Welcome to another exciting episode of Shitbox Showdown! Today’s contestants both attempted to combine Italian style with good ol’ American know-how to create luxury convertibles. Did they succeed? Well, we’re featuring them here, aren’t we?
Yesterday’s basket cases elicited some entertaining comments. Let’s see how the voting went down:
Looks like it’s the Bradley. I think that’s the right call. As several commenters pointed out, a Cosworth Vega in decent shape is actually worth some money, so restoring one is a “do it the right way or don’t do it at all” proposition. With a VW-based kit car, there is no “right way,” because you’re making it up as you go along, and any future owner needn’t care about originality.
Today, you’ll be relieved to know that both our contestants are intact, drivable, and don’t even look all that bad. I got a tip from our very own shitbox-whisperer S.W. Gossin about a Cadillac Allanté for sale. After thinking about it for a while, I determined there was only one possible contender worthy of this sleek Italian-American machine: its crosstown rival, the Chrysler TC by Maserati. And lo and behold, the internet classified gods smiled upon me, and I found one of the only 7,000 or so ever made, running and driving, in our price range. It was meant to be. Let’s check them out.
1992 Cadillac Allanté – $2,500
Engine/drivetrain: 4.5 liter V8, 4 speed automatic, FWD
Location: Wilmington, NC
Odometer reading: 110,000 miles
Runs/drives? Doesn’t explicitly say, actually…
“You know what would make a lot of sense? Let’s have a legendary Italian coachbuilder make bespoke bodies for a niche-market convertible, then build special airplanes to carry them across the Atlantic back to Detroit so we can finish assembling them, and sell them for a massive premium over our other mechanically-identical cars.”
Said no one ever.
Cadillac’s Allanté was yet another attempt to appeal to a younger demographic than the golf-then-dinner-at-4-pm crowd. It was a 2-seat convertible aimed at Mercedes SL buyers. The body was styled and built by legendary Italian coachbuilder Pininfarina, then flown to Michigan aboard modified Boeing 747s for final assembly. It was a horribly inefficient way to build cars, but it did result in arguably the prettiest Cadillac of its era.
Mechanically, the Allanté didn’t break any new ground, and that’s just fine: Cadillac’s HT-series engines were tried-and-true by 1987 when the Allanté was introduced. This car features a 4.5 liter variant with multi-port fuel injection and a standard-issue four-speed automatic, all well within GM’s wheelhouse. The seller doesn’t specifically say anything about the running state of this Allanté, but they do call it “awesome,” which indicates to me that it is, in fact, mobile. Most cars lose their awesomeness about the time they fail to start.
The outside of it looks nice, although it’s a shame about the boring color. Allantés look best to me in either black or silver, with a red interior in either case. This “Suburban Camouflage” beige doesn’t do the crisp Pininfarina styling justice. Inside, a few popped seams and some wear and tear show the years and miles, but it’s not awful. There is an awful lot of electronic frippery in the dashboard of an Allanté, however, and one would be wise to test it all before purchase.
1989 Chrysler TC by Maserati – $1,895
Engine/drivetrain: 2.2 liter turbocharged inline 4, 3 speed automatic, FWD
Location: Shelton, WA
Odometer reading: 119,000 miles
Runs/drives? Yep!
Meanwhile, across town at Chrysler, typically shrewd and on-point auto executive Lee Iacocca was ramming this vanity project down his company’s throat. The TC by Maserati was meant to be a flagship for Chrysler, to shake off the blue-collar K-car image and regain some of the glory of the 1950s and ’60s. Instead, it was essentially a LeBaron with portholes.
The TC’s body was also made in Italy, by Innocenti, and final assembly was done by Maserati in Milan. Chrysler shipped engines, transmissions, and other components to Italy, rather than flying half-completed cars back to America. I guess that made more sense? What never did make sense, to me at least, is the crass mishmash of the two firm’s logos into one unbelievably tacky emblem. It looks like a made-up emblem from a John Hughes movie car.
As a first-year TC, this car is powered by Chrysler’s own 2.2 liter turbo engine, here coupled to a Torqueflite three-speed automatic. A special run of 500 TCs received a more exotic variant of this engine, with a twin-cam head designed by Maserati and made by Cosworth in England, coupled to a Getrag five-speed manual transmission. But this isn’t one of those.
The seller has spent some recent money on this car in the form of new tires, a new windshield, and some other mechanical work, and says it “runs good.” Cosmetically, it’s passable: the pale yellow paint is in decent shape give or take a few bumps and bruises, but the fancy leather interior has quite a few rips and tears in it. And the dashboard appears to have melted. Not sure what’s going on there. Hopefully it at least still has the radio.
These cars share, apart from their Italian-American heritage, the sense of the optimism bordering on hubris of the American auto industry slowly getting its groove back after the doldrums of the ’70s. Both were a gamble, and neither gamble paid off, but now thirty years later, at the bottom of the depreciation curve, they both look like pretty nice cheap old cars. Which one is more your style?
Image credit: Facebook Listings
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Nice Modest Mouse reference.
The dashboard did indeed melt, and hopefully we still have the radio.
The Allanté for sure. I’ve been eyeing a blue Allanté on the local FB marketplace lately. Don’t need it and don’t really have the room, but I’ve always liked them and even rather nice examples can be had for relatively little money these days. I think the convoluted business case behind them is also at least interesting, plus it involves modified 747s! The Maser-Barons have just never really done anything for me other than to elicit a bout of head-scratching regarding the equation “port-holes = $$”.
The Allante. Remember it is both
Tango: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVLVtubU7xs
and Rocky: https://productplacementblog.com/movies/cadillac-allante-car-in-rocky-5-1990/
approved.
BOTH! Anyone interested in buying one of these cars would be well served to have the full set of late 80’s/early 90’s italiamerica luxo flops. At these prices, its worth it
Like many people here, I want to like the Chryslerrati (and odd yellow is in fact the best color for them as I don’t think the regular LeBaron was available in it), but the Cadillac is just a better value at this point, at least if you want to actually drive it rather than just talk about it.
Except the wheels on the TC are magic, whereas the Allante’s kinda remind me that it’s a Cadillac, in the bad way.
I love the wheels on the TC, but they could also be had on a Sundance and a LeBaron so they weren’t exactly special. Except for the little trident in the center of them.
I like them on those models too! They added an element of class for sure.
Always thought those wheels were the second-best feature of the LeBaron. The first being the headlight covers…yeah, I said it and I stand by it. I liked ’em. 😉
A couple of years ago there was a Facebook marketplace ’91 LeBaron convertible for sale (the best year IMO, because still had the flippy headlights but with the new dashboard/interior.) It had the 3.0 v6 (meh) but here’s the kicker: a 5-speed manual. Gray exterior, everything in working order, good paint, under 100k miles, something like $1800. AND I DIDN’T BUY IT. I am STILL kicking myself.
I agree 100% the siren song factor on cars like these is always the existence of a manual.
Even back in their prime /when new, these guys were mostly sold with autos, and the car had the general character of a sort of modern version of the big Plymouth convertibles Mike Brady’s solid-citizen architect drove in the mid ’70s.
But a manual implies a more edgy and fun time could be had, for the right driver.
I really despise FWD cars with a V8. It’s just wrong. Cadillac lost market share because they just kept churning out cheap badge engineered crap. Meanwhile the Germans made comfortable cars with RWD and AWD for much better driving dynamics.
See you touched on why I voted for the TC, the Cadillac has all the baggage of Cadillac and the added baggage (bonus baggage) of 90’s Cadillac. Meanwhile is the TC an uptrimmed LaBarron? Yes, and why is that a bad thing? This was a detuned Turbo II engine, at 160HP, as we know easily improved to 250HP or more, but as is, it compares pretty well power to weight because the Caddy’s so anemic and fat. I have a small soft spot for late 80s early 90s Mopar, just because they brought a lot to the party. Maybe not the best beer, and chips, but they reliably brought beer AND chips every single time. Meanwhile Caddy brought a 6 pack of some weird expensive beer no one really liked so he ended up drinking all of it and some of yours too. While this one has condition issues, there is a pretty mint one for sale local to me, which I countered was a better purchase than a $55k NA Auto Mk4 Supra. I completely agree the soft yellow is better than this red.
https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/cto/d/gilbert-1989-maserati-tc/7519489177.html
Much as I hate the color, it’s not hard to decide in favor of the Allanté.
After all, it’s the Cadillac of Shitboxes.
I’m pretty sure that is vinyl or leather coming loose on the dash of the TC instead of it melting..Either way, the interior of that car is in TERRIBLE shape.
I was thinking the same thing – looks like Chrysler leather-skinned the plastic dash, b/c luxury.
I can’t imagine how much it would cost to reskin it now though.
The TC has always been such a head-scratcher to me. All of the time and money they put into making it “special” only to have it come out looking damn-near identical to a LeBaron?! What an absolute waste! I don’t blame people for thinking it is a LeBaron with some extra bits added. How would they have any idea that it was actually penned and built in Italy? The Allante at least looks the part, even though it is hiding a super nose-heavy FWD architecture. Both deserve some love, but the Caddy is a legitimately sharp car. That is why it gets my vote.
Such a good point. And Chrysler’s angry defensiveness and attempts to explain that no, you just don’t get it made the whole situation even worse/drew more attention to it.
I would go with the Allante, though the TC does have the beveled glass in the portholes so you can watch your back seat passengers squirm to avoid being burned on a sunny day.
I’d forgotten about the beveled glass!
Not to mention that awkward/heavy hardtops are never fun, but I have to imagine even less so when you’d see a ton of your stablemate car (they were all over back in the day) cruising around with their tops so easily down.
Holy cow! My ‘Cold Start’ comment was a perfect lead-in to this. Buying an Allante last spring (2021) was the best terrible car decision I ever made. The MSRP was a pipe dream in terms of value when new, but now? A screaming deal if you do your own wrenching. The drivetrain (other than FI) is standard Cadillac for the day, so parts are cheap and available. The Allante-specific stuff is supported by a few specialty shops. I have two bits of advice: if you do buy one, step one when you get it home is to disassemble and clean EVERY electrical ground on the car. Second is that replacement shocks for the rear are now unavailable. I don’t mean the speed-dependent damping ones – those have been gone for decades. The standard replacements are NLA. The fronts are shared with all the large GM FWD cars of the era, but the rears were specific to just the Allante and the Reatta, so too small a market to continue production.
I’d love to hear more about your Allante. Every time I even think of looking at one, I’m caught in the middle of being more afraid of the Bosch brakes (aside from replacing pads I’m not a brake guy) or the NorthStar (been there, done that, traded before head gasket problems but did enjoy the throttle body gasket problem). In my dream world I’d take the more conventional brakes with a 4.5 (or, better yet, the 4.9), but of course such a combination doesn’t exist. (I run into that a lot with my dream Cadillacs.)
I hadn’t heard about the rear shocks being unobtainium — just add it to the list of other random parts which make me hesitate to buy an Allante.
But enough of my focusing on the negatives! I’d love to hear more insider secrets from an actual owner!
I guess the Caddy. Neither are particularly enticing.
The TC just oozes a K Car but Pretentious vibe. You can just imagine the how the original owner’s neighbors gave him shit for it, and he never tired of mansplaining about how it wasn’t actually a K platform and was made in Italy and …
The clean interior of the Allante won my over. Torn seats just don’t do it.
The Allante is a couple of decent seat covers away from looking not awful. The TC looks like it is actively decaying before our eyes. I would pay a little extra for the Cadillac version of these cars that are about as Italian as Olive Garden’s deep fried lasagna bites.
Allante all the way.
The Cad appears to have had some care over the years, and doesn’t have the “Northstar” engine, which IIRC had some issues. The other is a Chrysler, albeit gussied up a bit with some Italian trimmings that appear to need more of a redo than the Allante’s seats.
Also, the Allante was a pretty nice cruiser, even if nowhere near Track Day status. In 1992, I thought about how nice it would be to fill its instrument panel with gauges, even though the ones I drove were fully functional. I still think that.
Saying the early Northstar had some issues is like saying Ezra Miller has some issues….
Both are horrible: FWD.
A K-car is a K-car. Don’t care if you add portholes, tailfins or the equivalent of every stick-on accessory in a Pep Boys, it’s a K-car.
It’s like when I was newly 21 and a friend asked me to buy her some Mad Dog 20/20. I went to the liquor store and realized that she didn’t tell me what flavor to get, so I asked the guy behind the counter. His response? It’s all Mad Dog.
A K-car is a K-car.
Hahaha. Well, Red Grape used to have a higher alcohol content than the other flavors, so that isn’t nothing….
At first, the dashboard merkin and rough seats in the Caddy put me off. That is, until I saw the liquified dash and rabid-squirrel-chewed armrest in the Chrysler. Plus, if choosing between a solid GM V8 vs a turbo-ed Chrysler 4-pot… Allante ftw!
The 93 Allante got the good engine with a lot more power
Even so, this Allante is better than the TC, but the gas prices are still kinda high and would make you want to go with the TC. Parts availability is probably better with the TC, too
oh my, nobody ever considers the Northstar a “good” engine anymore. the 4.5 will likely still run and can be repaired so that is actually the only reason this Allante’ would be desirable
Although I’ve always wanted to have a Maserati, I think it’s worth the small premium for a top that goes down. Caddy for me.
If it has the lazy lump 6G72, I would’ve said, “no, grazie” on the Chrysler TC. But we have something of interest, but we have the Turbo II, which has me saying, “sì.”
The Allante is hard to turn your nose up at, although every time I hear that name I think of Kelly Bundy (showing my age, damn). Both interiors look like someone force fed a steady diet of PCP to a rabid lynx, tossed it in the barcalounger cabin and said “let ‘er rip.” My frank assessment is that the Allante probably has the better drivetrain, although the TC has one that’s probably more fun. Points to the Allante for better wheels, though. I’ll edge in favor of the TC for price.
Having come from a Mopar family, I can assure you that the 3 speed auto would leave you highly disappointed in this vehicle (ex-girlfriend had a Lancer auto and I had the LeBaron manual back in the day) even with the turbo. It wasn’t bad in the smaller Omni/Horizon. But at least it is more reliable than the 5 speed manual.
Gotta be the Caddy!
The Allante introduced us to the “Bundy Bounce.” ‘Nuff said.
Came here for this
One is actually a car I wanted at the time and has the potential to be a nice ride. The other brings back the trauma of that era of Chrysler products. Such fun driving diabetes the interstate holding the sunroof panel down because the latch self destruction. Allante all the way.
Damn we need edit for posts.
This is a beyond easy decision. Allante for the win here.