Which Drop-Top Would You Drive? 1987 Cadillac Allante vs 2005 Chrysler PT Cruiser

Good morning! It is currently 15 degrees Fahrenheit where I am (that’s about nine below for the rest of the world), so I’m trying to think warm thoughts. To that end, I decided to look for cheap convertibles for today’s Showdown, and stumbled into a really silly idea for the week, which I’ll explain later.

We finished up Friday with a couple of old ’80s-90s classics with deep red interiors. Many of you preferred the interior in the Plymouth Voyager, but its mechanical needs put you off, and the ready-to-go Ford Taurus cruised to an easy win.

I serviced a bazillion of both of these when I worked at the garage, and it’s probably a toss-up between them, mechanically. The van is a little easier to work on, but the Taurus will probably need less tinkering to keep it happy. I think I’d take the van, despite the woodgrain. Installing all the new parts that the seller is including would be satisfying, I think, and ’80s Chrysler seats are way more comfortable than they have a right to be.

Oh, and just a quick note: The headers for each car are links to the ad for that car. Always have been. They just don’t look like links. I apologize for any confusion this has caused. But yeah, just click on the header, and it will take you to the ad in a new tab.

Now then, for this week’s silly theme: In my search for cheap convertibles, I stumbled upon a car for sale in San Diego that has been listed for three weeks, and I can’t for the life of me understand why. It’s cheap, it appears to be in good mechanical condition, and it doesn’t even look that bad. But it’s a car I know a lot of you dislike. The question for this week is: How much do you dislike it? I’m going to put the same car up against a bunch of challengers this week, some serious, some ridiculous, and see how it fares.

1987 Cadillac Allante – $1,300

Engine/drivetrain: 4.1-liter OHV V8, four-speed automatic, FWD

Location: Hollister, CA

Odometer reading: 155,000 miles

Operational status: Runs rough, won’t pass smog, but technically drivable

Did you ever want a two-seat Cadillac convertible? How about a car that was built half in Italy and half in Detroit, with a long airplane ride in between? Do you like lots of buttons to push in your car’s interior? Then have I got the car for you: a first-year Cadillac Allante, available now for less than two and a half percent of its original purchase price.

There must be a catch, you’re thinking. There is – in fact, there are several. Chief among them is that the “High Technology” 4100 V8 engine runs like crap, and there’s a giant red light on the dash that says “ENGINE CONTROL SYSTEM FAULT.” That can’t be good. Obviously, a clean California smog certificate is a pipe dream for a car like this, though the seller seems to indicate you could limp it home, at least. And hey, it’s too old to have a Northstar, so you won’t have any head gasket issues. Except the HT4100 had those too. Never mind.

The Allante’s interior was pretty cool in its day, with a digital dash and push-button controls for everything. I think that’s why cars today don’t have buttons for any of the controls; GM cars used them all up in the 1980s and ’90s and created a shortage. At thirty-nine years old, there’s no telling how many of those buttons still work. I guess you’d have to push them all to find out.

This car appears to have been parked out in the sun for a long, long time. It’s so bleached and chalky that I bet if you rested your hand on it, you’d leave a handprint and your palm would come away reddish. It looks straight, though, and all the trim is there. The seller says the soft top won’t latch in place, and the removable hardtop is nowhere to be seen.

2005 Chrysler PT Cruiser GT Convertible – $1,000

Engine/drivetrain: Turbocharged 2.4-liter DOHC inline 4, four-speed automatic, FWD

Location: San Diego, CA

Odometer reading: 221,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives well

By now, you have probably figured out that a faded, poor-running Cadillac is not my idea of a perfect cheap used car. This, however, is a mid-run Chrysler PT Cruiser convertible, in turbocharged GT trim. It has a salvage title, which almost certainly has something to do with its slightly mismatched body panels. But it’s also only a grand.

The GT version of the Cruiser has a bit more power under its hood than other versions, even other turbocharged examples. It features the same 215-horsepower engine as the Dodge Neon SRT4, along with bigger brakes, wheels, and tires, and a lower, tighter suspension. Either a five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic was available; this one has the automatic, unfortunately. The seller doesn’t say explicitly how well it runs, but they do say the air conditioning works well, which pretty much requires a good-running engine. And a photo of the dash with the engine idling shows no warning lights.

It has the early interior with the color-matched dash inserts, which is cool, and a big rip in the driver’s seat, which is less so. But a seat cover will take care of that. All the power stuff works, including the top, and it has a new aftermarket stereo with Bluetooth.

Whatever happened to cause the dinged title happened to the right front corner, and it looks like it was fixed with junkyard parts and a rattle-can. It doesn’t look terrible, especially for the price, but it isn’t going to win any trophies at a car show anytime soon.

You might get sick of seeing that blue PT Cruiser. You might already be sick of it. But I’m curious to see what it can beat, and what it can’t. For today, however, it’s either Chrysler’s cheapest retro-mobile or Cadillac’s faded flagship. What will it be?