Minneapolis Street Sighting: Cadillac Allante

Taking a break from Cadillac's most legendary name this side of the Fleetwood, I end Cadillac week with one of my favorite GM cars of the 1990s-- the Cadillac Allante. This, like Buick's Reatta and Oldsmobile's Toronado Trofeo, was one of GM's many attempts to sway buyers of European cars into their showrooms. Featuring bodystyling by Pinninfarina, the Allante looked differently (and remarkably better) than the rest of the stable.
Introduced in 1987, the new convertible competed with the bigwigs, the Jaguar XJS, the Mercedes SL (in six cylinder and eight cylinder guise), and the godawful (but somewhat loved) Chrysler TC by Maserati in the premium convertible segment. At $55,000 give or take, the Allante seemed like a no-brainer, considering it was vastly cheaper than its main competitors other than the TC. Over the course of its run, though, not many were sold. Production ended with 1993 being the Italian-American's best year. Even so, less than 5,000 cars were built that year. The pine green color, and the Northstar badging on the taillights mark this one to be on of the final cars, and to me, the color combination is one of the best looking.














I love shooting Allantes; they're almost like a guilty pleasure to me. I've always loved them, and since they're not quite common, I try to shoot each example with pride. I quite like the green this car wears; it suits the luxurious image quite well. To me, darker colors compliment beige interiors better than whites, and silvers. It just seems...right. The badging on this example was damn near perfect aside from being dirty. The rest of the trim looked great, and this is definitely what I would consider a "time-capsule" car.
The only gripe I have--and this goes for quite a bit of my street sightings with aftermarket wheels--is those wheels. I'm not sure what my stance on them is yet. I don't love them (they look cheap), and I don't hate them (because there are far worse choices), but I would strongly prefer stock wheels. Though, I will say that because of the wheel choice, I would wager that this Allante is driven by an older person, which would suggest that mileage is quite low, and this is a babied example. Not that great now, but the low mileage would definitely make for a bigger profit when selling the car later on.
These aren't money makers quite yet, but I would wager that these very well will become "modern classics", and will creep up in value just like the same-era Fleetwood Broughams.