Let’s be honest, we you think about Cadillac, you think about mid-level luxury. They can be rather luxurious, but they are still GM and just really don’t compete with full-scale luxury brands like BMW, Mercedes, or even Audi. You damn sure wouldn’t cross-shop a Cadillac sedan vs. a Rolls-Royce or Bentley, though, would you? Well, as it turns out, GM and Cadillac think you will, and that’s why they are going to introduce the Cadillac Celestiq, an overly luxurious (or so they say) electric sedan that will sit comfortably in six-figure territory. A Cadillac…. In six-figure territory.

Something Tells Me the Cadillac Celestiq Will Fail….Miserably

Cadillac, for intents and purpsoes, does build decent cars, but I’ve never really agreed with them being a full-on luxury brand. Rarely do I even look at Cadillac as a competitor for other “luxury” brands out there. Sadly, Cadillac is still part of GM and, no matter what the brand does, it’s still plagued by the GM cheapness that puts every GM brand into the victim place. Things could be looking up, I’ll admit that, but I’m still skeptical. I’m even more skeptical now that Cadillac is poised to produce a six-figure, four-seat hatchback that it thinks people will pay more than $200,000 for. Yes; I know $100,000 is considered six figures, but it’s also be said that there won’t be a “1” in the price figure.

So, Cadillac suddenly thinks it jump in the ring with uber-luxurious brands like Rolls-Royce and Bentley by building one hand-built car. I could be very wrong, and maybe the car will be a successful flagship for the brand, but I really don’t see Cadillac going that far upmarket anytime soon.

In an interview with Car and Driver, GM President, Mark Reuss, was asked why Cadillac needs an electric car like this, and his response says it all:

That tells me that Cadillac is just looking to sucker a handful of people into spending a ton of money for a hand-built car. After all, selling 150 six-figure cars can bring in a lot of cheddar. I hate to say it, but Cadillac doesn’t have the kind of clout to pull off something like that. The company is barely getting out of the long-term view of being an “old-people” brand. Now, it suddenly thinks it’s going to start selling cars that could run close to a quarter-million dollars? Selling cars like this might work for a handful of companies, but not a single one of them are mainstream manufacturers like Cadillac.

Remember what happened to Lexus when it tried to do this by stepping into a niche it had no business being in? The LFA was Lexus’ big $350,000 step into supercar territory back in 2010. A total of 500 cars were scheduled to be produced and, 10 years later, there are still a handful that have yet to be sold. I see Cadillac experiencing the same a decade from now. Nevermind the fact that it's going to be electric, something GM has fallen very far behind on lately and has little experience with.

In short, trying to sell an overly expensive car because your company is in bad shape isn’t the solution – it’s the kind of thing that kills brands. Once again GM and one of its companies don’t know what they are doing.