(first posted 3/8/2016) For anyone who knows their Cadillac history, I don’t need to emphasize that the 1980s were not a good time for the luxury marque. Between the controversial “bustle-back” styling of the 1980 Seville, some self-destructing V8 engines, the J-car Cimarron, and the crop of downsized, generic-looking 1985/1986 models, it appeared Cadillac was delivering one misfire after another.
It wasn’t that Cadillac didn’t mean well, as it had the right intent with more economical engines, greater space efficient designs, and vehicles that explored new corners of the market. Yet Cadillac’s execution of these ideas was totally off, leading many to feel that Cadillac was completely out of touch with the public, and not look back as they effortlessly spent thousands more for a European luxury car.
But then in 1987 came a beacon of hope for the ailing American luxury brand. It was clear that the growing population of younger, affluent, and typically urban professionals did not see the undeniably soft, cushy, and overwrought Cadillac as the appealing status symbol it once was. Instead, this important demographic was flocking to brands such as BMW, Jaguar, and chiefly, Mercedes-Benz.
Cadillac’s first attempt at gaining the attention of these buyers with the compact, entry-level and ill-executed Cimarron was a catastrophic blowup in its face. For its second attempt at creating a European-inspired car, Cadillac turned to the complete opposite end of the luxury market, creating a high-priced, low-volume halo car, meant at enhancing Cadillac’s image and showing that it wasn’t stuck in the past.
Development on what would become the Allanté (internally codenamed “Callisto”) began in 1982. Almost from the start, partnering with a European firm was the plan, as Cadillac general manager Bob Burger believed (and rightfully so) that significant European involvement was required to give the vehicle the very non-traditional European appeal Cadillac was aiming for. The famed Italian coach builder Pininfarina was chosen, and contracted for designing, engineering, and manufacturing the body of the Allanté.
This decision naturally caused some anger from many within GM, most notably Fisher Body and GM Design. In a move of defiance, Cadillac’s well-known Chief Designer, Wayne Kady, had his team even go ahead with their own design for the Allanté, a design which ultimately was not used.
The multi-step assembly process began with the frame, engine compartment, and major electronics all being flown from the U.S. to Italy. After the completed body shell and interior were constructed in at Pininfarina’s plant near Turin, they were flown back across the Atlantic aboard special Alitalia and Lufthansa Boeing 747s, 56 units per flight. After reaching Cadillac’s Detroit/Hamtramck assembly plant, the remaining chassis components and engines were installed, completing the so-called “9,000 mile assembly line”.
In addition to the obvious geographical component, other complexities naturally arose throughout the Allanté’s development and ongoing production. The sheer culture clash between American and Italian was a major hurdle to overcome, particularly in the area of quality control. More extensive training of Pininfarina employees and major improvements to its facilities, things originally unanticipated, were implemented to ensure fit and finish were up to the standards Cadillac had for the Allanté.
The Allanté also contained largest amount of electronic systems in GM vehicle ever produced up until that time. In true ’80s cutting-edge, the Allanté offered a comprehensive multi-color LCD instrument cluster, with speedometer and tachometer simulating analogue gauges. Oil pressure, coolant temperature, and fuel level were displayed to the side as bar graphs, with separate digital readouts for odometer and redundant speedometer. Beginning in 1988, a traditional, fully-analogue gauge cluster was available for no extra cost.
LCD dot matrix readouts were also used for the automatic climate control, 75-message capable driver information system, and the standard Delco/Bose symphony sound system. The car’s special Italian leather Recaro bucket seats included 10-way power adjustments, plus two-position memory for the driver, courtesy of very-80s individual buttons. Every Allanté also featured a standard theft-deterrent system wired into the car’s board computer system. When activated, it triggered the horn, lights to flash, and immobilized the starter and fuel delivery system.
To minimize glitches and enhance the reliability of these complex electronics, the Allanté was the first GM vehicle featuring multiplex wiring. Multiplex wiring limited any malfunctions from affecting other electronics, and through the board computer, sent signals to other systems to take over if possible. For example, if the right low-beam were to go out, the right parking lamp would illuminate for compensation.
Initially, the Allanté’s only extra-cost option was a cellular mobile phone, concealed in the center glove box. This phone could be used while plugged into to vehicle, as well as cordless while outside the vehicle. It also featured a hands-free phone function, which similar to bluetooth technology on modern cars, was wired into the car’s front audio speakers and made use of a hidden microphone to receive the driver’s voice.
At the start of production, all Allantés featured both a manually operated soft top, as well as a removable aluminum hard top, weighing approximately 60 pounds. Both featured glass rear quarter windows and heated glass rear windshields. In 1990, the hardtop roof was removed from the list of standard features, lowering the Allanté’s base price by several thousand dollars. The soft top also gained a power latching mechanism in 1991, though unlike its main competitor, the Mercedes-Benz SL, a fully power operated convertible top never made it to production.
Initially powering the Allanté was Cadillac’s rather notorious 4.1L HT-4100 V8. With the addition of multiport fuel injection, roller rocker arms, and a redesigned camshaft profile, it was good for 170 horsepower and 235 pound-feet of torque; substantial increases over the existing HT-4100. In 1989, this engine was replaced by a larger 4.5L V8, now producing 200 horsepower and a hefty 270 pound-feet of torque.
A nod to its positioning as a grand tourer, the only transmission available was a 4-speed automatic, in the form of the Turbo-Hydramatic 4T60. This was the same automatic found in the front-wheel drive C- and H-bodies, although for the Allanté it was electronically controlled, resulting in the F-7 designation.
As for performance itself, the Allanté was no track-ready 911 Carrera, but handling for this grand tourer was generally cited as a good, particularly for a V8-powered front-wheel drive convertible. Contemporary reviewers also gave the Allanté strong remarks for its favorable balance between road feel and comfort, and its plentiful power, particularly in later versions.
Cadillac saved the biggest changes for 1993, giving the car a significant refresh for what proved to be its final season.
The Allanté continued using the 4.5L HT-4100 through the 1992 model year, upon which it became the first Cadillac equipped with the new “Northstar System”. Highlighted by a highly-advanced 4.6L V8 featuring dual overhead camshafts, 4-valves per cylinder, and all aluminum construction, the Northstar System also encompassed a sophisticated active damper management suspension system, speed variable-assist power steering, traction control, and four-wheel disc Bosch anti-lock brakes. With the Northstar V8, power was up significantly in the Allanté, now to 295 horsepower and 290 pound-feet of torque. A new four-speed automatic transmission was also added to handle the increased torque.
Visually, all Allantés now featured thin chrome lower bodyside trim. Previously, this trim could have also been red or black, depending on body color. The fixed front quarter windows were also eliminated, making for a smoother if not slightly less distinctive appearance. The Allanté was also given a larger, more aggressive front air dam, and chrome cast aluminum wheels (which this featured Polo Green car does not wear) were a new option for extra flash.
Inside, the Recaro sport seats were replaced by more familiar and less costly Lear-designed 8-way power buckets. With a less exciting design and duller upholstery colors, limited to either taupe and black, the ’93’s Lear seats didn’t give off the same sporty flair as the original Recaros. The LCD digital dash was now an extra cost option, as was the removable hardtop. At nearly 4,700 units, 1993 Allanté sales jumped nearly 60% over the previous year, resulting in the car’s best sales year ever. The last Allanté was completed in July 1993, with total production at 21,430 units.
Although the Allanté never ended up being the game changer Cadillac had hoped for, in retrospect, it was a successful experimental car for Cadillac, showing that the brand could offer a pretty decent car that wasn’t a road-isolating chamber topped with a vinyl roof and wire wheels. Along with the new Eldorado and Seville that joined it in 1992, the Allanté was Cadillac’s gateway into producing vehicles that could actually compete toe-to-toe with European rivals.
Moreover, a quarter-century later, the Allanté has aged remarkably well, chiefly as a testament to its clean lines and understated, elegant design language. Although the Allanté never lived up to Cadillac’s sales expectations and was likely purchased by seasoned Cadillac owners instead of Mercedes-Benz prospects, it deserves recognition where earned. As Cadillac’s first legitimate attempt, and nonetheless a moderately successful one, at producing a serious contender in luxury and performance on a global scale, the Allanté’s spirit can be found in the ATS and CTS today.
Related Reading:
1987 Cadillac Allante GM’s Deadly Sin #37 PN
It is still a good-looking car, I’ll give it that. I don’t love the taillights and I have my doubts about the aesthetics of the hardtop, but the proportions are great and the detailing mostly quite nice. Perhaps Cadillac’s nicest interior of the period as well.
Agree. Still would like to have one, think it is a pretty little car with a much less
complecated operating roof than the XLR.
For a change it is a car designed from the very beginning to be a convertible.
Unlike many other cars, where they took the convertible step later.
The design of the tail lights is a matter of taste. I see them as an example of the mix of white and red glas in the tail lights from 1965 1966, which Cadillac took up again in 1990-1992.
On a visit to Dallas I went to Moritz Cadillac and asked for a test drive, because it would be very unlikely that I ever would see one in this country.
Moritz had supplied me with car parts for my Cadillacs for years.
We did go for a short drive in the area.
Typically not enough to get a complete picture of what the car is like.
I am still waiting to see the first person taking the step of importing and registrating one of these to this extremely US car hostily country I live in.
The lines were decent, no denying that. But I remember waiting in line to sit in one at the car show when these were introduced and thinking “the future is going to suck” with the digital IP. Thank God we all got over our digital dashes after this, the Corvette, and a few others.
Who sold more, Cadillac with the Allante or Chrysler with the TC?
The Allante. The Chrysler TC was much shorter-lived.
The Allante is a car I really do like, probably the only Cadillac of the 80s I have positive feelings towards besides the more traditional Brougham, but I also recognize how deeply flawed it is. Hindsight tells us that if the car had a halfway decent engine at launch, had some bugs worked out, and had a less ambitious price tag, it might’ve worked (I also think the FWD architecture killed it as well). But, hindsight is just that, and the Allante is the perfect example of Cadillac’s woes, it was a beautiful and unique car that was hampered by over ambition and poor design choices. More style than substance, came so close to brilliance but had it slip through its fingers, a great idea that ended up having victory snatched from the jaws of defeat. I know it sounds like I’m being overtly negative, but I still have positive feelings towards the car, its just that I’m also willing to recognize its faults.
Also, maybe its just me, but I was always a fan of that really nice Dark Green that Cadillac put on its cars in the 80s and 90s. On cars like the Allante, as well as the similar Seville and Eldorado, that dark green was a great looking option.
If this is the car Wayne Cady and his team developed, they should have gone with it. Think of the savings Cadillac could have passed along to their buyers not having to go with the 9,000 mile build.
Except that they wanted to compete with the MB SL, hoping that cachet would rub off onto lesser models, and the exotic assembly helped to justify the high price. Without it, it’s pretty much merely a shortened Eldorado convertible.
I can’t get past that front wheel drive dash to axle ratio on the Allante.
Is it just me or does the Wayne Kady design drawing look like it might have been the starting point for the W-body Lumina coupe?
I can see some resemblance, but I think its the Buick Reatta in spirit.
I thought the same thing. Had the Kady design been chosen, the car would have flopped horribly. Who would spend that kind of money for something that looked so much like a Lumina.
Ditto. That in itself was one of GM’s cardinal (deadly, actually) sins during the 80s, having way too much design similarity between divisions. That may have once worked in the 40s and 50s, (as I will expound on tomorrow) but that was a very different world.
It’s a sad reflection on GM that they had to go to Pininfarina to get a car that looked different enough, and exuded some distinction.
It is a W body Buick Regal coupe without the rear seat. Sad.
The internal design would have sold as well as the Pininfarina design IMO. Either way, the Allante’s problems weren’t the styling.
That was my thought on the Kady drawing. Looks like a 2-seater Regal coupe. Also if you imagine it with a sloped nose, it resembles the Reatta–same team, i wonder?
Yikes, you could raise a family under that front overhang. And as the final product shows, it wasn’t necessary for engine packaging, so it was a conciously bad design decision…
I don’t think it was bad design — more being stuck with certain platform hardpoints that didn’t really fit this concept. The Reatta had the same issue.
Ah, I assumed Kady and Pinninfarina worked off the same platform.
The Allante was a shortened E-body, which was new for 1986. At that time (1987) GM probably had not considered where the next generation E-body was going. Kady’s design looks a lot like the Regatta. As it turns out the 1986 E-body was the end of the platform, so the Allante was a dead end product line.
Thanks for this interesting writeup. The SL and XJS had been around quite a while when these came out and seems like a good market for Cadillac to try it’s hand. I think the shape was excellent and the 4.5 aluminum block V8 was an appropriate powertrain for this retirement convertible. Some criticized the high tech dashboard, but given what happened later, I don’t think Cadillac should be criticized for being ahead of the game. It also added to the impact, The Alllante was new and the SL/XJS were so old.
I would have agreed with Mr. Kady that the car should have been made in USA. Building in Italy would likely scare off buyers as to reliability. It also added so much to production costs that it would have ate up so much of the high price. On a more basic note, I do not think that Cadillac should have given in to the notion that at a certain price, Cadillac had to farm the work out to their betters in Europe. Cadillac has been doubling down on this premise ever since, to their detriment
Good point about the age of the competition. In the ever-changing eighties, they seemed like dinosaurs. Good on Cadillac for getting in there!
I have mixed feelings about the Allante. On one hand, I applaud Cadillac for trying to field a car for the top of the market, exactly where the brand should have been positioned. The styling, at least the front and sides, was very attractive–though the rear to me is very generic and lost that hallmark Cadillac “look” in back.
But… FWD? Really? Why not the then-new ’87 Senator platform, for example? That would have given a great RWD base for both proportions and handling and would have been sized right. Weak pushrod engines? Painful! Worst of all, no power top!!! Unforgivable in light of the car’s mission as super expensive luxury grand tourer. Too much money was spent on shipping bodies across the Atlantic and not enough was spent on the mechanical details that really make great cars great.
So, close but no cigar, though I am glad they at least tried. It was the beginning of their 30 year comeback plan, still underway today 🙂
I will say it does look good in that deep green, but I never thought much about the styling other than it was totally underwhelming to the point of being anonymous. And I like clean lines and shapes.
It looks slightly better today given the mash up of curves lines and angles on the current crop of designs.
The LeBaron tail lights don’t say anything “Cadillac”. The front could just as easily have been from a Chevrolet. Top up the roof creates an awkward line that doesn’t flow well from front to rear.
I can’t believe GM’s own in house designers couldn’t have come up with something more distinctive. Though that sketch shows a bit too much GM generic, it’s better realized than what Pininfarina came up with.
Digital gauges…. and now they’ve come back. Some bad ideas never stay dead and the dashboard they’re in looks like it was popped out in one piece from a Mattel Vacu-Form kit.
The Allante is symbolic of GM’s state of mind in the 80s: never fully baked, make improvements, then drop it when the fine tuning has been done a few years later. Or send it out half baked [the Ns, ION, etc] and then let them rot while concentrating on pick ups and SUVs.
Funny GM wanted to pitch the Ns to euro intenders as well, according to the press at the time. GM research called the Yuppie demographic “New Values” customers. And fitted them with Tech 4 engines.
Th Allante has a back story far more interesting than the car itself. The styling doesn’t move the needle with me but I am always up for a car with an interesting background.
Thanks, Brendan, for the good work and the write up.
You’re right about the design aging well — in fact I can think of few other cars designed in the 1980s that look quite as contemporary today.
I saw this 1993 Allante in a parking lot a few months ago. It was a pristine example, like the one you found… I wound up talking to the owner, who explained that it was his 2nd Allante and that he bought it only recently after his first one was destroyed in an accident.
This red example has different wheels, which I’m guessing were dealer-available accessories (they have the Cadillac crest, but I don’t recall them being available on the Allante)… I think they match the car’s design pretty well.
I feel I saw this set of the rims from the newer Cadillacs. Many people swap rims between older and newer models and sometimes it blends in. ( Like someone put the rims from Mark VIII to Mercury Cougar, or Continental rims from the late ’90s to Mark VIII )
I am a fan of the Allante. I think it is one of the most attractive cars to come out of GM after the 70s. Too bad its tasteful conservatism had to come from outside. I have never seen one of these in dark green before – the Allante wears it well.
I wonder why the foreign partner was necessary after the design phase. But maybe that was the only thing that kept the body out of the GM parts bin. Though the car fell short in some significant ways, it was one of Cadillac’s best efforts of those years.
Taking Pininfarina into the manufacturing phase seemed like part of an obsession with the name by the auto pundits and industry insiders. The problem was, I don’t think the public ever cared the same way. The three people that remembered that Pininfarina made Cadillac Brougham bodies in ’59 and ’60 made for a very small buyer base.
Some people probably did see the Pininfarina manufacturing for what it was – an expensive over complication. The big deal Cadillac made over flying the bodies to the U.S. in specially equipped planes apparently impressed nobody. And, you can’t rule out that a few of the Cadillac faithful may have actually been turned off by the “foreign” manufacturing.
Building this car on a properly developed F body chassis might have helped Cadillac recapture some of the magic of the first generation Seville in coupe / convertible form.
The Allante was good looking until they chromed the wheels. It was probably worth building it in Italy if that’s what it took to keep it from having the awful proportions of the Kady proposal and many a GM car that reached production. The third generation Seville looked good next to the Allante in the showroom. There were problems with Allante as fundamental as the engines and tops, but I wonder if part of the difficulty in selling them was that the Cadillac of chrome wheels and whitewalls made it hard for perspective buyers to take them seriously. People will take a chance on an expensive car, but maybe not on an expensive car that shares a showroom and a badge with cars that have padded vinyl roofs, fake or real wire wheels, and troweled on chrome twenty years too late. It probably wasn’t as peculiar to buy a Cadillac then as it is now, but it seems unlikely that people who admired the clean Seville and Allante wanted to be seen in one.
Too bland for the price. Its ok looking but not in any way striking like a 79-85 Eldorado and the whole flying around the world seems silly to me. And the 4.1 is a horrible engine as is the failure prone north star. I think for What it cost a mark . vii. Custom made into a convertible would be way better.
Just like all too many General Motors products, they didn’t “get it right” until the last couple of model years.
The styling looks good today, though it’s still too generic for a Cadillac. The digital dash is horrible, give me analog gauges any day. At least they had a 4-spd auto, I guess that was a step forward. This was the best that GM could do?
Keep one thing in mind during the development of the Allante: They were trying to design a Cadillac to sell to a clientele to whom Cadillac had become poison. The ultimate in un-cool, a brand you’d be ashamed to park in the lot at the brokerage firm unless you were a senior partner six months shy of retirement.
Italian unreliability? Back then that was still preferable to driving an un-hip American luxury car (which was automatically un-hip by the badge on the hood). And I really believe the reason the car was only a semi-success was the brand name on the hood. Try and visualize this same car with the BMW logo on it. Yes, the enthusiasts would laugh and bitch, but the “greed is good” crowd back then would have lined up around the block to buy. As long as it had those three letters and that blue and white propeller logo.
They were trying to design a Cadillac to sell to a clientele to whom Cadillac had become poison.
That may have been their hope, but it’s not the way it turned out. I don’t think the Allante had many conquest sales. The drivers of the ones I saw at the time all looked to be older guys, and likely previous Cadillac buyers, who were now at the point in their lives where they could afford either this or a MBZ SL.
There is no way this would have sold as a BMW. FWD sports car from BMW? It would have been even more of a laughing stock than it was as a Cadillac. You seemingly fail to grasp that BMWs sold on their reputation as “The Ultimate Driving Machine”, even if many of the owners didn’t utilize their capabilities fully. They may have been “greedy”, but they weren’t quite that dumb. And the press would have excoriated BMW.
I think the main Allante driver demographic was dealer wives.
Good article.
I like a lot the Allanté’s style, still fresh and modern today. The simple lines reminds me of the R129 SL in some ways, but still with some Cadillac touches.
But unfortunately, you just couldn’t compete the Germans with a front wheel drive car. I’m also pretty sure that the build quality of a SL was much better.
Otherwise, Cadillac planned to restyle for car for 1995 but didn’t, maybe because it was too close to the Eldorado in terms of customers ?
You can find two pictures here :
http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/cadillac-allante-forum/190841-looking-1995-allante-picture.html
They tried to round it a little, I think that I prefer the original one 😉
There are many reasons the Allante failed against the Mercedes SL, which was of course its prime competition. But here’s one very big and obvious one: the design of the interior. It was cold, sterile, and frankly, cheap looking, except for the Recaro seats. Compare the shots in the article with the interior of the SL, either the old R107, which dated back to 1972:
Or the new R129, which arrived in 1989, right in time to make the Allante look dated and…more like an Oldsmobile than a proper Mercedes competitor.
There’s just no comparing this interior with the stark,cold, and cheap looking Allante dash and steering wheel. Game over!
The R129, as every Bruno Sacco’s design are sublime, the last Mercedes are just not as good looking. The R129 Dash is indeed much better than the Allante’s. Not a fan of the R107 , it’s too empty lower the radio.
We discussed it with a friend and we agreed that American brands, still today don’t know how to design a good dash. Even the European American cars like the last Ford Focus are not well designed inside, compared to a VW Golf or a Renault Megane. Too many buttons, weird shapes..
And I’m not even talking about build quality which is a joke on some of them.
Let’s not forget that the R107 dates back to 1972, which was an eternity back then.
The worst part to me about the Allante interior was the horrible Kleenex box steering wheel on the airbag equipped cars. Just dreadfully ugly, with no brand identity, and the spokes mispositioned at 4 and 8 o’clock. No comparison with the MB airbag wheel, and details like that mean a lot to buyers.
“My eyes, my eyes!!” Uh, I mean the R129’s off-centre air vents always bug the heck out of me. I actually like the design of the Allante’s dash a lot, but of course photos never convey choice of build materials or quality thereof. I’ve only ever seen two Allantes here (being LHD we didn’t get them new of course, but a local dealer has two ex-JDM ones on his lot), and only then while driving past, maybe seeing the interior in person would change my mind.
The Allante dash is much better than the Eldorado’s or the Seville’s. But there is no wood trim. I did look at used Allante’s at one point. I also owned a 91 Reatta. The Allante was nicer than the Regatta, but not twice as nice. The Reatta was probably a much better buy than either the Mercedes SL or the Allante.
GM in the 80’s just made me crazy. They had the money to do great things, spent the money to do great things, and then, having spent it in the wrong places, cheapened their products to make up for it.
The digital dash was a great idea, but what if all the money to develop it had been spent making a beautiful conventional dash? What if the money spent air freighting cars back and forth had been spent on developing a good power top? FWD? I understand that their corporate philosophy was all-FWD for every car, but wasn’t the Allante a unique platform? If you’re spending the money anyhow, and the market segment is all RWD, well why not RWD? Being different just to be different is not always a successful strategy.
In my corporate experience, I learned one thing from the consultants: when you’re in a downward spiral, stop innovating and focus on fundamentals. Innovation just means more chances for things to go wrong, and when things are already going wrong, who needs more?
Oh, Cadillac, what might have been. I hope they make it back. I’m in the target demographic, but despite their progress I just can’t see myself in any of their cars.
The Allante was an Eldorado with the back seat removed, as was the Reatta. Had the Allante been assembled in the Reatta factory they probably could have sold it for $40,000 instead of $60,000. Cadillac wanted to price it outrageously high though.
When the R129 replaced the R107, the price went to $72000 from $64000. This was despite the fact that the 3.0 inline 6 was being offered instead of the 5.6 V8. There was quite a lot reaching for the stars in late eighties pricing. Made the Allante look quite reasonable. The changing times/economy of the early 90s would soon put an end to it..
In my corporate experience, I learned one thing from the consultants: when you’re in a downward spiral, stop innovating and focus on fundamentals. Innovation just means more chances for things to go wrong, and when things are already going wrong, who needs more?
Something Roger Smith was obviously clueless about, and most apparent in his decision to start Saturn instead of fixing the culture, quality and products of the existing company.
Couldn’t have said it better Paul. Never understood why they bothered with Saturn. You’re already building small cars, why not just focus on making them better? What GM ended up with was robots painting each other on the assembly line, instead of the cars. A total muckup.
Nice enough looking car, especially in that Polo green. Too bad they then cheapened the seats and used a steering wheel that would have looked at home in a Cutlass Supreme. Contrary to belief the HT 4100 in this car was not the same problematic engine it was in the earlier Cadillac’s. Most owner reports state fewer issues with this enhanced port injected 170 horse motor compared to the earlier 125-135 Hp versions and from what was stated the 4.5 update was based on what they did with this upgraded 4.1 starting with a beefier better made engine block and torque to yield head bolts. It was always neat seeing JR Ewing pulling up to Southfork ranch in one of these cars during the 1987 run of Dallas in a bid to promote these cars.
Always loved the styling of the Allante. Interesting to see that a total of just over 21k were produced in the 7 years it was made.
In late 1986 my Dad had a very close friend/client that had always driven Mercedes. I remember he and my Dad talking about the new sporty Cadillac that was coming out that year, and how he was contemplating getting one but was a little skeptical because his Mercedes had been such good cars. Eventually he did get one. He let my Dad and me drive it when he first got it. All I can remember was the distinct smell of the leather seats, the electronic gauges were really cool, and that it wasn’t quite as powerful as I would have imagined. It rode and handled beautifully, though.
But here is the downer – he had nothing but problems with that car from the first month he owned it. Granted it was one of the first ones built, but it spent most of its life at the Cadillac dealership being repaired or trying to be diagnosed for repair. One time he didn’t have the car for over two months because there was an issue with the top leaking and not sealing properly. They even flew in reps from Italy to try and resolve the problem. He also had intermittent problems with the dash going on and off. After two years and barely 15k miles of ownership he called it quits and went back to Mercedes ever since.
From what I understand the later ones had been perfected and by the time GM discontinued the Allante it had become a true Mercedes fighter. No longer was the Allante underpowered, it had become very reliable and overall a wonderful car. Seems like GM was famous for that – building a car that initially was lousy, then perfecting it, then discontinuing it. (Can anyone say Fiero?)
I know the Allante’s were troublesome. One would hope that they were better by the end, but Fiat’s are at the bottom of the J. D. Power long term dependability survey.
The Allante was expected to be some sort of halo car for Cadillac. It was followed up by the XLR sometime later, which also did not do much for Cadillac. The new CT6 is tested in the latest Car & Driver. They consider it to be yet another sports sedan much like the CTS.
Undoubtedly Italian design.
The same gentleman had created both of them…
164 hardtop coupe? Wow, that’s a looker. Should have seen production for sure.
Let’s not forget the real problem here. No matter the little details, the quality of the materials, the power, the fact was that cars in this segment are sold on pedigree. Mercedes and Jaguar earned the right to have a halo. Cadillac in the ’80s hadn’t. No matter the qualities of the Cadillac, very few prospects shopping in this league would even consider Allante. It was a shame, it was a nice car, just not appropriate.
The pace car at the 1992 Indy 500 was an Alante driven by Bobby Unser – I remember thinking it looked like shit compared to the pace cars of the 50s and 60s
Wow – this one is beautifully kept! I didn’t know the Allante was so well ahead of its time in terms of driver conveniences like the forerunner of Bluetooth. I remember the Northstar equipped one beating an XJS convertible and a six-cylinder Mercedes R129 SL in a Car and Driver comparison test in 1992. The Mercedes was deemed underpowered and over-priced, while the Jag was showing its age according to the reviewers. They were particularly impressed with the Northstar engine and I think the Caddy was the most reasonably priced of the three cars as well.
GM once again making improvements when it is too little too late. Bu 1992 the Allante had the right powertrain and was overall a much improved car to its 1987 predecessor, yet the car already had a history of being troublesome so its reputation was marred. There was no hope for the Allante and GM discontinued it. Sounds like a typical day at GM, doesn’t it?
The Northstar engine gave the Allante better performance, but with FWD it was not a sports car. Sales never reached Cadillac’s expectation I think, which is probably why they discontinued production. If they had wanted a reliable car, they would not have sent it to Italy, but would have built it in the Reatta factory. The Allante was what it was from the beginning. Engine improvements were made, but the tuned port 4100 was a decent engine to start with. The basic problem is that it was never a good alternative to the Mercedes SL, which most Cadillac buyers were never interested in to begin with.
One other thing is that the E-bodies came to an end with the 1993 model year. The Riviera and the Allante were the last ones. The 1992 Seville was based on the Deville body as was the Eldorado. The 94 Allante could probably have continued, but would have been very out of date on an 8 year old design.
The ’92 Seville was based on a slightly stretched (by 3 inches) E-body. The ’92s continued with the previous generation’s transverse leaf spring suspension while the ’93s received a new short/long arm design along with the Northstar.
I’ve always felt the Allante was a nice, but not stunning design. Pinninfarina did some stunning work in the past on GM chassis, but based on their own concepts of what a car on that chassis should look like. The Allante feels like GM asked them for what a Pinninfarina Cadillac should look like.
I really love the design of these Allantes. Always have. It’s clean, fresh, modern (for the 80’s), and distinctive, at least to my eyes. Keeps some traditional Cadillac cues but it works in a way contemporary Cadillac designs just didn’t. And I really like the big, mostly clear taillights too–distinctive. The dash is a letdown, but I’d love to check out those Recaro seats.
This is a car I’d still like to own as a weekend droptop. It’s a shame the Northstar coincided with the lower-spec interior, so make mine a ’90 or ’91 with the 4.5 and the Recaros.
Has anyone one ever seen a 1992 in Pearl Flax paint? There were 88 in 1993 , but apparently only one in1992. If you know something please let me know,
dennisoates@gmail.com
It needed a little more Cadillac “power dome” hood to counteract the blandness (and similarity to the cheaper Eldorado). The ’92 Eldo/Seville dashboard went in a completely different direction and was one of Cadillac’s best, yet least flashy.
I’ve seen nicer steering wheels on old bumper cars.
I guess GM doesn’t believe in evolution, or they wouldn’t have continually believed that they could create perfection upon the unveiling of a new vehicle. It is ridiculous watching GM recreate the wheel, and the Allante is no exception. They wasted resources building a nice Rube Goldberg contraption then wondering why it didn’t sell.
If GM wanted any credibility against a MB European roadster, then they needed to have started with what they had and made it better until they reach that level. They didn’t. Instead they fell back on the age-old idea that they could depend upon their GM marketing department to convince the gullible that they were witnessing a miracle. There was no way there would be sufficient buyers believing that suddenly Cadillac was a real competitor. GM wasted half their time trying to convince the skeptical. As errors were made, the skeptics were only validated. GM did not have the sufficient funds to keep sinking improvements into a product that cost so much upon launch and was hoping for some kind of magic to succeed. Trust me, Mercedes didn’t depend upon magic like that.
To have had a car like the Allante succeed, Cadillac needed to prove it already had cars that succeeded. Who in their right mind would buy from the same dealer that was hawking Cadillac Cavaliers? Grandpas bought Sedan DeVille, and road off in hearses built by Cadillac when they cashed out. You think that company is going to build credible roadster? PROVE IT – and you have to stop when you get to $1 Billion, please.
If Cadillac STILL built the Allante and put as much effort into it over the past 30 years as it initially had – then they would have enough credibility. You don’t buy credibility – you earn it – and Cadillac should know this after nearly a century in production as “the standard of the world”.
“Don’t worry about it; this time we’ll call it the Cobalt instead; problem solved.”
..must.. resist… can’t resist.
There are a still a couple in “arrested decay” status sitting behind a former auto dealership in North Orange County (CA). I can’t recall ever seeing either on the street, and they’ve been there a relatively long time.
Major error! Not one Alante not one was equipped with Cadillac’s HT4100 engine.
The Allante engine has a 4.1 L displacement, but the block is entirely different, more closely related to the 4.5 Cadillac engine. The Allante engine also has different heads, a different fuel injection system, different manifolds, different Cam, and Short, it is simply not the same engine as the troublesome HT 4100. Violante motor is far more powerful
The Allanté 4.1 is a smooth, powerful engine. It is a very reliable engine. The motor is far more powerful as well
Not a major error!
This whole family of Cadillac engines (4.1, 4.5, 4.9) are widely identified/known as the “Cadillac High Technology Engine”, even if Cadillac didn’t use the “HTxxx’ moniker on all of them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_High_Technology_engine#HT-4100
By the time the Allante came out, Cadillac had remedied the issues with the initial 4.1. In fact, the 4.1 V8 version used in the other Cadillac lines was not referred to as “HT4100” by 1986. Obviously Cadillac was trying to distance itself from that name, given the bad rep of the early versions.
But the reality is that this engine family is known as the HT Family, and the Allante engine is very much a part of that family.
A little work makes a big difference.