A Story of Malaise Royalty | The Cadillac Allante
Vložit
- čas přidán 28. 08. 2024
- This is the story of the Cadillac Allante, a car that was tasked by GM with the mission of saving the Cadillac brand. But, as too often was the case, bizarre decisions were made that ultimately doomed what could have been something wonderful.
Thanks for your support and please do consider becoming a supporter of my efforts... www.patreon.com/TofersCarTales
In Europe we didn't get many Allantes, even if it was built in Italy. But we knew them from TV and films, like Dallas and Lethal weapon. It was the kind of car you could only Dream about. Thanks for another great video!
Excellent movie, Tofer! 💪🏻❤️ The Allanté has grown on me more and more. You can see it's a timeless design and has clearly inspired the R129 Mercedes SL. Well done!
I always thought the SL came out before the Allante!🤔
@@masuphamolapo9560 Allanté was launched in 1987, R129 in 1989
Always makes me happy to see a new Car Tale in my subscriptions. 😀
Excellent video. I enjoyed all of it. I liked what you had to say and you shared the story. The Allante experience indeed. In a way... the Cadillac XLR replaced this car. I clearly can see the effort the effort you put in the video as well. That is some hard work. Thank you.
Great video.
Love your videos!
Lots of great information, enjoyably presented, thank you!!!
Great video as always Tofer. Some of the concept sketches were stunning. The rear of the one at 7:00 (at least in profile) could easily pass for a current day Cadillac if the tail lights were vertical light blades as is their current design language. Majority of those sketches were far too ahead of their time for the mid to late 80s and likely would've been shunned by their very aged demographic at the time. Certainly would've attracted younger buyers though.
Again, AMAZING work on this project, just like Allante did..
I had a 1990 Allante, loved it. It was fun to drive and reliable. It also got lots of attention every where I went
That Allante Married With Children episode always intrigued me. The sports car to the right of the Allante on the stage was the season 2/3 hero car from the TV show Hardcastle and McCormick called the Coyote. I actually saw the dune buggy stunt car version at MGM studios in the summer of 1991 on their back lot. A little while later I saw the MWC episode. Hardcastle and McCormick was one of my favorite shows growing up and I instantly recognized the car in the background.
_Ahhhh The O'le Bundy Bounce_ ™
Another outstandng video. I liked the look of the Allante, but the front wheel drive platform dropped it below it's target, the Mercedes. Cadillac has had a history of overpricing some of their offerings, which led to low sales, like the Allante, XLR and ELR. I was very interested in the incredibly beautiful ELR, but the pricing was way too high. Glad you presented this beautiful Cadillac of the late '80's. I always appreciate your choice of cars.
And 90% of the time it was ALWAYS overpriced rebadged chevy, gm, crap
@@mankind8088 Can only partially agree with you. Many times was way overpriced, but I think you go a bit too far with the 90% comment and the quality was not always poor.
Please like and subscribe if you enjoyed and thanks for watching! Apologies for my voice as it was still not 100%
How come it took me this long to subscribe? Randy from Auto Auction Rebuilds needs to see this. He owns 2 Allantes and tried to use a engine hoist to pull the seat with excellent results!
Those early drawings look like what the camaro and firebird would become.
I wouldn't part with my 1992 Allante for anything. If you can find one that has not been run into the ground and has been reasonably maintained - buy it, you will love it.
It's still remarkable to me that they went from this to XLR in just ten years.
Hey Tofer, I'm a big fan of the Cadillac Allante, back in the eighties I really wanted to buy one but they were out of reach financially!!! This video is excellent & I'm glad that you included one of my favorite characters, JR Ewing!!! Yes, good ol'JR proudly drove an Allante!!!
I saw your comments on Curious Cars Lincoln Versailles video too!!! Isn't Bill great with his weather reports & colorful comments on everything? Thanks for sharing this exciting video, great job!!! 👍👍🙂
Thanks Christopher! Bill is hilarious! Love his videos and stories.
@@TofersCarTales me too!! I am proud to report that I received one of Bill's coronavirus whiskey flasks!!! 😁
@@TofersCarTales haha Bill yelling at goats in the Oldsmobile Aurora video had me subscribed right away
This was interesting, never knew about this GM car, with 2 seater you could see young up coming rich Corp men n women wanting this type of luxury car, go JR. interesting to hear what Cadillac designers thoughts were n weather Cadillac had seen Holden Statesman/Caprice in early 90’s as been large RWD sedan possibility?
In my opinion, the Allante did have a good production run. The brand might not have sold the amount they had originally hoped for. When you compare this car to other two-seater convertible American offerings during these years, this is the one car that lasted the longest. Plus, it paved the way for the immense success of the 90s Cadillac's. This really is a fun car to own and drive. I have a 1993 Allante that is my daily next to a Deville and a 1961 Fleetwood. The NorthStar is my top choice to have for numerous reasons however the other engines are also good alternatives. Being 1993, it is easier to find mechanical parts than prior years. Overall its a great car that is still so cool and rad to own!
I remember the 1993 Car & Driver New Car Guide had a section where they noted all the comings and goings of all the car companies in terms of new/discontinued models and the passage for cadillac had the following statement about the allante: "Cadillac Allante: Dead Fred".
I also remember grahme fletcher of Motoring TV (then Motoring '91) in which he absolutely shredding the allante for its performance and quality in his initial review and then checking out a '93 a couple years later and praising the improvements in quality and performance.
My first and favorite car ever was a 1987 Cadillac Sedan DeVille candy apple red. I was 18 and in love with my first girlfriend. Best times of my life. Now 25 years later I'm driving a 1993 Ford Aerostar van
Bro, 88 coupe deville white w/ red and white interior + digital dash was my first! I wish i kept the car instead of the girl 💀
@@Mowgi2014 Exactly 💯
cadilac is my favart car compty , i love your viedos best music evver
Tofer, thanks yesss wasn't notified, sounds like I wasn't the only one. That's YT for you, happens too often, and find I'm "unsubb'd" too. SMH. Well, watched this THREE times to get even! LOL, thanks again Mr Tofer, wonderful presentation of a quite unappreciated car. I'll tell ya what, 36 years young and still looks WAY better than offerings from just about every maker. I enjoyed this immensely.
I'm so glad you were able to find the video and enjoyed! I don't know what's going on with people being unsubscribed. A number of people have said the same thing and the overall sub count has remained flat for months as a result. Regardless, you've always supported me and it absolutely means the world to me that you found and enjoyed this effort. *big giant hugs my good friend!
@@TofersCarTales 😘
I literally just yelled outloud "WAIT, THERE'S DUCKS IN THE CADILLAC LOGO?"
For us older folks... I only realized this when the Cadillac Catera commercial pointed it out back in the day... there was one Caddy... or duck... that zigged, as opposed to zagged. It made a lot more sense back then for some reason. czcams.com/video/215nxqYfvac/video.html
They were actually merlettes. They stopped having them on there around 2000, presumably because of the embarrassment the Catera and its campaign turned out to be.
I'd love to have a custom 50s style tailfin to this thing, to make the body lines say 'cool Americana'!!
Well done. I continue to maintain the aesthetic of this channel across YT is unique. Keep working on the sound (voice over) mix. Presumably Tofer, you’ve seen the interviews of GM designers you include (Kady and Manoogian) by Adam?
There's someone in my city who owns a red Allanté and a red early 90's Seville (great pair) and that "new spirit of Cadillac" still looks very premium today. Shame about the Northstar...
The Northstar engines built after 2000 are actually pretty solid engines. It took until 2004 for GM to finally fully fix all known issues on the Northstar powertrain. Then they killed it off because, you know, GM doesn't want to sell something that's actually GOOD.
@@knurlgnar24 that's the thing though, these were 90s Northies. It always reminded me of the K Series engine Rover made - great, when they didn't implode and they eventually sorted the v6 but it was too little effort far too late.
I drive a 1993 Allante as one of my daily drivers next to a Deville and my oldest being a 1961 Fleetwood. As many years as I've owned my Allante, it has been excellent with very little for maintenance. I do love the Northstar for its power and efficiency but the other engines are also just as good.
The Allante is great looking car. But the Mercrdes SL has stood the test of time with its build quality. I hope the new Celestig will restore the Cadillac as the Standard of the World once more.
I will never understand why all the car magazines had this fixation with 1950s tech full analog gages. Due to pressure from the press, all the 80s digital instruments had in the 80s went on hiatus for about 20 years, setting everyone back.
I always thought and still prefer the digital displays of that time.
Allante as a bosozoku car would be wicked!
The Bundy Bounce!!!!! 😀
The Allante is such an infuriating car in some ways. I always thought the styling was a bit boring but that's just my opinion, I will never understand GMs decision to make it FWD and there choice of engines. I suspect it still wouldn't have fixed everything there is no doubt if these had been RWD with the LT5 from the zr1 these would have sold way better!
I suspect it's another example of GM intentionally keeping internal competition with the Corvette to a minimum.
And the XLR later on, showed, that the customers still don't wait for a "Corvette by Cadillac". (In spite of XLR's great look!).
@@Romiman1 very true
You mean the front wheel drive Vette.
I blame this pile of excrement for the final death of the 124 Spider.
In my opinion, at no point in my 45 years has Cadillac been "the standard of the world". The 80s, in particular, were fatal to the brand's premium image.
At least they never dressed up a Chevy Cavalier with leather and a Cadillac badge on the grille.....oh wait 🤣🤣🤣
@@pdennis93 Worse than that, they didn't learn from that mistake. The other 80s Cadillacs were too similar to the models at Buick and Olds. Cadillac honestly deserved to die from that era.
Another example of GM’s management incompetency. A front wheel drive car designed to compete with Mercedes Benz, who could actually build cars and build them well. The Allante interiors didn’t hold up well. And we all know how well the North Star motors held up. The XLR was a far better car, although it was a Corvette with a steel body.
Never liked this car,it was a lemon from day one.
Nice car but too much of a SL wannabe
"Cadillac heritage" is a foolish thing speaking of late 80's. Every car Cadillac had by that time looked boring ang old, had cheap interior and troublesome engines (including Allante) . Is that what young buyers want?
At that time, Cadillac, Buick, and Oldsmobile were redundant. There was no point in having 3 brands offering essentially the same vehicle.
@@doug6191well, I just wonder how much GM spent for Oldsmobile brand alone in the 90's.
Yawn 🥱😴.
This could've worked spectacularly well if they'd based it around the corvette.
If they took the engine and drivetrain out of the ZR1 (maybe detune it slightly) and put it into that body along with a suspension similar to that of the Mercedes SL, they could've had an american luxury high performance car that would've stood up too everything that wasn't a ferrari or lamborghini.
Like the Cadillac XLR was?
@Ashley Sutherland
Just 15 years earlier.
Nah, on a strictly ‘feel’ basis the C4 chassis isn’t right for what the Allante was. And the F-7 transmission (a modified and improved 440-T4) had a better feel than any of RWD transmissions GM was building at the time. No it wasn’t ever going to be the fastest - but even the 4.1 and 4.5 Allantes really had something special about how they drove. I think I can make a pretty good comparison as I own a C4 (95) and an Allante (92)