, flown in, and married to an E-Body platform that had been built in similar fashion to those built and married to Eldorado and Seville bodies. The latter technically called a K-Body.
I would argue that it was this US-built portion of the car that doomed Allante’. It certainly had plenty of prestige and elan conferred upon it by nature of the way the body was built. Unfortunately the E-Body was, by that time, just another of GM’s many transverse engine FWD platforms (X,J,A,N,C,E, and K-Body), that wasn’t really befitting a true luxury car. It was grossly underpowered initially and seen as too similar to GM’s other offerings under its exotic skin. The generation of E-Body that Allante’ was based on went on to kill GM’s once highly profitable luxury coupe business. Sales had plunged by 60 percent when the new-for-1986 models of the Eldo/Toro/Riv launched and never truly recovered. GM’s attempt to take this platform and build a high-end Mercedes-Benz SL competitor from it was simply too much of a stretch. A lot of lipstick but still a pig underneath was how it was seen at the time.
Today though, I’d say there is much to love about the Allante’. It was a truly unique car built when Cadillac was only beginning to lose the luxury car market and it was a valiant effort to fight back. In the final years and with the Northstar it was a pretty good effort indeed. Too late but still a car unlike any other.
Ci2eye: Very well said. Although I don’t know much about what to look for (as a buyer of an older Allante), I did all the training on the car as I started selling in 1988 and the Allante was freshly introduced in 1987. What you said takes me back to those days of training and the excitement of the car. However, being a dealer with Buick, GMC, Cadillac and Honda in a more rural part of mid-west, we didn’t stock many of them.
The only thing I would add is that the Allante won a head to head comparo with the MB SL at the time. I don’t recall which publication did it, but that was certainly a feather in Cadillac’s hat at that time. Yet on the other hand, I personally believe it was the Allante, Eldo TC and Seville STS that began the chase after the import brands which is what I feel knocked Cadillac off track. To this day I don’t feel Cadillac should be going after them and instead they should concentrate on being Cadillac.
I had a 1988 Allante for 13 years and loved it…the only problem was that the top was a real pain to put up. It also leaked, but I never drove it in the rain. I Considered having a custom power top mechanism build for it, but decided it wasn’t worth the cost. I traded the Allante in on my first Corvette a brand new 2001 convertible.
Another example of finally get something right then cancelling it. First batch had some problems and worked to correct those problems. Then when they finally got it right they cancelled it.