For luxury-car fans who like to play the field, Cadillac will begin offering a new service in which subscribers can switch among the General Motors luxury brand’s vehicles, which will be delivered and picked up by white-gloved concierges.
Called Book by Cadillac, the subscription program will charge a flat monthly fee of $1500 that covers registration, taxes, insurance, maintenance costs, and unlimited mileage. It launches in New York City next month, and it doesn’t sound like a bad deal.
Cadillac said it plans to roll out the service to other markets but declined to say where or when. Eventually, a subscriber with an Escalade should be able to drive to an airport, drop off the SUV with a white-gloved attendant, then pick up another Escalade at his or her destination. “This will give customers the option of not having their vehicle ownership tied to a geographic location,” said Cadillac spokesman Eneuri Acosta.
Customers will not have to commit to a timeframe for any one vehicle, either. Within the same week, members could take an XT5 into snowy hills to go skiing, and then burn up some back roads in an ATS-V just for the hell of it.
The vehicle swap does not have to be so frequent. Subscribers in places with inclement weather could keep an SUV all winter and then trade it for something else in the summer.
“This isn’t necessarily a solution for urban mobility or a new ride-sharing kind of play,” Acosta said. “We think there’s an interesting white space between traditional ownership models customers have now—leasing, buying, and financing—and your other extreme of the Ubers or Lyfts of the world. We feel this is a nice niche that can live in between those two worlds.”
Plus, it could woo customers into long-term relationships with Cadillac cars and trucks, Acosta noted. He said the available vehicles will include 2017 models at the top Platinum trim level, equipped with OnStar, SiriusXM satellite radio, and a 4G LTE wireless hotspot.
The service goes live on February 1. Potential subscribers can get information at BookbyCadillac.com. Predictably, it’s all controlled by a mobile app, which will be available for download on February 1.
“A lot of the feedback that we’ve gotten on this is, how come something like this doesn’t exist?” Acosta said. “Because it seems pretty obvious, especially with all the new ownership models out there.”
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