Phil Royle – Aug. 14, 2026
Today’s Cadillac wants to play in the ultra-luxury sandbox, as it showcased with its bonkers-expensive Celestiq. That was one car, but the company’s latest attempt might be the clearest example yet of the brand grasping for a status that is simply out of its reach.
The new “Curated by Cadillac” service is aimed at buyers who want something more personal than a standard Cadillac, with the treatment most recently being offered for the Escalade IQ. The bespoke customization package costs $54,995 on top of the vehicle’s MSRP, tax, title, license, and dealer fees. A base Escalade IQ rings up at $127,405 and an IQL begins at $130,405, with options easily upping that ante to $170,000. Once you add $55,000 on top and check enough boxes, the price of the electric SUV could quickly rush north of $200,000, perhaps skirting $250,000 by the time you’re out the door.
That raises a pretty simple question: Is Cadillac a quarter million dollar luxury car brand, or are Caddy’s dreams of champaign and caviar simply unobtainable.
There’s nothing unusual about automakers offering increasingly elaborate personalization programs. At the very top of the market, customization is part of the product. Buyers at Rolls-Royce or Bentley aren't just purchasing transportation, they're buying exclusivity, craftsmanship, and the opportunity to have something that feels uniquely theirs.
Cadillac clearly wants some of that business.
The company has already positioned the $400,000 Celestiq as a vehicle to compete in the exclusivity space, and Curated by Cadillac appears to push the Escalade IQ into similar territory. The problem isn't necessarily the $55,000 price tag that unlocks the more than 160 exterior colors and 44 interior colors people can customize the vehicle with via concierge support. If Cadillac can find customers willing to pay it, then there's nothing inherently wrong with charging a boatload for personalization. The question is whether customers will see the Cadillac badge as carrying the same weight as the badges attached to the world's most exclusive cars.
That's where the idea starts to fall apart.
Cadillac has a long history as an American luxury brand and icon, but that doesn't automatically translate into modern ultra-luxury credibility. Today, Cadillac feels more like a premium brand with some genuinely impressive performance products than a direct competitor to Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Ferrari, or Lamborghini, now that all those brands are in the SUV game.
The V-Series cars, meanwhile, make a lot of sense for Cadillac. They have performance you can measure, a clear enthusiast following, and an identity that feels authentic. You can look at a Cadillac V and objectively measure most of what you're paying for.
The same isn't true of a $55,000 customization package.
There's no stopwatch that proves the value of bespoke paint, creamy leather, or exotic trim. There's no horsepower figure or lap time that justifies the price. You're paying for exclusivity, and exclusivity only works if people believe the thing they're buying is genuinely worth an outlay of cash. And a lot of cash, at that.
All of this is particularly important when Cadillac also sells vehicles that are comparatively attainable. A buyer spending $200,000+ on an Escalade IQ with the Curated by Cadillac service may reasonably wonder whether they want to be driving a brand that can also be purchased by someone spending a fraction of that amount. Think of it: a Lyriq’s base price is a rounding error away from the Curated by Cadillac fee.
Maybe Cadillac doesn't need thousands of buyers for “Curated by Cadillac.” Perhaps the entire point is to create a halo around the brand and demonstrate that Cadillac can build something extraordinarily expensive. If so, that's fine. Cadillac can have its $200,000+ Escalade IQ.
Still, it’s hard to believe that there's going to be a line at Cadillac’s concierge counter.
At this point, the biggest challenge for Cadillac isn't building an ultra-luxury vehicle, it's convincing people that the Cadillac badge belongs in that super exclusive world, and that might be something a swatch folder and concierge can't fix.
(Image courtesy Cadillac)
