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First, the news: up from earlier estimates of $400,000 to $500k, the 2025 Cadillac Celestiq is now set to sticker from between $500,000 to $600,000. That’s no longer just a Rolls-Royce Ghost, but a full-on Phantom. That’s double a Merc-Maybach S, quadruple a BMW i7. That sort of spend better come with a cure for some sort of personal dysfunction, just for good measure.
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Now sold for more than a part of a million, this long-delayed Cadillac flagship fits into a league that not even the Germans have dared to touch. So what are the expectations? Is it still applicable after such delays? And above all, is the Celestiq a credible high-end product?
General Motors has toyed with the idea of a limited-production luxury halo for generations, but institutional will and economic conditions never quite aligned. Audiences flocked to the Sixteen show car back in 2003, for instance, a thousand-horsepower exercise which GM toured so extensively that the concept now bears more scuffs and scars than most any demonstrator of its type. The Sixteen was never truly primed for production, but feasible or not, Cadillac had some lofty ideas — and it wanted people to see them.
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Thrift fantasies took a break in the salvage years, but luxury aspirations regained again in the dual concepts of Ciel and Elmiraj, just as Cadillac was digging an even lower finish to capitalize on the Mary-Kay line.
Nine years after Elmiraj, though, Cadillac rallied with the 2022 Celestiq. Benefiting from the relative straightforwardness of a skateboard EV platform, Celestiq skipped the will-they-won’t-they with a production-ready show car. Orders opened quickly, with production planned for 2024 and a ceiling of 500 hand-built examples per year.
So far, Cadillac has maintained its exclusivity by delivering a single unit for 2024. Delays allow for adequate production this year, but static vehicle prints are so far largely limited to pre-production units. Meanwhile, the price has gone up: To reiterate, from a previous estimate of less than a portion of a million Canadian dollars, the 2025 Cadillac Celestiq now costs between $500,000 and $600,000, depending on the price. specs
Cadillac brought us to the vehicle at its “Cadillac House” studio, in the middle of GM’s technical center in Warren, Michigan. Originally designed by then-young architect Eero Saarinen (who later designed JFK Airport’s iconic red-and-white TWA Flight Center) commissioned by legendary GM design leader Harley Earl, the two-level area was renovated for Celestiq’s demonstration and guest specifications. At its entrance, a sculpture by designer Harry Bertoia of Knoll Diamond Chair; Up a quarter flight of stairs, a central vehicle turntable is flanked on one side by a modernly decorated sitting area and, on the other, by a long boardroom table surrounded by Eames executive chairs. A wall of secret agents opens to reveal samples of curtains, wheels, and paint frogs for inspiration.
Farther back, a secondary turntable can showcase a second car — perhaps an example of the old Cadillac model someone mentioned having their first date in. The ‘concierge’ team works around the corner from this. A few sewing machines and sample panels line the walls, bringing the impression of a working studio, even though the serious work is performed elsewhere. A saturated blue ceiling brightens this craftier hands-on space and compliments the Saarinen campus’ vibrant accent features.
The bathrooms in the back are elegantly dark and decorated with violet ambient lighting. These will offer showers for visitors who may have just arrived by plane, with heavy Cadillac-embossed paper towels and plenty of room to cool off. The renovations of the old canteen are a dramatic reconfiguration of the area and its function, but they have made an obvious effort to honor its aesthetic heritage.
If all this sounds like a lot of adjustments before you get in the car, start to understand how it works.
Luxury products can only ever offer so much innate quality, after all; it’s often the mythology around them that must set them apart. Every brand has its own angle: Rolls-Royce leans into the story of the one man who hand-paints its “coach lines”; Hermès pumps the Birkin’s consultative origins; Aston leverages pop-culture espionage associations.
Whereas the lower-end market chases rapidly evolving trends to sustain ongoing volume, conservatism and adherence to mythologized tradition better suits the luxury labels. This leaves the luxury incumbents some room for complacent reliance on established standards like the Phantom or the Birkin; consumers already covet these known quantities, whether or not they fully understand why, so there’s little urgency to radically shift product identities. Top-shelf aspirants, on the other hand, face a tall climb. They must not only develop and deliver a high-end product, but they need to be taken seriously enough to get people in the door — and then follow through with a high-calibre experience to close the deal.
Cadillac once caught the attention of American pop culture icons and newly funded middle managers, and in its heyday, it remained among the logos of the world’s premium customers. Except for the rare special orders discovered today in vegetable competitions, the logo has rarely seriously challenged brands like Bentley or Rolls, nor the once-vibrant bodybuilding scene.
However, this height decreased fifty years ago. Instead of the Cadillac shield as the flagship logo, General Motors’ push for ever-increasing sales in every home forced the logo into the higher-volume mainstream market. A legacy of small-production icons like the original Eldorado and Coupe De Ville gave way to badge-design garbage like the Cimarron paired with the Chevrolet Cavalier, or the XT4 based on the current Chevy Equinox. Instead of postponing the logo downturns and allowing Buick to absorb upper-middle-class spending, control opted for a type of quantitative easing that flooded the market with anonymous crasses, profiting from and temporarily devaluing the value of the Caddy logo in the process. . Training
Today the brand identifies itself (Escalade lines and all) as a ‘Tier 2’ competitor to Volvo and Acura: still above irrelevant ‘Tier 3’ brands like Infiniti, but still beneath the mainstream’s ‘Tier 1’ Lexus and German badges. Rolls, Bentley, and Aston Martin exist beyond this, a ‘Tier 0’, as it were.
With the exception of the Aston Cygnet meme machine, those “Tier 0” brands have not devalued their repute with client devices. Since Rolls-Royce is component of BMW, for example, the group’s strategy supplies for other brands in separate showrooms for this purpose. A Bentley grille still means a minimum expense of a quarter of a million. A Cadillac badge, meanwhile, suggests a discounted $50,000 XT4 on an incentive for Costco members, not picking up a few pairs of Louboutins on the way home.
Reflecting on iconic models like the Sixteen, it’s clear that enthusiasts would love to see Mary Kay luggage ditched in favor of an exciting halo. Achievable or not, the mere lifestyle of attractive cars brings color to the hobby; the more you can be successful in production and be successful, the better. We all hope the Celestiq turns out great, generates showroom interest, and maybe even creates pressure on the incumbents.
At the same time, GM’s institutional history is rich in complacency, marketing disingenuity, and heaps more disappointments. A healthy skepticism is well-warranted.
Asked with an open but suitably critical mind, then: how does a brand that produces cheap subcompact crossovers like the XT4 credibly pitch a half-million-dollar Rolls-Royce rival?
The answer, GM workers say, is a total, conscious “cultural change. “No more accountants hiring visionaries, no more telephone ergonomics, no more reasonable fabrics or production shortcuts, no more empty marketing. “The product will speak for itself,” so to speak.
It’s a great speech, but let’s pay attention.
First in this journey was a broad assessment of the market Cadillac sought to enter. Product Manager Ken Kornas explains the brand sought the perspective of ‘confidants’ who participate in the high-luxury market and consume its experiences and wares. Much like focus groups, these voices helped guide the Celestiq team’s understanding of this clientele’s preferences and expectations before and after delivery, and of abstract dimensions that do or don’t matter to them.
Cadillac then secretly bought several cars from its competitors. More than just a way to source reference vehicles, this gave GM a “secret shopper” view into the brand’s visitor adventure and sales processes, all with the purpose of matching or surpassing this express experience for the visitors.
When comparing the cars themselves, the Cadillac team evaluated competing approaches to individual engineering and areas of user delight, comparing basics like HVAC and seat operation controls. “We know what our competition is doing,” he emphasizes.
“We don’t want to just copy the competitors… We have to be differentiated in order to be relevant, because we learned that these clients…value where you add that. They value difference. They want to show people that they’ve got basically the best of the best, that it’s a reflection of them.”
Even before those mechanics, however, the first critical touchpoint is the upholstery you’re gliding on. GM has made some spending here: While the more sensible mainstream models, like the Escalade, have now ditched all leather features for supposedly “more premium” “vegan” vinyl, Celestiq still has the full-grain cow. What’s more, some of that reverse engineering dragged on until Cadillac tapped into its competitors’ supply chains: In Celestiq’s case, the leather was sourced from one of those high-end vendors that met the team’s quality expectations and personal tastes in treating animals. .
Displayed in the studio, giant samples in colors and textures are hung for customers to hold, feel, and visualize mixed with other paint and curtain samples. Thick and with an ethereal softness between the fingers, it is not the same almost artificial softness of the Rolls-Royce: it is different, pleasant, its own. In addition, leather is applied to almost any unoccupied surface by open-pore joinery or steel molding. It doesn’t look like the same cab equipment as always: even the boot floor dresses the same full-grain leather as the doors and dashboard; Only the airbag cushion on the guide wheel compromises this comprehensive treatment, for the sake of protection compliance.
The production is guided through a “janitor” who works in the Cadillac House studio. These personnel come from backgrounds similar to fashion, interior design, and fabrics, and speak to consumers in a “high-level design language” to elevate the buying procedure above the norm. The same experience as always in the showroom. In addition, the concierge team was asked to answer “yes” whenever possible and go over the main technical points later. When asked for examples, Cadillac representatives referred to a traditional garage cab design requested through a traditional one.
“Everything about this vehicle is not standard, it is not common,” Kornas continues. “It needs to be exclusive to every client we have.”
All in portions, of course: the same popular infotainment center selector module with the same AliExpress-style notches that was lamented at the launch of the Cadillac Lyriq; the same popular seat adjustment panel as the new Vistiq; the same popular and reasonable column bars as a Silverado; the doorbell of the Chevrolet Traverse. There are silver-painted trim here (apparent omissions of “if it looks like metal, it’s metal”), piano black there, a flying girl motif on that Lyriq knob, but Rolls limits the number of BMW components on the exterior. -view maintenance areas, there are still many popular Chevrolet gadgets on the Celestiq. So, no counter, but only until you calculate the price of money to rebuild anything satisfactory that’s already in stock.
Part of this is merely an unfortunate consequence of the project’s past-due limbo: in taking so long to get its halo adjusted properly, the Celestiq seems set to arrive too late to truly offer a halo experience.
Halo projects preview a brand’s next-generation product with the promise of spin-offs (think Lambo Reventón before the Aventador), but if they’re delayed, something Celestiq intended to offer at the start of the Generation and flavor curves are now commonplace. Because it took so long for the Celestiq to come out, parts originally designed to go into the car have already leaked into later designs that have now hit the market. The laser-cut speaker grills were intended to be a $500,000 Celestiq feature that extends to the $70,000 models, however, since the Lyriq arrived in dealerships with them in 2022, they’ll now almost certainly look like the $70,000 endgame. in a $500,000 car. Array The goal of putting together something special was there, but the glory of the new portions has already been achieved.
The next step in terms of retention is styling: the Celestiq’s new face, lighting signatures, and once-eye-catching rear leaves were actually exciting when the design team first wrote them, but once again, they’ve since extended the design language for the most stripped finish models you can buy. with year-end clearance discounts on broker lots. Rather than anticipating what a new generation of such clearly finished “-iq” electrical products would look like, the heists ceded that cutting-edge presence to the Mary Kay segment that he so badly wanted to put behind Array.
Technology-wise, the Celestiq deserves to align with GM’s core portfolio, rather than get ahead of it. Advanced workmanship is available on Silverados, Escalades have smart headlights, and even Buicks are jumping into virtual tool pools larger than 30 inches. With the exception of forced doors (a feature available on the $117,000 Genesis G90), most of the parts on Celestiq’s list are parts we’re already used to. Even that is about to disappear: the new Escalade IQ will have forced doors!
Of course, it should be noted once again that the car shown here is a pre-production unit and no media outlets have driven one yet. Everything may be subject to improvement or change, and obvious defects such as squeaky, squeaky plastics or worn metallic paint around the cupholders will most likely be fixed. However, it’s assuming that more fundamental things that work quite well in conventional cars probably wouldn’t change, and to be fair: the wiper lever is just a wiper lever, not a wiper lever. good?
Of course, unless that’s not the case, of course. Our review of the Aston Martin DB12 Volante, for example, highlights the effect that the considerate execution of a generally mundane component can have. Even the sun visors on this car are superb in terms of materials, ergonomics, and tactile experience. This exercise in luxury (a sunshade, don’t forget) fixes a flaw in a general car that you probably wouldn’t even think to worry about, and it does it so well that you start to feel disappointed when others aren’t up to par. this new standard. Formation
On the contrary, the exterior appearance of the Celestiq corresponds exactly to that of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Aside from the subjective disappointments of this resemblance (“Proof: the Mercedes-Benz S-Class no longer sets the standard”) and my spotting of design parts from Mercedes interior parts supplier Novem, the Celestiq follows the S in that there are also many of the characteristic elements of the brands’ main ranges: more ‘stated’ elements in finishes and in interfaces, more sweeping planes in larger cabin spaces, more differently overlooked or inconsequential factors given express details. Be careful with high brightness CMF and more screens stretched to increasing widths. Rear passengers get a center table and headrest screens that get old quickly, but unlike a Phantom, the rear seats feel like back seats, not head positions.
So, a larger screen, more leather in more places, a familiar if problematic battery platform and the ADAS generation that was noticed and tested with positive effects on the most popular models. At the very least, while Mercedes has struggled to adapt the “texture” of its virtual interfaces to the surrounding materials, Cadillac designs its five virtual user interfaces correctly.
Good efforts at CMF, then, albeit with some initial pre-production disruptions and silver-painted plastic shortcuts that accounting hoped we wouldn’t notice. Even if it were a flawless product, the question remains who it is for and how to get it.
The luxury visitor base is another area, one that GM cannot simply hope to map through engineering or insights provided by consumers.
Unlike the relative impersonality of high-end products that are positioned in the mass market, this haute couture segment is based on more targeted sales to known buyers. At the heart of it all, there’s a push-pull dynamic that’s not exactly what you see even in the context of a premium S-Class. Elite brands know – separately – who their “core buyers” are. In a typical “pull” transaction, those consumers can be counted on to go ahead and place an order for each major new product. However, when contacted in person, brands can also “propose” trailers, custom special offers, or halo projects presented to those few.
These deep relationships (whether in terms of visitor acceptance as true and de facto control by the manufacturer over logo ambassadors) are typically established over years of transactions spanning multiple generations of products. Celestiq, however, is the first attempt by this type of GM and is obviously unlikely to succeed through another. This leaves Cadillac without connections of a caliber comparable to that enjoyed by Bentley and Rolls, and possibly without a long-term path to achieving new relationships born of the specification process.
Either way, this specification procedure has to be a component of Celestiq’s experience and appointments, or not, depending on who you ask. Here the messages are combined: Some representatives emphasize the participation of private enthusiasts and construction appointments in the non-advertising procedure. , while others claim that Celestiq buyers are so elitist that they rely on private buyers or other similar delegates to source and specify their cars.
Among the former, a clientele of passionate creditors will place orders for the thrill of collecting. Industry insiders recommend that Celestiqs will most likely find their way into a few hundred collections of between 30 and a hundred cars, and we can only hope this crowd does. Make the most of Cadillac’s design-trained concierge team to combine some of the Secret Agent Wall’s most recommended options.
The latter simply seems an odd boast — as if to say that ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) clients don’t care enough about their product to participate in the process themselves, that the Celestiq is just a car with a price tag.
Satisfied collectors, it turns out that the clientele leans more towards American athletes than classic aristocrats. The Escalade proved there’s a lot going on here, and the added appeal of such low volume would attract a crowd that craves what no one else has. Finally, there is the national appeal of an all-American election for stuffy British incumbents.
There is also an identified detail of internal baseball in this total analysis. GM had invited Driving and some Canadian media along with a trio of luxury fashion influencers who seemed inspired through the marketing presentation and genuinely confused, even defensively, when some of the questions I asked here were posed to the Cadillac team. Contextualized through Prada and G-Wagens in their Insta feeds, they all seemed capable of marrying Celestiq. “It’s priced so high that it’s going to have to be good,” it seems, and in all honesty, it’s not an unusual prospect: luxury cars are Veblen products.
Is the Celestiq a credible competitor to the $500,000 to $600,000 Phantom? From what has been noticed and felt so far, no. While the barriers are greater than anything noted in Detroit today, it still lacks a lavishness, an air of “awe” beyond the undeniable. track of a long car. There is also a lack of delivered cars.
Does the Celestiq offer “a point of craftsmanship never noticed here in the United States”?Among the wonderful manufacturers, perhaps; Custom-made crafts, no. Singer offers 911s for less money and with a more sumptuous difference in its smaller cabins. The Celestiq is materially plausible as a competitor to the S-Class, only for 4 times the price.
Does its outlandish price matter? Probably not particularly. If the goal is just to sell to a small number of collectors rather than thousands of conventional customers, such a high sticker arguably serves buyers by cementing the exclusivity of their spend. Could there be money in vying for EQS or i7 market share? Scaled to conventional production methods, perhaps — but then, shopping on actual value propositions would put most of those buyers in i7s anyway.
Does any of this matter? No, because Celestiq exists to sell as well as compete with the old brands. No, because GM’s story reflects an indifference to praise. And no, because more souls own a Ferrari F40 than a Celestiq.
Timeliness does matter to an ambitious halo project, though, and GM really needs to get a move on. Failure of such a giant to deliver on time will surely fall short of UHNW buyers’ expectations, and even more damaging is the resultant erosion of core qualities once meant to set the Celestiq apart. That the buck has been kicked so far, that mainstream models were allowed to cash in on special bits’ novelty before a flagship could introduce them as halo parts, that the fulcrum of such new-dawn Cadillac optimism is still so forgettable and invisible to the popular consciousness — it’s a tragically familiar GM tale.
The even greater shame in the Celestiq is that there’s clearly such passion and expertise behind it. Even if some bits now feel familiar, the colour and materials folks have elevated the Celestiq’s available paints, upholsteries, and contrasting finishes above what we’re used to seeing in the rest of the brand’s portfolio. So many teams so clearly did their job as this car was readied so many years ago, but like a freelancer waiting on an editor who forgot to publish their big scoop until the story broke elsewhere, every day’s delay further dilutes appreciation of what should’ve landed as an impressive accomplishment.
It’s great that Warren, despite everything, discovered a place for the long-awaited realization of the dream of the Sixteen. All they have left to do is honor their workers and deliver a few things before the car, and some of its consumers, grow old. .
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Online Editor, Driving. ca
Trained researcher and writer
More than 10 years of experience as a professional photographer.
H.BA, History — Wilfrid Laurier University
Elle Alder earned an Honours BA in History from Wilfrid Laurier University, with focuses on Soviet industrial planning and the modern Middle East. Between coursework, Alder worked as a Research Assistant both for faculty members and under third-party contract.
While a student, Alder also co-founded the International Students Overcoming War Scholarship Fund. Funded through a government student matching levy, this initiative partners with NGOs in conflict regions to offer full scholarships to academics whose studies have been affected by war. ISOW has remained a student-led program for a decade and has continued to grow its staff, budgets and student rosters.
With a background in history, Alder’s resume covers foreign archives research, professional trades, humanitarian organizing, photography and videography, freelance writing, editing and planmaking, and assignment of editorial content.
Having picked up a camera to distract himself from dark subjects at university, Alder’s combination of photography qualifications and writing talent caught the attention of Canadian automotive editors. Starting out with articles about vintage cars in Porsche Provinz and Autostrada magazines, Alder then produced photo galleries for Driving before being hired as editor-in-chief.
As a full-time automotive journalist, Elle Alder’s professional scope has expanded from the romance of vintage cars to the application of functional and fashionable automobiles for the client, as well as presenting cars on camera for the audience of video. Alder also contributes as a videographer for other Driving participants and has sought mentorship to continue developing all those skills.
After hours, Elle Alder drives and maintains a small collection of vintage vehicles, adding a 1983 Porsche 944, a 1997 Lada Niva, a 1983 AMC Eagle pickup truck, a 1959 Citroen ID 19, a 1952 Tucker Sno-Cat and a 1971 Massey-Ferguson Ski Whiz. Others come with upcoming films, fountain pen recovery and typewriters and style railways.
Email: ealder@postmedia. com
LinkedIn: www. linkedin. com/in/ellealder
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