The Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing is pretty great, right? In an age where almost every manufacturer seems to be chasing metrics, Cadillac has conjured up a feeling that you can actually enjoy every time you’re behind the wheel. It’s a special car, but what if you want it to be more special? Well, if you aren’t terribly concerned about the bottom line, Cadillac is unleashing a little bit of Celestiq magic so a handful of CT5-V Blackwing buyers can make their extraordinary supersedans a little bit more perfect.
For 2026, the brand is launching something called Curated by Cadillac, which runs along the lines of Mercedes-Benz’s Manufaktur program or Porsche’s Sonderwunsch program. It’s an extensive selection of paints and upholsteries for the sort of person who orders off-menu and steps out in shades of seersucker the rest of us can’t fathom. Right now, it’s only being applied to the CT5-V Blackwing, but that makes sense. After all, a 668-horsepower supercharged V8 sports sedan with a six-speed manual and rear-wheel-drive appeals to a discerning type of individual.
Here’s how it works: If Curated by Cadillac is available and you select the program, you’ll be put in touch with a concierge from corporate, who’ll show you a selection of more than 160 paint colors. You know, roughly 18 times what you get in the standard range. Once you pick a hue that suits your taste, it’s time to choose your upholstery, trim, stitching, everything on the inside of the car. Cadillac claims it offers “millions of different combinations,” so this probably isn’t a process recommended for the terminally indecisive.
Once you’ve settled on your spec, your Curated by Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing gets built by hand at the same Artisan Center where Cadillac makes the Celestiq. Sure, most of the components will be off-the-shelf, but picture the same type of assembly treatment a Bentley Continental GT goes through. If that sounds expensive, that’s because it is.
The CT5-V Blackwing Curated by Cadillac starts at $158,000 including freight, a $56,805 premium over a base Blackwing. That’s Mustang GT money for paint, leather, and trim. Granted, the Curated by Cadillac trim seems to include a bunch of stuff that’s optional on the standard model, but even if you max things out on the standard model’s configurator, you’re still looking at a five-figure premium. For $158,000, you could get a Porsche Panamera, or max out the options sheet on an M5 and have money left over – but I reckon the CT5-V Blackwing will be more memorable than either, especially in a custom spec.
I mean, come on. Where else are you going to get a brand new stick-shift rear-wheel-drive sports sedan, much less one tailored to your liking? There’s only one left in the game, and it’s a good one. European emissions regulations and EV legislation mean we probably won’t see something similar from Germany or Italy anytime soon, Lexus has given no indication of wanting to pair its five-liter V8 with a manual gearbox, and even Cadillac seems to be hurtling toward an electric future. There’s nothing like the CT5-V Blackwing on the horizon, and if you’re the sort to keep a car forever or are especially discerning, why not make it your own?
Top graphic image: Cadillac
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Oooooohhhhh noooooooo more curated, bespoke, handcrafted, micro batch stuff… Because it’s the best, you need the best, you want the best. THE BEST!
All of the wanna be tik tok rap stars in the world are salivating right now….
For that amount of money, can buyers spec the actual Blackwing V8 engine?
158k for a custom Blackwing, this may sound crazy but that’s not crazy.
18 million opportunities to show that money can’t buy good taste. Fun!
If I were to get a custom version of anything, I’d pick a colour you don’t see much on cars… either some shade of yellow, purple or green.
And for the interior? I would not get any material that has the look and feel of the cheap leathers or faux leathers you see everywhere.
I would go for something far more interesting… like velour or a high quality silk mohair… in a colour that is not beige, grey or black… and compliments the exterior colour.
Now having said that, I’m too much of a cheapskate to pay the money needed to get this.
it’s a cadillac, the right answer is to have absolutely everything in burgundy.
“it’s a cadillac, the right answer is to have absolutely everything in
burgundy GREEN.”https://www.classicautomall.com/vehicles/4395/1974-cadillac-coupe-deville
I’m too Autopian to spend that much on a new car, but man that would be tempting otherwise. A custom interior with exactly the colors I want is the kind of thing I’d be able to forget how much it cost because it would make me smile every time I got in it.
I want it to include CT5 V-Blackwing edition Blackwing pencils. Maybe that match your paint finish? Eraser that matches the interior?
pencils previously owned by Jon Voight?
Why would you want that?
Oh yeah, it’s not an 83 Lebaron!
(Seinfeld joke)
Is there really a market for such an expensive caddy? Like with the 200k super duper vette and mustang, I’m just not sure who it is for.
There absolutely a market for it, they sell all the Escalade Vs they build after all
I think hand assembled for the interiors and maybe final assembly of body panels for tighter gap tolerances might be a selling point but I would rather have most of the car assembled in the factory that has built several thousand of them not a totally separate factory which is mostly building some other car.
These are awesome cars and really the last of the line, even in non-bespoke trim levels I would go for this over an M5 or the Panamera, although the M5 Touring would probably win out since I think a wagon is beyond the scope of the Curated by Cadillac customizations.
If you have the means…
I can afford $4K Jaguars and $5K Caddies. My sister otoh just bought a really nice $80K Cadillac Vistiq. I’m thinking her husband needs a bespoke one of these to match – he could get it painted up in purple, the color of his favorite sports team.
My uncle is currently looking to trade his Camaro in on a used CT4 (V-series if possible) after test driving a new one at Sebring this year. It may be anecdotal, but I think it bodes well for GM that none of the people in my family (except myself of course) would have even remotely considered buying a Cadillac 10 or more years ago and now it’s one of the brands at the top of the consideration list for those with the means.
I would definitely do this over ze germans
To get custom paint using BMW’s program, that’s a $5k add.
For Porsche’s custom paint, it is around $11k to $25k.
JUST PAINT.
This Cadillac program lets to do a whole lot more customization than that.
If I won the lotto, this is one of the first things I would buy. Maybe even two of them, one subtle and restrained and classy. One totally bonkers and tacky and awful.
Totally agree. I’ve dreamt that dream too.
Make Torch’s dreams come true: DENIM
I finalized the sale of my house last week and immediately went to the Cadillac configurator. I spec’d my dream CT5 Blackwing, sighed, then did the responsible thing and invested the money. Someday…
Even used the price is still pretty bonkers.
Anyone (read, rich person buying these things) thinking that a European supplier is better than what GM is doing with both the Corvette and the Blackwing are fools.
These two vehicles are peak automobile, IMHO. This option just puts the best icing on the cake possible. Just… wow. I wish.
Yes but it’s important to remember corvettes are for boomers with new balances and camp chairs, and Cadillac is obviously for super old people! American car brands cannot resurrect their images and reputations, but DaimlerChrysler era Mercedes and all the grenade-engine BMWs are fine or something…
I’m in my mid 30s and whenever I mention wanting to buy a Blackwing or C8 amongst friends or family it’s met with “ew why would you do that”, “ok boomer”, etc. across the board. It’s a damn shame because they’re great cars that are being made here but GM just can’t seem to shake its older reputation.
Hell people are similarly perplexed when I try to tell them the 6th gen Camaro is an amazing car. I’ve even heard “you mustn’t know much about cars” as a response to bringing that up a few times. It sucks. There are very few cars like these being made anymore and we’re going to miss them when they’re gone.
You need new friends, lol. Just kidding. To me, this is a solvable problem. Caddy needs to get these in the hands of some cool people, do some good advertising, and just get the word out that the old image of boomers is dying. Shit, Boomers aren’t buying these cars, since they probably realize they are too much car and just buying lower trimmed options.
That said, I bet there is a market for those where this car is too much to upgrade the lower trimmed cars to make them higher trimmed via this. Imagine taking a $60k Caddy and adding this package and making it a $100k car? That would sell to a crowd that would want this.
I’m 47, and I can see a Blackwing being too much car for me in the next 10-15 years. After that, I would get a lower level car for the comfort. I really see these aimed at the 40-60 y/o crowd of upper level execs that realize that comfort is more important than laps times, but still want FAST.
I’m not so sure. You may be right about the corvette angle but I’ve seen a lot of younger people driving fast caddy’s.
This opinion needs to die. The reason it exists is because those are the exact people that can afford this type of car. There is some truth in that the younger crowd will probably go into a European dealership first, and lay down their money there, just because they went there first. I bet if you can get them into a Caddy dealer first, and the salesman was honest and good, they would leave with one of these. Comfort and performance in one vehicle. I can’t begin to explain how nice my CTS is on the highway. I can only imagine what this is like.
“I bet if you can get them into a … dealer … and the salesman was honest and good.”
I take this to be a logical contradiction, and an impossible task.
LOL, yeah, probably right. The people who go into these dealers aren’t going in wondering if they can afford one like a KIA dealership is. They likely KNOW they can. So, at that point, it’s a matter of not being a dick to them, being honest, and selling them on the car and the service.
I’m not a salesman, what do I know. I only know that if I went in and wasn’t “coddled” I’d probably walk out. Being pushy in a Caddy dealership seems like a reallllly bad idea for a salesman.
On the one hand, you’re probably right. If Cadillac doesn’t have friendly dealers, no one will.
On the other hand, no one has historically screwed up GM’s technology innovations more than their dealer network.
It is obnoxious how little respect GM gets in the automotive press. Even this article has a snarky angle to it when it comes to its cost, but Porsche’s custom PAINT is between $11k-25k. JUST the goddamn paint, and this Cadillac program goes so much further than that.
Yeah but it’s also $57K and it sounds like you get paint, seats, and trim. And whatever premium you put on having it “hand built” (someone else can weigh in but I don’t get the appeal— if I was given a choice I think I’d prefer “robot built”). Anyway, you can decide: is it just $1k for paint and $56K for custom interior bits? 20K for paint and 37k for the interior? Wherever you move the slider, it’s hard to make it make sense, although I grant the European prices probably make less sense. That said, this is for people who can and want to spend a premium to get exactly what they want and there’s nothing wrong with that. My only skepticism is on whether this is a “good value” (and again, it doesn’t have to be since that’s not a factor the buyer cares much about).
Well $8000 of it is the upgraded seats that you would pay for either way.
A normal “premium” paint color is another grand or so.
There may be other options that come standard with this package that we aren’t aware of yet.
So $57K is a bit misleading but it is expensive for sure.
Your last sentence says it all. It doesn’t have to be good value. This isn’t a value proposition at all.
People here are comparing the cost compared like its going from LT1 to LT2 interior trim (using Chevy’s usual option nomenclature). When this isn’t really like that at all. This is a bespoke interior that goes well beyond 1 or 2 pre-determined packages and more toward what you see in Bentleys and RRs.
My thoughts exactly. This is a bespoke option that those with the money and knowhow will pay for. IMHO, it is better than what you can get in Europe because there are a billion dealers ready and willing to work on it.
This is a really interesting point: at this price point the buyer still needs to think about running costs, whereas at the high end the mechanics are driving/flying to you. You’re paying for that, but again, you don’t have to care.
I’m shocked they don’t offer this program for the Escalade yet
I would love to see how tasteless those builds get
You may have hit on the reason they don’t. 😉
Real value or not, having a ‘bespoke’ badge on your Escalade would likely be more desirable.
Wait, they don’t?!
You mean to tell me that all of these Escalades driving around with 26″ rental rims and crooked, custom 26′ BALLA LYFE badging on the side was some kind of a DIY effort?
Too high volume. Start slow – first with the Celestiq, now the CT5 and work their way up the product line to the Escalade.
Bespoke is no joke – can add a lot of complexity and a lot of cost to the entire process. I am not surprised by the upcharge at all.
Considering the Escalade is their highest profit margin vehicle, I would have thought it would have happened earlier
You have to work out the process first. Custom is a whole different animal than mass production. Learn to talk before you customize your ‘Stade.
I understand how mass manufacturing works, but thank you for your input
I think they have to strike a balance. Part of what you’re paying for is knowing yours has a special badge or whatever that almost no one else has. Once they start showing up in the Target parking lot, it stops being special.
It’d still be exclusive, I don’t think you’d see very many $200K one off Escalades at Target, but they’d still sell a bunch with crazy high margins, and Range Rover has been doing it for years and could use the Cadillac competition.
I dunno. I don’t live anywhere anyone thinks of as “fancy” but there are still plenty of $80-100K pickups and SUVs at the Target. Obviously this is double the price point, however I think there are still enough people out there that it wouldn’t feel exclusive. Maybe like the CT — it’s not common, but you’ll probably see one today.
So yeah, if you’re paying to have a unique/garish Escalade, I get it. But if you’re buying it just for the special badge and the “exclusivity” that comes with it, meh. No one is going to stop to get a picture of your Escalade with the Galactic Midnight Blue paint job that you can’t get on the “cheap” one.
Oh I would bet good money that the Escalade V is the next to be offered
Get ready for 225k Escalades
As a manufacturing engineer at an automaker – the last thing you want is a hand assembled car.
That was my first thought.
Unless you hire proper toolmakers to re-engineering (with drawings) the vehicle for improved assembly & maintainability.
There was a brief point I remember as a child (mid-late 80s) where things were touting “handmade” and I couldn’t figure out why that was supposed to be a benefit after 150 years of mechanization, assembly lines, robotics, JIT, etc.
I mean, I suppose it would give me Some Feels if I found a few shards of a pint glass under the hood of a Jaguar, but let’s be practical here.
It was more along the lines of taking the time to do things right, versus just slapping things together. it is less of a need these days, but at one time things like piston weight and rod tolerances were enough different that the good engine builder check them and matched them as much as possible. panel fitment and paint finish was also usually better if done by a guy in a booth versus the older dipping processes, these days, it is less beneficial due to automated built in quality in the MFG systems.
I think what they pay for more is the custom features that make them one of one. and since those do not come from some other mfr in a bulk then to get them you have to basically have them made by hand.
Right, I do get the idea — I just thought it was an interesting “gray area” period especially for US manufacturing when we started falling behind.
At the time, it was sort of like an accountant bragging about not using a computer. Cool, but also…can you please use a computer?
Bespoke hand-computed tax return.
I’m a woodworker and have made a few things for around the house. At one point my late wife was looking at something I had made and said “It looks like it could have been made by a machine.”, or something to that effect. I knew she meant it as a compliment (because the joints were tight, etc.), and thanked her, but it sounded strange to hear.
You’re not building these cars for engineers, or else I would own one already.
The people who have the money to buy them aren’t concerned about the difficulties of manufacturing and logistics involved in custom production.
Hand built does not scare them away from buying a Ferrari or Bentley.
I love all the comments in this article acting like you need to be some kind of jet setting billionaire to buy a car like this, rather than just a middle aged guy who earns an ok salary and is careful with money while living in a low cost of living state.
Like me I suppose.
I promise you there isn’t much crossover between Blackwing buyers and Bentley buyers, let alone Ferrari.
This article is peak autopian, the commentators on this site could never comprehend a car like this
For a sense of scale. Financing this car with a $50k down payment (which is more than the average price of a new car) would be about $2400/mo for 5 years.
The median income of a household buying a new car is $115k/y, which is getting close to double the country’s overall median income of $67k. Since the average selling price of a new car is in the high $40k range, which is using the same proportions used earlier, would result in a car payment of about $750/mo
So, a $ 158,000 new car equates to spending 3.2 times as much on a car as people in the top 30% of income earners in the country spend on a car on average. Scaling up the spend to income proportionally would put the household income at about $ 345,000/year, which is in the top 3-4%.
That isn’t the $800k a year for the top 1% but for the vast majority of working people, the difference is immaterial. People who can afford this car are in no way, shape, or form “just a middle-aged guy who earns an ok salary and is careful with money while living in a low-cost-of-living state.” They are, by definition, the wealthy elite.
I own this car (non-bespoke) and fit the description, because it is literally myself. If you consider me, a Midwestern suburban dad with a mortgage and kids in public school, the “wealthy elite”, well I guess my wife will be pleased to know we’ve made it.
Off to shop for Ferraris!
There are plenty of wealthy elite who have kids, mortgages, and live in the Midwest. If you earn $345k a year plus, you are among the wealthy elite. Whether you can admit that to yourself is 100% immaterial.
Also, it should be self-evident that even those in the top 4% might look poor relative to the top .1%. But the reality is, it would take a complete lack of self-awareness for anyone in the top 5% to deny that the term “wealthy elite” applies.
I don’t and am not, and I don’t believe such an income is necessary to afford a car like this, as has been my point all along, tongue in cheek posting aside.
Expenses and disposable “toy funds” don’t scale linearly with income; my wife and I bought our house when we made less than half of what we do now for example.
My numbers are very conservative relative to any sound financial advice. Spending that much on a car with less income than I outlined. Are there a lot of people who don’t make good financial decisions? Absolutely! But there was no reason to assume you had anything other than a reasonable income relative to the price of the car in mind.
A new car “could” be purchased by a household with the country’s median income of $68k a year, but the reality is that $115k a year is the median income of new car buyers.
The same thing is true for the Cadillac and this model. Sure, people with less money are likely to buy some of them. However, across all sales, the buyers are going to trend close to my numbers. Companies selling products with long, expensive development processes only produce products they believe can be supported by a market of people making reasonably rational decisions.
Large variations to that balance tend to be very short-lived.
I dunno. In certain high cost of living areas you probably wouldn’t feel it. Sure you don’t ever have to worry about making rent, but you’re living in a 3-4 bedroom for the same amount of money as could get you the nicest house in Indianapolis.
Also, you’re still much closer to the rest of us than you are to the folks dropping 6 months of your salary for a weekend private jet trip to Europe.
Trying to rationalize how people in the top 5% aren’t “wealthy” or have incomes that are, by definition, elite is a really strange perspective. The fact that you can parse the top 5% into its own sub-sets of castes is immaterial. Keep in mind, we are already only talking about the subset of the population that lives in the U.S., where the median household income already puts it in the top 1-2% globally. There is zero rational way to think of anyone who can afford this Cadillac to be anything other than the “wealthy elite.”
Just think about how this sounds. “People who can afford the most exclusive and expensive, high-performance new Cadillac are not part of the wealthy elite.” There is no possible context where that makes sense.
If it was an even distribution I would agree. However we live in a society where the top .1% (one out of every THOUSAND Americans) owns 22% of all the wealth. Take the top 1% and it’s more than half of all wealth. Is someone in the 95th percentile wealthy? If that’s an important distinction, sure. But we live in a world where the top 1% get more than half of everything. From their perspective, your 95th percenter might as well be a peasant. My point is simply the 95th percentile is likely not living extravagant lives. They just don’t have to worry about foreclosure/eviction or going bankrupt from medical debt. Who knows, maybe that is what counts as opulent or wealthy these days.
The only time the real wealthy elite would drive a Cadillac is if they were trying to blend with the commoners.
The 95th percentile is, by definition, wealthy and elite. The fact that within the top 5% there is another layer of uneven distribution is 100% immaterial. Yes, we live in a world where not worrying about rent/mortgage and being bankrupted by medical debt while driving a top-of-the-line Cadillac (or any $150k car), along with having plenty in retirement, a second home, and paying for their kids’ college without a problem, is what that represents. When that isn’t available to 99%+ of the world’s population, it is by definition extravagant.
But that has always been the case. The amount of wealth controlled by the top .1% might skew your perspective but the ability to afford a $150k car is anything but “common.”
Ok I understand where we disagree. You assume making 345k a year gives you access to things like a 150K caddy and a second home. My point is that, depending on where you live, that sort of lifestyle could still be a pipe dream. I neither live in those sort of places or make that sort of money so it’s a theory. If some brave bay-area dentist wants to weigh in, maybe we can settle this.
Sure, regional differences exist. But this statement…
Is the one that isn’t accurate. Sure, many of those folks might live in expensive places, but the variance isn’t that large.
A $79k income in San Francisco equates to about $55k in Minneapolis, and $48k in Springfield, MO. A $430k income would equate to about $300k in Minneapolis and $264k in Springfield.
Also, salaries tend to adjust for the cost of living in different locations. When I was relocated to LA for a job, it came with a 25% cost-of-living adjustment.
The other thing is that the cost of the car doesn’t change from location to location. So even if you are spending more on rent, the cost of other goods, clothing, cars, computers, etc., is going to be proportionally small relative to a large income.
Fair. I am in part extrapolating from my own experience (on a much different pay scale). I moved from a low cost state to a high cost one a few years ago. Salary went up a bit. But my mortgage doubled for a house half the size. Everything else is more expensive too. So on paper I’m doing better, however in just about every aspect, I am leading a more modest lifestyle than before. A few caveats: I know I’m building more equity which will eventually be useful, but does me nothing now. Also, I realize owning a house of any size is out of reach for a large and growing percent of the country. I don’t think anyone would consider me wealthy, however I see myself as extremely fortunate and blessed. I’ve never had to worry about where I’ll sleep at night (aside from dumb adventures of my own doing) or when my next meal will be. Given we are the wealthiest society in all of human history, it’s outrageous that millions of our citizens are living with those concerns (while others are dropping 50K so they can get their door cards in their preferred shade of brown. No judgement at those folks, just sadness we live in a country where both those things are happening simultaneously).
I moved from a city with an average cost of living to LA a number of years ago, so I understand the pain. The one thing that struck me was that, other than rent, the other costs didn’t go up much or at all.
Amazon doesn’t charge more for products based on where they are going and neither does Cadillac. Even though my rent nearly doubled, it went from $1000mo to $1800/mo (this was 20 years ago) that was covered by the salary increase. Food, clothing, rent, medical, were all the same as they had been. Even car insurance didn’t go up much which suprised me.
Any the equity thing is huge if you buy a home rather than rent. I have quite a few friends who took jobs in expensive cities like LA, SF, and NYC when they were in their twenties and then sold to move back home in their forties. One had purchased a tiny house in LA in 2001 for about $400k and sold it just before Covid for $2m. That allowed them to retire at age 50. So while they were there, they didn’t have quite as much to spend, but it ended up just being an investment instead.
For me, the bottom line is that there is nobody in the top 5% of income earners in this country who isn’t absolutely part of the wealthy elite. The top-of-the-line Cadillac performance sedan is undoubtedly made for a very small slice of the population who are very affluent.
You completely missed my point. A vehicle manufactured on the assembly line with an advanced and highly automated process will be better quality than one assembled in a stall by a technician spinning hand wrenches.
On the line a part is installed by a guy that only does that all day – he knows how to do it. And them the fasteners are tightened with DC tools that cost $$$$ that tighten to a specific torque profile and stop the line if that torque is not achieved.
The difference between “hand assembled” and assembly line assembled is the number of hands that touch the car. One guy that is a jack of all trades master of none or a hundred guys that have limited but very deep knowledge.
The vast majority of our quality issues are when you have technicians doing things by hand.
I don’t know why you think I am disagreeing with you. I get it. A mass produced item will be more consistent in its quality and be considerably lower cost. But you are focusing on the process, but people who spend the money that they do for these type of cars don’t are. They WANT to know an individual made their item. The difference between owning a real painting versus a mass produced print.
Also if done right, you aren’t going to take the same worker-bee that last week was installing bumpers on F150s and now he’s building an entire car with custom parts. That’s not how it works and I don’t think any of the carmakers work that way. GM has been hand-building the engines in their ZL1 for a while now. I know some AMG engines and others are similar. These should be top-level tech doing the work. So you won’t get the precision and repeatability or speed of an automated operation, these guys should have the detail-orientated work ethic to produce a high quality product.
Absolutely people buying a “hand built” car are doing it for the rarity and prestige.
That said a hand built product will have more assembly errors and mistakes even with a quality tech doing the job. Humans make mistakes. That was my point
Humans do make mistakes, but that’s why all these hand built cars probably have many more layers of QC than your typical mass produced item.
A hand made suit is a thing of beauty. It’s imperfections are what draw people with money to them. And let’s be clear, no where did I see that the “regular” CT5 was going away.
The problem with extra QC checks is that they aren’t very effective. On average a 100% inspection will only find 87% of the defects. You can layer check on top of check on top of check and still have errors get through.
A classic example of this is taught in lean manufacturing classes where you have the class do a very simple task like count the number of a particular letter in a paragraph. Super simple – not everyone will get it correct.
I’m not saying Cadillac shouldn’t offer this. If people are willing to pay many thousands more – have at it.
Tell that to the folks who purchase Bentleys and Rolls-Royces.
There was a time when GM and the other big 3 would take cars off the assembly line, pull them apart, repaint and reassemble them by hand – fitting everything nice and proper. No gaps, no rattles, no orange peel, no mechanical faults. Sometimes even in with custom color combos unavailable to the regular public (such as Medium Blue with Red interiors, etc)
Those were the cars that the C Suite Execs and Press got.
Which is why the Big 3 Execs honestly believed they sold the best built cars in the world.
I don’t think they’re buying them because they believe (or care) that hand-built is better. I think they’re buying them because it’s gloriously and intentionally inefficient. Slightly darker possibility: people with that kind of money might take pleasure knowing dozens or hundreds of people spent collective weeks of their lives all to build a toy that you’ll park next to your 4-10 other ones.
This is a GM car. Think 700 hp Cavalier. First one I ordered had primer showing through on the edges of all the panels and panel gaps that would make a Tesla model X owner embarrassed. If this $58k extra guaranteed the car had the paint quality and panel gaps of a $40k Toyota (meaning perfect), I think it would be worth it.
What year was this? Granted I don’t go measuring the panel gaps in my rental cars, but I can’t think of any obvious build issues with any of the GM products I’ve been in. (I can say the same for every brand…I might question the design choices and layout, but it seems like everyone has figured out how to build a car that can car. That’s why we spend so much time talking about panel gaps…there’s just not much else)
2023 CT5-V Blackwing. The way it drove lives up to the hype (it’s like nothing else I’ve experienced – really incredible – I drove the Blackwing to the Porsche dealer to test drive a Cayman GTS, and preferred the BW it to the Cayman GTS – and I am a small-car guy), but the fit and finish of my 35 year old Hondas (not new, but today) is better than a new $100K+ Cadillac. In a $25K Malibu, maybe you wouldn’t mind fisheyes in the paint and primer showing through, and door and dash trim that rattles. In a $100k+ Cadillac you hope they would do better, but they don’t – That, apparently from all my forum reading, is simply how GM builds cars. If those things matter to you, buy a Porsche (and pay the price difference).
Sometimes I think I am too OCD (which I am) but what really amazes me is that the wife’s 4 year old, used $40k MSRP Highlander is flawless with absolutely impeccable paint, build quality and everything Toyota is known for. Toyota builds economy cars to my standards. GM can’t do it in a $100k car.
My Blackwing has much better paint and build quality than my $40K Toyota but it’s possible I just have different luck than you on the respective vehicles.
That makes sense. I’m neither concerned about or looking for orange peel on whatever is parked in the rental lot. But yeah, I would be if I had paid 100K+ and would be disappointed if I found it.
Well when you put it that way, this sounds like an even better deal.
I do not and likely never will have $160,000 to blow on a super sedan, but if I did it would certainly be on one of these and not a 5,000 pound hybridized German tech missile
A 5400lb tech missile, heavier than an F-150 King Ranch. Good lord BMW has lost the plot…
Cool, the ultra wealthy have really been starved for options lately. I’m glad someone is finally thinking about them.
I don’t see this being marketed, much less purchased, by the ultra wealthy. Based on the amount of Escalades I see on the road that start around 90k and can easily go much higher, I see this as well within upper middle class purchasing power
The median household income in the US is around $80,000. This is not even vaguely within upper middle class purchasing power. There’s a (not particularly strong) argument that a base CT4V BW at around $65-70,000 is, but not a $160,000 bespoke CT5 V BW.
I’m certainly not arguing that it’s attainable on median income. Obviously class income levels vary based on different studies and metrics, however, based just on financing one for 72 months with 20% down it’s about a $2200 a month payment. Combine that with the financial advisor rule of “don’t spend more than 10% of monthly take home on a car payment” and I come up with needing to make about 350-400k a year to afford one. Maybe not upper middle class at that point but certainly not what I (or I think most others) would define as “ultra wealthy”.
There’s also other ways I see this as attainable without that level of income. Being fiscally conservative with money and investing over the years, downsizing/cashing out equity in a house towards retirement, etc.
We may have different definitions of ultra wealthy, but in my mind those people are buying RRs, limited edition Porsches, Ferraris, or Lambos not a $160k Cadillac.
You’re 100% right about this.
Someone who chooses cars as their hobby, rather than travel, or shopping, or a boat/RV, or whatever, can easily make this work with a 90th percentile income or so.
They’re probably trading something in, they’re probably feeling flush with stock market and real estate gains the last decade, they’re middle aged and have been saving for a while, and they’re ready to put some money into a nice vehicle that won’t depreciate much.
For some reason once the price of something crosses than 6 figure threshold, a lot of people here mentally move it into a “billionaire/1%er” bucket and give it no further consideration. Never mind that inflation has wreaked havoc on people’s perceptions lately and this is less expensive relatively speaking than an XLR-V was, or about the same as a 1987 Allante (!!!)
This car is expensive for sure, and out of the reach of a median income buyer, but there are literally millions of families in the US that could strike this check or afford this note without undue stress.
there are literally millions of families in the US that could strike this check or afford this note
I think this is a major part that gets lost in these discussions. I don’t think people realize how many households in this country fall into the 2-10mil net worth bucket.
The top decile starts at about a $350,000 annual income:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CXUINCBEFTXLB1511M
There are almost 130 million households in the US. So somewhere around 12-13 million potential buyers of vehicles in this price range.
Wow. I make enough money that I’m embarrassed to tell even my close friends exactly what the biggest number on my W2 is, but I’m not close to $350k.
We live in a phenomenally rich country; our middle class is the envy of aristocracy in most of the world, and our poor people live more richly than royalty of not very long ago.
Sometimes it’s good to remember that perspective.
I’m having trouble imagining someone dropping $57K extra on cosmetic upgrades (fine, better seats too), and then financing it on a 72-month term at God knows what APR. That said, yeah I’m sure that’s what plenty of people are going to do.
I think it’s for upper middle class folks who want to FEEL like they are ultra-wealthy.
Those people lease entry level German luxury cars
It’s a bit different. We’re all aware that these bespoke programs exist where you get to sit down with 50 leather swatches and sip champagne. Just like we know there are ppl who spend $150K to take a private jet to Paris for dinner. No matter how well you’re doing, that’s a fantasy for 99.9% of us. Suddenly with this you get to do that super-special thing you’ve read about and all it costs you is whatever else you could do with $60K (ie: buy an exceptionally capable car, especially if you buy used).
I couldn’t even imagine buying a car of certain price point, unless my income is at least one order of magnitude higher.
Yeah I think it’s for the freshly-retired person who is feeling pretty good about their savings and decides to treat themselves to a once-in-a-lifetime treat. I think most people who could drop this kind of coin any day would rather have something with more (perceived) status.
It’s a GM so it will pass just about everything except for a service bay.
How much is the “Tear down that bitch of a black plastic triangular fake window and put a real window where it ought to be” option?
That’s the first and only thing my eyes go to every time I see one. Looks like it’s straight off a 2008 Chevy Cruze.
That little area bothers me so much it makes my eye twitch. They just absolutely botched it.
Nope. After renovating my bathroom, having fewer choices isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.
“Nice Civic, is that a new color?”
“I hate you so much.”
Really, this thing needs the wagon treatment to honor the previous CTS-V, but this time make it attractive. There are so many great sedans out there right now (arguably because they have to try harder against the crossover surge). But that several extra cubic feet in the back makes sooooo much difference, not just to cargo, but overall visibility, sense of space, and helping rear passengers avoid hitting their heads. Fair tradeoff for 150-200 extra pounds of glass und schteel, IMO.
Everything needs the wagon treatment.
I had the displeasure of being driven to the airport in one of these. The rear headspace is unacceptably compromised.
The rear seats are there for insurance and get it by the spouse reasons. They’re not meant to be used by anyone under age 5 or over age 12.
Demonstrably not true.
My toddler is back there every day, and adults fit ok as long as you aren’t 6’ or so.
To be fair, it’s no worse than all the other cars I had to cross off the list for rear seat reasons (my kids are teens now) — BMW 4-series Gran Coupe, Audi A5 Sportback. The Stinger made the cut, but didn’t meet my wife’s “anti-obnoxiousness” metric 🙂
I stand corrected! My impression was the back seat was practically vestigial.
That might be true of the CT4 (haven’t been in one) but the 5 is a decently midsized car.
I fully agree. But, that is a completely different chassis, and essentially a whole ‘nother car. I wish they did, and I wish I could.
I realize, I know these are similar in size to the original CTS before it grew, and it’s also confusing that they called this these CT5 which still looks exactly like “CTS” even though it’s more like the final ATS in size.
Oh hells yes. The RS6 Avant sells quite well.