CC Capsule: 1990 Cadillac Allante – Oh, How the Mighty Have Depreciated

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$7,750 is all this Allante owner is asking for his Pininfarina-bodied Cadillac. It was a little sad to see that price taped to the window of this car, which stickered at upwards of $60,000 when new and was made in numbers that never topped 5,000 in any of its seven years of production.

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The Allante was never perfect, as Jason Shafer points out in his excellent writeup of a 1987 example (read it here). But it did bring Cadillac some attention, both good and bad, at a time when it had slipped into near irrelevancy, building mostly floaty bloatmobiles for well-heeled bluehairs.

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So I kind of admire GM for trying to hit one over the far wall. I mean, they had the bodies built in Italy and flown in specially equipped 747s to Detroit/Hamtramck to be mated to a chassis! What unmitigated audacity!

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I found this Allante parked on well-to-do Main Street in Zionsville, which is just northwest of Indianapolis. I was in Zionsville to enjoy its annual sidewalk festival, which you can see burgeoning behind this red Caddy.

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I’m guessing at this Allante’s year because I failed to photograph the notices taped to the side windows, which I’m sure told the whole story. D’oh! The Caddy cognoscenti will please examine the photographed details and correct me in the comments if I’m wrong.

Related reading: 1992 Allante, 1993 Allante, Allante being towed