The Curious Case Of The Cadillac Allante - GM Authority (blog)
You could say the Cadillac Allante was an attempt to distance General Motors’ luxury brand, much like what Cadillac is trying to do today with its move to New York City , exclusive engines and more. But, the Cadillac Allante was certainly not the most business-savvy way to go about positioning Cadillac against the Mercedes-Benz SL and Jaguar XJS, as told by Motoring Research originally. You see, Cadillac decided to team up with Italian-based coach builder, Pininfarina , for an exclusive convertible which shared no components with any other GM branded vehicle. Cadillac had Pininfarina build the bodies of the Allante, paint them, trim them and, finally, install their convertible tops. Pininfarina’s convertible tops were known to leak substantially, and GM pushed the car out to production anyway after identifying the issue, tarnishing the Allante name from the start. Despite improvements each year, the convertible couldn’t truly contest the SL and XJS. Cadillac wanted to sell 6,000 examples each year, but its best selling year saw merely 4,670 units sold in the end. If one still desires one of these unique vehicles today, low mileage examples can still fetch $20,000. I bought a 1988 Cadillac Allante and kept it for 13 years. Source: gmauthority.com
