The Cadillac Allante is a Fascinating Car, and an Unnecessary Catastrophe for GM
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ย. 2024
- A full review and test drive of a 1992 Cadillac Allante Roadster with historical details and a test drive - also a demonstration of the soft top operation.
Review by Bill of Curious Cars
Vehicle to be sold at Premier Auction Group's Gulf Coast Classic, December 1, 2024, with online bidding by Proxybid.
www.premierauc...
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1992
Cadillac made this Allante.
McDonald's switched out their apple pie.
I proposed to my future ex wife.
It was a year of many things that seemed like a good idea, but ended in disaster.
That last part made me laugh
Wow
Bruh😂
Owner of 1989 Pearl White Allante since 1993. Have the original hard top and the soft top is original, looks good as new with no rips or tears. Soft top lowering and raising requires following the exact sequence you demonstrated. The hard top being aluminum is not that heavy and can easily be removed by two people. Having owned the vehicle for 30 years, the Allante resources online allows for replacement parts be obtained at a reasonable price compared to current vehicle replacement parts. The Allante is a cruiser, most comfortable traveling in a straight line with the top down. You're comment was right, anyone younger than 45 has no idea what the car is or who made it. Almost every time I fill it up someone will stop me to ask about it. Funniest was three young boys on their bicycles who stopped and saw the electronic dash with all the buttons and they thought the "Soviet-era" yellow on black text was the coolest.
Keep up the great videos, it was great to see you review a car that I actually own.
This should be a pinned comment!
Thanks for sharing your experience with this cool car.
First time I saw an Allante was on the second floor of an office building in Toronto. Since I had not yet seen (nor heard) of the car I thought it was a "Canadian" Cadillac and very cool indeed.
@@georgemartin1436 I had a friend who had one back in 1995, I don't which year it was, but, it was a great driver and and we had a great ride in it with the top down!
Soviet and Cadillac in the same review - top marks! BTW this is the problem Brits have with American Cars. "Good in a straight line" The UK doesn't have any straight lines except for railway tracks and old Roman roads - ability to corner and gip are essential :0)
What do you do with the hard top after you have removed it? Thanks.
This is the exact spec my mother had when I was a kid. After she put the hard top on the 1st time she never took it off again.
Her last car was an XLR V, I have it now. She passed away last April.
Sorry for your loss
@@jonathangrimshaw9822
Thank you
I'm sorry to hear that.
Elegantly simple design. And that's a nice example for sure. Somebody in the faithful will buy that in a heartbeat.
ps, Us long time viewers knew it all along: Bill is just a softie at heart. Thanks for rescuing these elderly dogs, giving them a chance to live out their years in style and being loved as they deserve.
pps, Happy Thanksgiving to you and all the viewers out there.
Nice rebadged cavalier
It is a nice story.
One of the most beautiful convertible cars of the era. Particularly with the roof up. Those rear quarterlights were worth the effort.
"The NEW Allante!" -Kelly Bundy (Married With Children)
But can you do the Bundy Bounce?
If a car looks THIS cool, I don't care what anyone says. GM this, GM that. I never cared. These cars were amazing and I wish they would still make cars like this. New cars today are boring trash compared to this.
😂 The obvious sarcasm in every sentence! 😂
@@doug6191
I'm not being sarcastic
@@RetroRoberino That's the part that is scary! lol
Now here's something we can really sink our teeth into! And it's a proper 50 minute diatribe?! What a lovely Thanksgiving treat! Thanks Bill, and happy Thanksgiving. Stay 'safe' everyone! 🤟🥃🥴
This is the kind of complaining that I can get behind
Bill, thank you for presenting this car as it should be. On my second Allante... sold my XLR for what I paid for it after 5 years, and bought a lovely '88 with 55k miles for dirt cheap, and loving it.
That's a curious move.. You came to the right place.
Always wanted one of these. The design was handsome…better than the Eldorado it was based on. And as usual, by the time GM got the kinks out, they killed it.
I lost it when you said your backyard looks like Normandy. Good video as always.
much nicer than the Chrysler TC which looked almost the same as the lebaron. Also it was used in stephen kings the stand driven by Lloyd (Miguel Ferrer) during the pre outbreak robbery scene. Yes FWD was the downside but convincing GM to make a corvette based Cadillac during this period was impossible. The XLR was amazing but it was the one and only time GM let anything be based on a vette. They just dont want anything to come close to their halo car.
Should have been built on the P-body chassis. (Fiero)
XLR was an entirely different car from Corvette. The two cars attract a different clientele.
Wow. I had to click this one. McDonald’s changed from beef tallow to vegetable oil in the 90s probably the same time they changed the apple pies. That was definitely the start of the downfall of modern society!
Actually, we've never ever fully recovered from the '73-'74 recession - our standard of living fell so far during that time that we've never been able to fully dig ourselves out from that mess.
Yup, it all went to pot after that
No 💩
Sadly so did cars quality and soul. The only good thing that happened to cars was the catalytic converter to stop the smog but they ruined hp and had slow cars for decades. And also the safety of new cars is a marvel in its own. I survived a car collision and I dont think i would in a 50s or 60s car as much as I love them.
Wrong. You have a very short memory.
@@rudolphguarnacci197numbers don't lie. That's when wages just barely kept up with inflation spirals due to OPEC manipulation. Beginning lin 82, the rich began wealth accumulation at the expense of the American worker. 86 Bush began negotiating NAFTA, executed with Mexico and Canada, was ratified be 85% republican and 24% Democrat congregational votes and signed into law by Clinton.... the MCA is a death nail to US labor once the BUY America act of the ten year infrastructure bills are complete, if another free market republican comes into power and sends those jobs back to China.
On the TV show Dallas, JR Ewing drove one and stopped driving Mercedes. Great show.
You’re doing an awesome job on these videos Bill! I thoroughly enjoy all of them. I can sympathize with you during the summer months concerning the weather conditions. I’m from southwest Louisiana and it’s horrible also. The eighty degree mornings are very depressing. Beginning to cool off a bit, so maybe we will survive another year!
...not to mention the military exercises as well 24:44 ..lol, ok so it became a car review with a WWI Omaha beach background theme.
39:42..🦜
“The backyard is beginning to look like Normandy” will forever be burned into my mind.
Sounds like you were there 😂
Shell-shocked? 😂
Very sorry for your loss. We're cat people, but go through the same pain.... nice that you rescued one! Bless your hearts.
Same here.
GM has an unfortunate habit of killing a car, just when they finally get it right. The Fiero is just one of the more famous examples, along with the Allante.
And now they're doing it to the Camaro.
probably gonna go electric like everything else seems to be going.
@valen
Corvair, Vega, Citation, Fiero, Allante to name a few.
Yeah, even the forgettable Cadillac Cimmaron had actually evolved into a not-so-bad vehicle by its last two model years. The same with the poorly executed Buick Reatta; by its last year, 1991, it had the right engine and transmission combination, but it was too little, too late. Not to mention the discontinuation of the larger rear drive vehicles such as the Chevy Caprice, Buick Roadmaster, and Cadillac Fleetwood; they were pretty good and reliable vehicles by the end of their production after the 1996 model year, and are stll desirable by many nowadays. Finally, even the Chevy Volt had actually become a pretty reliable gasoline engine/plug-in electric vehicle in its last two model years, 2018-19. But alas, GM, for whatever reason, discontinued it in favor of the fully electric Chevy Bolt, which has had more than its share of problems, including fires.
Get it right?...If I recall these had the " famous" Northstar engine
Love Bill's sense of humour. This was J.R Ewing's car in Dallas
A pretty car. Its fatal flaw in my view is that it was front wheel drive. You can't compete with other luxury sports cars and be front wheel drive. Mercedes, Lexus, BMW, Jaguar are all rear wheel with their cars that go up against this one. The later Cadillac XLR that followed this one finally got it right.
Front wheel drive works better for ordinary street driving.
Every sports car is RWD or AWD now. Not sure why the world was so fascinated with FWD big cars in the 1980s and 1990s.
@@JoJoJoker I would not buy a rear drive car, unless it was something like a 1962 Cadillac DeVille.
@@stephendavidbailey2743 many new cars are RWD, all of the great ones unless they all-wheel-drive.
@@JoJoJoker I feel safer in front drive cars, especially in inclement weather.
Nothing less than an engineering degree to know how the top works, yes I own one. 1993 Northstar. Just love the dam thing. Great GT touring car, gets good mileage too. lots of power from the 295 HP 4.6 Liter. 12yrs ownership, and I still love it. I think I said that already
Bill you make the best friggen videos… I can listen to you ramble all day…. Keep up the excellent rambling sir.
Hilarious... This episode is gold, Bill... BTW, speaking of the civilization downfall and McDonald's, let's go a little further back to when they stopped cooking fries in beef tallow...
I'm 51 and English and I've liked these since they came out. They have everything that pleased me as a kid, soft top, flashy inside, big wheels. But the adult in me always liked the GT aspec, the handsome proportions and I still love the flashy interior.
GM did some interesting things in the late 80s, early 90s with the Allante, GNX, Typhoon/Cyclone, Riatta, turbo TA, etc
Exactly!!!!! Cool stuff
Gauges are always appreciated, even in a Cadillac. Did notice that the gauge in this car indicated the vehicle was running kinda hot!..Also, I prefer FWD in any car, for the sake of traction.....GM really should have offered this fine car with AWD! No more torque-steer problems. That vehicle is so beautiful!
i noticed that too and the sppedo was off too
Remember the 80s? When one could say anything without anyone caring. Freedom.
Agreed
Bill, I always talk to people about the apple pie fiasco back in the day and they always look at me like I’m crazy.You definitely are a kindred spirit.Mike the Greek
The fried must have been a prized item with the baked being a severe degrade.
One of the cleanest cars GM ever made. Simple Elegance. Pininfarina did a great job making it sleek and modern yet still very much American in its aesthetic.
It's amazing how many times GM had a good idea but sabotaged it by half-assing the quality, then scrambled to fix it after the negative stigma already existed.
Anyone who could afford one must have had a garage and therefore could leave the top down most of the time. It's not the worst top I've seen.
Thanks for sharing the history of this vehicle, Bill. We would be lost without this channel. Bill cannot be replaced as he is priceless, but Florida can. Florida became a liability; I left and never looked back. Now, I have it made; new location, a new real-life castle I call home for now. We are all living on borrowed time; you only live once. Happy Thanksgiving.
Been to ft myers lately? It's turned into a ghetto! The 10 o'clock news is nothing but shootings, murders and burglaries. We left Naples awhile ago, they can keep that 98% humidity and the snowbirds. Naples was a diamond in the 70's and 80's, but you couldn't pay me to move back there today.
I agree with you 💯 % about Florida. Had to get out of there and now living my best life!
To those leaving Florida: Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. There are already too many of us living here who LIKE living in the Sunshine State.
Only those that have been in florida for decades are leaving. We saw the change over the years and it's not for the better.
Funny how you denigrate Florida, yet don't name the "awesome" state you moved to. Whatever. Native Floridians won't miss you...
Make no mistake bill the parts for this car are not off the shelf GM they are very unique to that car
Bill is like an uncle I wish I had.
I come for every comment that isn't related to the car. It's so funny. The complaining about the lawn people across the street in this episode made me bend in half laughing. 😆
Maybe not.. he seems a bit pervey.
@@vincentvango5338 😉
You are right that had they made this a Corvette based, rear driver it would have been a lasting success.
The narrative on this video is brilliant. The demise of the fried apple pie was absolutely a turning point in Western civilization.
your dark sense of humor is amazing lol
As a owner of 1992 Cadillac Allante I can tell that the car is a very fun to drive here in Europe.
Good handeling and I love speed sensitive suspension!!
Yes it stil works after 200.000 mi on the odo!
Great video Bill. Enjoy each and every one of them. Thank you sir!
After all these years I still love your rants bill about the weather the knuckle heads that made the car and other random stuff your still my hero!!!!
Whenever I see this car I find myself thinking about Robin Williams driving one in the movie Cadillac Man.
Stallone drive in two movies rocky v and Tango&Cash
I got to say Bill you’re opening statements on your videos are really the best part of the video. I love the rest of it to but the first five minutes I love it and I feel your pain I absolutely feel your pain.
24:54 “Can ya cut the grass without having what looks like a beach invasion?” 😂 Bill is a national treasure.
Decades ago I knew someone with an Allante, and he told me how much a replacement battery cost. I believe I must have gone into shock then, because mercifully, I cannot remember today what he had told me.
LOVE your insight Bill......I remember these cars roaming in North West Ohio.....mostly red ones.in 1987,1988....must have been the color of choice.GREAT WORK BILL...TRULY enjoy your reviews and information!!!!!!!!
17:43 even back then GM had the “DIC” driver information center. It’s still quoted that way today in modern GM manuals.
@47:30 looks like she’s flirting with overheating, Bill- I’d check to see if the electric fans are operable before you let it idle more than a couple minutes. That needle was dangerously up there, especially for one of those engines
For the Bill/Curious Cars enthusiasts out there…someone did a tribute channel to him called ‘Birds, Goats and Automobiles’ here on TH-cam that highlights Bills’ more angry, jaded, bitter and misanthropic outbursts.
The "garbage truck" Seville design was led by the same guy who designed the 1968 Eldorado, 1977 downsizing, 1976 Seville, 1985 downsizing, the 1979 Eldorado and other GM cars from the 1960 through the 1990s. It wasn't a bad design as it was the most popular Seville ever and actually was a trend setter.
i always thought it was a stogy embarrassment as BMW and Mercedes took over
There's an interview with Wayne Kady over the Bustleback Seville with his own personal 84 example. th-cam.com/video/_8QbXnP0-48/w-d-xo.html
The rambling stories are back! This is the content I come here for!
Beautiful Caddy!
I have two "rescue" dogs... And I take pleasure in referring to them when asked as having two "used" or "pre-owned" dogs. I love those pups regardless.
An older aquaintance of mine, purchased the hard-top version of this beautiful car, in their first year. He never drove outside of his neighbourhood, (Vancouver's West End) and had CONSTANT tranny problems. No pun intended, considering that part of town.
I agree, Bill, that McDonalds's transition from fried to baked pies was a sad moment in human evolution that may have somewhat indicated humanity's digression into something else more forboding than in the before time but to me the direst suggestion of that nature came about with the advent of cheese that you shoot from a can onto straight onto your crackers. At that moment in time i believe there was a substantial weakening of the human condition on a scale from which unfortunately there may be no turning back. Hopefully someone will discover a way to offset the decline which has taken hold of things since that sad moment in time but it's gonna take something on a monumental scale the likes of which I fear may not be out there for us. All we can do now is hope there's even a way to straighten this all out. The cheese is already out of the can and it's gonna be tough to put it back in there.
Its when the accountants took over control of all corporations. Cheap cheap was the buzzeord. Bottom line. Good engineering was not part of anything anymore 😢
I remember seeing the Alitalia 747 cargo planes at DTW back in the day. Old school GM needless extravagance.
Roger Smith was GM chairman that era. He was one of the absolute worst in GM's beleagured history.
I went and looked it up. It sold for $8600. Beautiful car.
Bill the type of guy who would give you cigarettes and a goat flask for Christmas.
I’ll take a carton of Newport Reds Uncle Bill.
I worked at Casa De Cadillac in Sherman Oaks Ca and we could not get the top to stop leaking water when it rained no matter what. It was a very pretty car for then .I drove one around the Valley and people took notice and asked me about it or I got the thumbs up or a nod. That is hard to get in LA .
i guess i am the only one who finds the war-games reference hysterical. describes this car perfectly.
Can it change your grade in Biology class?
You can still get the "Fried Apple Pie" at the oldest operating McDonald's, which just so happens to be in my home city of Downey, CA!
Bill is the type of guy if you ask him are you "packing" he has a liquor flask.
But Bill is also the type of guy who is actually packing.
I absolutely love your commentary and the way you make these videos. You’re very entertaining and I enjoy every one. Keep doing what you do Bill.
He is also very well informed about the cars he reviews.
8600,-$ at the auction in Punta Gorda for this beautiful Cadillac is much too little. I am very sad that it was not possible for me to take part in the auction, because I’m living in Germany .
always great to see a video. It’s a chilly 38 degrees where i’m at.
Good evening Bill. Cold and windy here in Wales. Definitely not convertible weather.
I once knew an undertaker here who drove an Allante.
This video has inspired me to open the fully automated soft top on my 1998 Mercedes SL600...on which I just spent FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS having the top hydraulics rebuilt. 😥
Imagine Thanksgiving dinner if Bill is at the table....
Bill is the guest that would bring Wild Turkey to Thanksgiving dinner and polish the whole bottle off himself
He had a legitimate spoonerism of "foreskin" for "forethought" at around 45:51. Thanks Bill! That was precious. You didn't even comment on it.
I'm so glad you're still doing these amazingly informative, nostalgic and historically based, reviews of so many incredible automobiles. Automobiles that i grew up learning about, seen, owned, or wish i could've owned. I really enjoy them and they bring back fantastic memory's. Thank you Bill!
Watch that temp ,, looks to be running a little warm , those engines don't tolerate overheating very well. Quite a nice example , thanks for doing the video.
The backyard looks like Normandy. Oh Billy boy , you crack me up....++++.😢
My Father bought several of these back in the 90s. Would keep them as a 2nd car/toy… Kept coming back to them. They really were one of the most beautiful cars I ever road in or drove in . Unique, luxury, performance, one of the last true great Cadillacs. Not like the box SUV imposters made these days
A fantastic coverage Bill! So detailed! It's a brilliant finish with great lines!
Heartwarming dog story for thanksgiving, thank you!! I needed it. Love this car...
1980s RULE ! Gen X ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ BILL RULES ! 💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽
The whole Allante idea seems like something the WOPR would think up. Cheyenne Mountain, home of the WOPR.
A beautiful car that still looks good. Adding a more powerful engine and other improvements helped but ultimately the whole process was just too expensive and complicated. GM/Cadillac's arrogance blinded them.
I always liked the look of the Allante. Thanks for featuring it.
After all these years still looks great.
1992 was also the year Johnny Carson retired from “The Tonight Show.” That was also a harbinger…
I like these cars. Was fortunate enough to drive one, when Moritz Cadillac in Dallas/Fort Worth let me try one, when I went there to pick up parts for my own Cadillac.
Was in your area over Christmas and surprised to see a handfull of these in traffic. Thank you for a nice review.
The Dusk intro makes it look very cool.
Grew up very poor, but had a very rich buddy in middle/high school. His father had an Allante' and remember his pop drove it in the Minnesota winter and we'd carefully having to remove and regain the hard top as the seasons changed.
I had a 1990 Allante. wish i still had it. fun to drive reliable. fun to tell the Allante story.
'92!. The year I graduated high school 😢
GM and is subsidiaries really had a habit of trying to push front wheel drive into cars that really had no business of ever being FWD around that time it seems, the Lotus Elan being another.
Agreed, the Big Three in general had this problem. Their cars designed to be European fighters Didn't have the same wheel drive, offer an optional V12, the same or more gears in the transmissions, etc. they wanted to gain the cache of being one of the best with out benchmarking/surpassing the best. You won't be thought as one of the best if you make discount copies of the best without the powertrains and you want to rely on guilt/sympathy of consumers.
By far the most entertaining guy on U tube😂😂😂
The last Cadillac convertible before the Alantia was the 1985 Eldorado, not the 76 model.
I remember seeing these in showrooms, lots or on the road. They looked so cool and classy in the day. Today's version of that too me would the xlr... one I've seen and wanted for a while... but $$.
Who else immediately thinks of Rocky V when they see a Cadillac Allante? It’s the Rocky V of 1980s luxury cars.
And Tango&Cash 😅
I had a pearl white, 1992 Allante with a tan interior and a hardtop. Great car!
Good evening Bill from Ron in a very cold and wet Manchester glad to have you back with a new video
Likewise London! Bet Bill would love our cold weather 😅
@@Future-Classic-Comics Yes Bill would be chipper
I totally agree with what you said about it comes out, introduced to the public full of problems. Then after they sort everything out, they cancel it. I used to call myself a GM test dummy because I bought all the cars you mentioned a Fiero, a Cimarron, and the 1993 Allante. Cadillac used to give you a badge that goes in your front Grill denoting how many Cadillacs you have bought. I was up to 27 before I was 30, but they have nothing in their store. I’m interested in anymore.
Thought that chipper was comming for you Bill. 😊
back to a 50 min. review. Love it
In the early 1990s, I drove a $300 K-car into the ground in about a year. Got $200 from a wrecker for it, after it had nothing left to give.
The exhaust sounded nice from the start. Nice and throaty.
The Allante has really grown on my over the past few years. I used to totally ignore them because they weren't a tradition Cadillac boat, but frankly these cars are something else entirely and are a fascinating look into the failings of 80s GM.
Always happy to see a new review. I'd like to request one for the future.. a Buick Reata.
Thanks! Have a great Thanksgiving!
Typical to GM, every car from the Chevy Cavalier through the finest Cadillac, and everything in-between, there must be a corporate law that says they must have the same amount of cheap plastic content on the interior, regardless of sticker price.
New sub! Came here for the cars but stayed for the sense of humor and entertainment value.
Absolutely Gorgeous car. I'm looking at a 1993 with the NorthStar engine with low low milea & it is magnificent!!❤