I am looking at a 91 allante for purchase...I am very aware of the issues concerning abs brakes, bose stereos, electrical gremlins, etc...fixing them may be another issue...I have read all 130 pages over on allante.net.any way, for you current owners, if you could turn the clock back.....would you buy or not based on your experience...Sometimes, these cars are great fun, but I dont want to get myself into a situation that I use the hate word....thanks for your help..craig I've seen some owners on here with problems and the thread just kinda ends after awhile with no resolve...it makes one wonder what happened....I'm not afraid to maintain a car and deal with a few issues as my lumina or impala have their own...I just dont want to be in a repair mode more than not....there are alotta comments about maintenance records..and if they dont have them, move on...well, what do you do with a car for sale by a cadillac dealership? they didnt maintain it, but maintain they sent it thru their shop...I'd be very surprised if more than 10-20% of allantes have complete service records...thanks for comments..
A Poll From Current Owners
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A lot depends on the mileage. I bought my 93 without service records but it only had 52k miles on it so I was pretty sure that there was not much in the way of wear and tear.
Would I still buy this car - yes.
Don't let the fact that a dealership is selling the car delude you into thinking that they have done any more work or put any more money into the car than necessary to sell it - profit is the bottom line.
It is a fun car to drive and it is not my daily driver. I am not sure you would want to depend on one for a daily driver, they are IMO a rare car and they have rare problems and oft-times rare parts.
If you do buy it, buy it with the understanding that you WILL have to perform some work on it and make it a labor of love not the H-word.
Would I still buy this car - yes.
Don't let the fact that a dealership is selling the car delude you into thinking that they have done any more work or put any more money into the car than necessary to sell it - profit is the bottom line.
It is a fun car to drive and it is not my daily driver. I am not sure you would want to depend on one for a daily driver, they are IMO a rare car and they have rare problems and oft-times rare parts.
If you do buy it, buy it with the understanding that you WILL have to perform some work on it and make it a labor of love not the H-word.
Have a CARFAX ran on it to verify mileage, repairs, etc. I owned an 88 that I bought with 32000 miles, 3 yrs ago, drove it everyday. Make sure antifreeze is replaced, not flushed ,now, then every 2 yrs. Make sure GM cooling system sealant is added per decal on radiator support! Flush brake fluid now, then every year! thereafter. I'm a prior GM mechanic and was around when that car was introduced. I was familiar with its special needs. Get a GM service manual. Invaluable to help understand this special car. Good luck. Sold mine 2 wks ago 61000 miles.
First two replys sum it up pretty good. I love mine and it does not get used as much as I would like. It's a garage queen that I take out from time to time. If I had it to do over again I would still buy it. I love the car and have had a blast driving it and modifying it to how I think it should have come from the factory. I must say that I have thought of selling it because of the lack of driving I do, but it's paid for and I don't have to sell. Would consider selling if I thought I could get what I think it's worth. Too bad the values of Allante's is falling over the last two years. I hope you get a good deal on yours and have no major or minor issues.
Good Luck!
Good Luck!
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191 Posts
I've been driving Allante's for over 10 years now. There's nothing else I want. My first one was a '91, and so was my second one that I've had for 7 years now. My wife uses that one as a daily driver and I have a '92 I use as a daily driver. Aside from getting dirty, I have found they are less trouble when you drive them regularly. Both of mine are definitely keepers. I test drove a '93 Allante' when it was new, but it was a couple more years (1995) before I bought my first '91. That was the right decision for me, no regrets at all.
Allante North
What wheels do you have on your car...16's or 17s and tire size...did it fill the wheel well and is the ride any different from original...will the 16's and 17's from a cts fit on the allante? they say the bolt pattern is 5x115 and supposedly would fit...should I have some concern about ride with 17's? I had some 18's on a newbeetle and I know what thats all about....thanks. could you email me a picture of your car with the wheels...
What wheels do you have on your car...16's or 17s and tire size...did it fill the wheel well and is the ride any different from original...will the 16's and 17's from a cts fit on the allante? they say the bolt pattern is 5x115 and supposedly would fit...should I have some concern about ride with 17's? I had some 18's on a newbeetle and I know what thats all about....thanks. could you email me a picture of your car with the wheels...
I bought my first '93 in 2002. It was Polo Green and had less than 40k at the time. I flew from Boston to Pittsburgh in Februrary to get it. I had always wanted one and finally had the money to do it.
I kept it for 2 years and then sold it due to a change in my family situation. I immediately regretted it after driving a BMW 3 series convertible for about 6 months.
I sold the BMW and then found a pristine '93 Montana Blue this past March for an unbelievable price, and it was in Connecticut - about a 2 hour drive from me.
This car is nearly perfect and while I'm hesitant to say I'd never get rid of it, I don't see it leaving me for a long time.
For maintanance, the only issue I had on the first car was with the A/C system. I got robbed by the dealer and the car was out of commission the whole month of July the first year I owned it and cost me nearly $2000 to have it fixed. Won't make that mistake again.
Otherwise, I've gone through a few CD players (Dick Hussey has replacements and they're easy to swap out), new rims and tires only due to personal preference and lots of elbow grease washing, claying, polishing, waxing, etc...
I've never driven any other year Allanté so I can't comment on those. If I didn't own a '93, I think I'd look at a '92 next. No Northstar, but reportedly better seats and better stereo system. On my Montana Blue, I upgraded all the speakers and tweeters and added an amp and crossovers. All still looks original, but it sounds awesome.
Good luck with your poll.
Steve
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If you look under "Cadillac Images" and then Allantes, there are a bunch of photos of my Montana Blue. Look for user "Steve174"
/edit
I kept it for 2 years and then sold it due to a change in my family situation. I immediately regretted it after driving a BMW 3 series convertible for about 6 months.
I sold the BMW and then found a pristine '93 Montana Blue this past March for an unbelievable price, and it was in Connecticut - about a 2 hour drive from me.
This car is nearly perfect and while I'm hesitant to say I'd never get rid of it, I don't see it leaving me for a long time.
For maintanance, the only issue I had on the first car was with the A/C system. I got robbed by the dealer and the car was out of commission the whole month of July the first year I owned it and cost me nearly $2000 to have it fixed. Won't make that mistake again.
Otherwise, I've gone through a few CD players (Dick Hussey has replacements and they're easy to swap out), new rims and tires only due to personal preference and lots of elbow grease washing, claying, polishing, waxing, etc...
I've never driven any other year Allanté so I can't comment on those. If I didn't own a '93, I think I'd look at a '92 next. No Northstar, but reportedly better seats and better stereo system. On my Montana Blue, I upgraded all the speakers and tweeters and added an amp and crossovers. All still looks original, but it sounds awesome.
Good luck with your poll.
Steve
/edit
If you look under "Cadillac Images" and then Allantes, there are a bunch of photos of my Montana Blue. Look for user "Steve174"
/edit
My sister had my fathers Allante in her garage for the last 15 years, had not been started or seen the light of day, so I took it from her, 1988 with 18,000 miles, spent 2k on tires, brakes, hoses, belts, battery, tune-up and changed all the fluids. Spent 2 days cleaning and "waxing" the car, it looks great. 
I can't speak for others but my 90.5 has 192,400 miles on it all with my lead foot. Had to do the major brake rework at 132,000 and replace the transmission clutch bands at 148,000 and the Cat converter at 150,000. Still has original muffler, radio, tops, etc that have been survivin N. England weather for 15 years. Key thing is to buy the manual. You can diagnose and fix a lot of smaller problems yourself. The car DIC system really talks to you with it's error codes.
Good luck.
Good luck.
I have owned two Allantes. 1st was 91. Had it for 5 yrs. put over 50k miles on it. Only problem was had to have the ABS brake system rebuilt. Bought current 93 in 05 with 5200 miles. It was stored by a car nut for about 10 years. Had to replace the original tires, battery, radiator, hoses, belts and fluids. Have put about 1000 miles on it. No problems to date. Drive it regularly. Sold the 91 for more than I had in it. I prefer the 93 for the Northstar and it is more comfortable. Those Recarro seats in the non-93's look good but to me are not as comfortable as the "old man" seats in the 93. Hope you find the one you will like. Dunitall
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How'd you decide on a '91 instead of a '92? I agree the '93 got cheezed out just a little in a few areas (no matter what you do or don't think of the Northstar), but couldn't you go with a '92 and have same engine as a '91 but with a few other minor upgrades?
Anyways, We've only had our '88 Allante with 115k miles for about 2500 miles now (less than a month for us) and though the car runs perfect, and seems to have been well taken care of (mostly garaged) with both tops (I swear I don't think she hardly ever put the soft top up) we have had some electrical issues, the problem though is that they don't REALLY seem to be issues, we're just getting error messages from the DIC about low fluid levels on things yet when I check the levels they're just fine. Some of the switches on the seat controls don't seem to work right but I think that's natrual for a convertable of this age, there is a little corrosion in the switches no doubt.
We've had 5 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limites in a row, all with full-time 4x4 and all with V8 engines, a '95, '98, '99, 01, and '03 and have ran all of them to OVER 300+ thousand miles before selling them. Much of the time pulling a 22 foot Twin-V8 ski boat all over the ozarks during the summers. But this summer we bought a bigger boat and got a perminant slip at the lake, so didn't need the towing capacity of the Jeeps so decided to get a "touring" car. We set out with a Mid-to-Late '90s Eldorado ETC in mind but ended up with the Allante, a car I've always liked. By comparison to the Allante with it's 115k miles and the problems I listed we never had ANY problems of any kind with any of the Jeeps, even up past 300k miles, one of which I sold to a college student son of some friends who's now drove it for two years and now has over 400k and still going strong.
The more I have talked with other Cadillac owners and Allante owners (and other GM owners, used to hear tales of their bad experiances with their big GM model SUV's at the boat docks cussing all of their problems with relativley few miles, and we'd just smile as drive off in our ultra-high miledge Jeeps that we'd never had a problem with of any kind (and got 25mpg when not pulling the boat). So some of it comes down to experiance. If you ask another GM product owner they'll probably think the issues they've had are "normal" for everyone, just as I would if you asked about my '87 Jaguar XJS-C V12 compared to other Jaguars, but if you compare them with someone who's owned something like a Grand Cherokee who's never known any problems then by comparison it sounds like they have allot of problems. I am kind of begining to worry that the sheer miles that we put on our cars may be a bit much to expect of the Allante from what I'm reading. I'm kind of considering going back to my original idea of an Eldorado ETC... Who knows, maybe I'll find someone who wants to trade.
I myself am an enthusiast, I own several cars that could be considerd collectable, exotic, or unique including everything from my '67 GTX Convertable, '71 Cuda 340+6 4 Speed, '65 Olds 442, to newer models like an '87 Jag XJS-C V12 and a '93 Mitsubishi VR-4. All nice cars but we're at the point we want to do allot (as though we didn't already) of traveling this summer and wanted a larger car with decent fuel miledge and a real trunk, believe me, a '67 Belvidere GTX has a large trunk but no MPG's, the VR4 had great fuel miledge but no truck space. The Jaguar V12 actually gets 23 MPG crusing at 85 (and you thought V12s got bad MPG's) but would be darn finiky if I had to find a shop for her out on the road.
So my short (or rather long) answer is that it depends on what YOU are going to do with it. Even if I decide to get an Eldorado we may still keep the Allante for my fiancee to drive back and fourth to school (shes a teacher) during the spring and fall and run around town in the summer in. She really likes it and I've already told her she could have it if she wanted it though she's a little old fashioned and said she'd take it if we were married but since we're not getting married until April she'd keep her current car (Hond Accord LXi) for now. Actually after loosing my first fiancee nearly 9 years ago to a drunk driver I once told her that I was going to buy her the largest SUV that Volvo makes and have it renforced by Hess & Esenheart (My last "company" vehicle was armoured by them).
Anyways, We've only had our '88 Allante with 115k miles for about 2500 miles now (less than a month for us) and though the car runs perfect, and seems to have been well taken care of (mostly garaged) with both tops (I swear I don't think she hardly ever put the soft top up) we have had some electrical issues, the problem though is that they don't REALLY seem to be issues, we're just getting error messages from the DIC about low fluid levels on things yet when I check the levels they're just fine. Some of the switches on the seat controls don't seem to work right but I think that's natrual for a convertable of this age, there is a little corrosion in the switches no doubt.
We've had 5 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limites in a row, all with full-time 4x4 and all with V8 engines, a '95, '98, '99, 01, and '03 and have ran all of them to OVER 300+ thousand miles before selling them. Much of the time pulling a 22 foot Twin-V8 ski boat all over the ozarks during the summers. But this summer we bought a bigger boat and got a perminant slip at the lake, so didn't need the towing capacity of the Jeeps so decided to get a "touring" car. We set out with a Mid-to-Late '90s Eldorado ETC in mind but ended up with the Allante, a car I've always liked. By comparison to the Allante with it's 115k miles and the problems I listed we never had ANY problems of any kind with any of the Jeeps, even up past 300k miles, one of which I sold to a college student son of some friends who's now drove it for two years and now has over 400k and still going strong.
The more I have talked with other Cadillac owners and Allante owners (and other GM owners, used to hear tales of their bad experiances with their big GM model SUV's at the boat docks cussing all of their problems with relativley few miles, and we'd just smile as drive off in our ultra-high miledge Jeeps that we'd never had a problem with of any kind (and got 25mpg when not pulling the boat). So some of it comes down to experiance. If you ask another GM product owner they'll probably think the issues they've had are "normal" for everyone, just as I would if you asked about my '87 Jaguar XJS-C V12 compared to other Jaguars, but if you compare them with someone who's owned something like a Grand Cherokee who's never known any problems then by comparison it sounds like they have allot of problems. I am kind of begining to worry that the sheer miles that we put on our cars may be a bit much to expect of the Allante from what I'm reading. I'm kind of considering going back to my original idea of an Eldorado ETC... Who knows, maybe I'll find someone who wants to trade.
I myself am an enthusiast, I own several cars that could be considerd collectable, exotic, or unique including everything from my '67 GTX Convertable, '71 Cuda 340+6 4 Speed, '65 Olds 442, to newer models like an '87 Jag XJS-C V12 and a '93 Mitsubishi VR-4. All nice cars but we're at the point we want to do allot (as though we didn't already) of traveling this summer and wanted a larger car with decent fuel miledge and a real trunk, believe me, a '67 Belvidere GTX has a large trunk but no MPG's, the VR4 had great fuel miledge but no truck space. The Jaguar V12 actually gets 23 MPG crusing at 85 (and you thought V12s got bad MPG's) but would be darn finiky if I had to find a shop for her out on the road.
So my short (or rather long) answer is that it depends on what YOU are going to do with it. Even if I decide to get an Eldorado we may still keep the Allante for my fiancee to drive back and fourth to school (shes a teacher) during the spring and fall and run around town in the summer in. She really likes it and I've already told her she could have it if she wanted it though she's a little old fashioned and said she'd take it if we were married but since we're not getting married until April she'd keep her current car (Hond Accord LXi) for now. Actually after loosing my first fiancee nearly 9 years ago to a drunk driver I once told her that I was going to buy her the largest SUV that Volvo makes and have it renforced by Hess & Esenheart (My last "company" vehicle was armoured by them).
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24 Posts
I've been smitten with the Allante since I saw my first one back in the late 80s. I bought my 89 two years ago and since then I have been disappointed with a number of things. Chief among those is the decline in price over the last 24 months. The availability of parts and accessories and the difficulty of finding someone that really knows what they are doing with this unique car. I've had the transmission rebuilt, and I had to replace a cracked exhaust manifold. But when the weather is warm and the top is down and I am driving around town in this sweet ride, it is all worth it. I've taken a couple of road trips in my Allante and enjoyed every minute. Yes, knowing what I know now, I would do it again. Currently I am redoing the brakes, I have just had the soft top tightened and the headliner replaced and I hope to have the seats recovered this summer. I want to replace or update the stereo system but want it to look stock, or close to it.
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