How do these GM luxury two-seaters stack up against each other?
Read on to find out. This is off R&T’s 1988 March issue:
The valet photo reminded me of ZZ Top:
That center console above might look impressive with all its buttons. Try operating it while driving; I should know- it’s similar to mine (Opel Astra J):
I thought they were awful cars when new, and they still have not aged well. I wouldn’t own either of them. But then again what do I know, all my cars are geriatric 70’s models except for the two Taureses. And the car I lament the most getting rid of is a 76 Pinto wagon. So take my thoughts with a grain of salt.
The Allante, I thought, looked halfways decent while the look of the Reatta truly is “neither fish nor fowl”.
The Reatta from the front looks like a rejected styling proposal for a smaller-scale Riviera, while the rear view looks like it came from a “leftover” Century 2 door, and the top/greenhouse looks totally unrelated to a Buick.
Then there is the interior….for that matter, both cars have center consoles that are ridiculous. It almost looks like the cockpit shot from the movie “Airplane”. Endless rows of switches with many serving to activate who knows what.
I remember both cars, the Buick Reatta and the Cadillac Allante. At the time, I found the Buick Reatta more attractive than that of the Cadillac Allante. It’s not that the Allante was ugly, because it’s also a good looking car. It’s just that being a Buick guy, I found the Reatta better looking.
Both were over-reaching. Instead of improving bread and butter products, GM was pushing halo cars to get attention. But if the back bone products are unappealing, why bother?
$50K in late 80’s was sky high, and expecting that level of customer was too ambitious.
Never liked either, for some indication of how the world has changed, if you streetview that scene today the cars would have been parked inside a mall!
The Golden Nugget is still there to the left, and you can just see the Plaza through the arch at the end of the Fremont street experience, but that’s it. I guess the world has left these two behind as well…
So true. The conversion of the street into an experience happened unbeknownst to me when I was a little kid, but I was aware of the neon soaked street from movies and tv, and thought it had to be awesome to see. Many years later seeing it as present was such a let down. I’m really not a gambler or a partier, so pretty much any vacation I take is to see the sights and explore, so yeah the one place of historical significance left in that hellhole of a town now being some tourist trap family mall essentially? Ugh!
Pretty much mirrors the disappointment of the Allante. For a car flown back and fourth from Italy you’d think the car would look better than what GM could design in house, but no, it much looks like a Seville convertible conversion with a character line added to the side. bleh. The Riatta is less offensive to me but it’s a very misplaced car in the Buick lineup, let alone the greater auto market of 1988
The Allante has much in common with a Seville in appearance, but it looks like the Seville released in 1992. The Allante was released in 1987, when the Seville looked like a Somerset Regal.
The Reatta was the opposite of what I was looking for in a car at the time. It had the utility of a sports car combined with the performance and handling of a full-sized Buick. What I wanted was the utility of a sedan combined with the handling and performance of a sports car. Actually, I still do.
A BMW
I drove BMWs for many years, but now they’re more like the Reatta. They were certainly the answer in the ’80s though.
I think sports cars have changed too.
Both of these are cool in that hopelessly outdated Amiga 1200 kind of way. I’d love either one.
Pit mediocrity agains mediocrity, and mediocrity wins! There was no avoiding the fact that both cars missed the mark, though given the $56,533 price tag ($113,217 adjusted!!), the Cadillac’s weaknesses were more of a crime than the $27,800 ($55,674 adjusted) Buick’s.
I wish car makers had paid more attention to this line:
“the driver is no longer allowed to use the sense of touch. There are no knobs or buttons, so you can’t simply adjust temperature or volume by feel, with eyes on the road. You have to look at the panel to use it.”
Too many cars today have subsumed too much into touchscreen controls and non-intuitive center stacks. It’s ironic given how negative the reaction was to Buick’s touchscreen, yet here we are anyway…
I find that ironic too, I can chalk it up to Apple warship and GM hatred, but that may be too simplistic. I think humans are impractical at heart, we’re constantly grilled about what statistics matter from media, bosses, teachers, colleagues, mentors, parrents, friends, ect, ect. into eventually conforming, especially when it comes to the efficiencies(fuel/space) and safety when it comes to cars, and indeed modern cars more often than not reflect all of that. What can’t be, or currently isn’t on a stat sheet are things like touch screens, buttons, knobs and things that can impact the effectiveness of being a driver. We know 2 doors = bad(I’m single now but what if I have kids?), colors = bad (I love red but what about resale?), Touchscreen and/or 1000 buttons = Good! (march of technology! What can go wrong?)
I did test drive the 86 Riviera with the touch screen control system. The worst thing about it was that if you were displaying something then to get to either the audio or climate controls, you would have to back out of where you were to the top level screen before you could then descend into the control screen you needed to adjust. I think that they improved this for the 87 model year by adding some buttons to move from any screen to the top level of some other set of screens.
The Allante’s buttons are climate control (top), driver information and audio (bottom). They may require a quick look to see what you want.
My CTS has controls for audio system off the screen (on-off and volume) and the climate controls (on-off, temperature, defrost modes). There are additional controls on the screen. The audio system allows you to display a list of broadcast stations to choose from. The navigation controls are all in the display. Weather information controls are also in the display. I find it quite easy to use, but I make sure no one is behind me about to pass or right in front if I need to look at the screen for something. My car will let me know if I am drifting out of my lane, and the cruise control will match the speed of the car in front or slam on the brakes if need be.
My father-in-law has a red Allante that comes out on only very rare occasions. I used it once to drive my wife & myself to our wedding rehearsal dinner, and I recall it being very pleasant to drive, although it was just a fairly short in-town trip. Nice weather with the top down always improves one’s driving impressions, though. Also, I’ve always been partial to fairly rectilinear styling like this. I don’t recall even attempting to decipher the radio or climate control buttons at all!
You know reading this reminds me of another car company that around the same time was trying to sell a halo car that was a disaster. I’m referring to the “TC by Masarati” that was essentially a poorly built 35,000 LeBaron in the same showroom as the 16,000 LeBaron. As far as I’m concerned it was Chryslers Edsel. I think they lost 35 million dollars on it.
I think that the point of the Cimarron and the Allante were to give Cadillac a BMW 3 series class and a Mercedes SL class. The Allante was a much better effort than the Cimarron. The idea was to keep Cadillac owners from going European, or, with the Cimarron, to get younger buyers into Cadillacs.
I liked the styling of them both.. but unfortunately they didn’t have an asian or german logo on the front. Thats half the battle.
Without those logos its game over.
Again, this is a “pedigree” class, and neither Buick nor Cadillac had the chops in the “80s. The performance really didn’t matter.
For some strange reason I’ve always liked the Allante. Though I’m not sure who would have paid the equivalent of over $100K for such a flawed conveyance!
Still, I wouldn’t mind having one as a fair-weather cruiser. The chiseled styling just “works” for me as a halo Caddy in a way the too-swoopy XLR never did.
In the used car world of today the Allante would be my choice. The aluminum body is something the Buick lacked and Cadillac’s V8 was smoother and nicer sounding. I would however want the 4.5 motor with 200 Horses over either the 4.1 or Northstar. Too bad they cheapened the look of the steering wheel and seats during those later years.
There’s nothing wrong with the Allante, it’s just that I find the Reatta more attractive.
Honestly, i have both Cars, a 1988 Buick Reatta and a 1987 Allante.
In my Opinion, those are great Cars an was better than auf BMW or Mercedes. The only Problem i have is, Here in Germany every singel Part of theses cars ist super hard to get.