Guess What The Top Bid Was On A Cadillac Celestiq EV That Went For $439,000 When New

Historically, weird things have happened when automakers launch cars that seem entirely out of their wheelhouses. The Toyota Century is Japan’s highly-revered answer to Rolls-Royce, but the Volkswagen Phaeton was a rolling monument to depreciation intended to compete with the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. The ball can break either way, which resulted in one big question when GM pulled the sheet off the Cadillac Celestiq: Was the world ready for a mid-six-figure Cadillac?

A different beast entirely from an Escalade, the Celestiq is an ultra-luxury EV built by hand in extraordinarily low volumes. As Motor1 reported, the marque planned to build just 25 in 2025, far fewer than the annual capacity of 250 cars. As such, second-hand ones don’t come up for sale often, and putting a value on one is difficult. While a couple have been listed at dealerships, the asking price on traditional classified ads isn’t the best way to put a real value on a car like this for one big reason.

Firstly, just because a dealership asks a certain price for a car doesn’t mean they actually get it. It’s fairly common for buyers to seek a lower price than advertised and dealers to have some margin within which a deal can happen. How much do used cars actually sell for? Only the selling dealer and the buyer know. Through a traditional model, the actual transaction price remains opaque.

Although online auctions can be problematic in their own ways, everyone with an internet connection can know the ultimate top bid on a lot. It’s a public data point that can help determine what a car is actually worth rather than just what a seller hopes to get for it. We just saw a Cadillac Celestiq cross the virtual block on Bring A Trailer, and the result was interesting indeed.

How much did the original owner pay for this Celestiq? Well, the window sticker shows a base price of $362,690, including a stiff $5,650 freight charge. However, it would be surprising if any Celestiq left the factory without any options. In the world of cars that cost as much as single-family homes in many cities, buyers layer on the options like they’re fro-yo toppings.

The first buyer of this particular Celestiq ticked the option box for the “Bespoke Interior,” specifying shades of red and black on particular components for a cost of $26,710. From there, the specially patterned seatbacks were another $25,700, matching console inserts were an extra $4,000, carbon fiber tray tables ran an extra $8,400, and carbon fiber-accented wheels were another $4,000. The leather headliner was $3,000, the patterned electrically dimming panoramic roof was $2,000, storage compartments lined in a particular shade of black were $1,000, and special floor mats ran an eye-watering $1,520. The total sticker price? A strong $439,020.

Unsurprisingly, bidding immediately crossed the $100,000 mark, with the first bid landing at $150,000. Four days later, the $200,000 mark was finally breached, and that’s when things really started to heat up. The $250,000 and $300,000 mark came next, and when the auction finally ended, the top bid stood at $381,111. Despite this, the Celestiq didn’t sell. It hadn’t met its reserve.

On one hand, an effective $57,909 difference between sticker price and the high bid after covering just 119 miles is some monumental depreciation. $486.63 per mile, equivalent to crashing a structurally-rotten 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt into the ditch and writing it off every two miles. On the other hand, $57,909 in depreciation isn’t bad compared to a comparable Rolls-Royce Spectre. The last one of those to hit Bring A Trailer in near-new condition failed to meet reserve, falling $70,650 short of its exact sticker price.

I’d call this a rather good result for Cadillac, partly because the marque hasn’t offered anything like the Celestiq in absolute ages. Thirty years ago, Cadillac was a pigeonholed cliche, a brand for mobsters and retirees, one that simply couldn’t hold a candle to Mercedes-Benz or Lexus, let alone Rolls-Royce. This was pre-Escalade, for what it’s worth.

Even five years ago, things weren’t all roses. The XT6 was categorically embarrassing, a cynical attempt at dressing up a Chevrolet Traverse with some entirely unconvincing “stitched” plastic trim and then sending well-spec’d examples out the door for Volvo XC90 money. It rode as if it had blown dampers, the interior had some properly nasty whiffs of cheapness at such a high price point, and I genuinely feel bad for anyone who bought one without driving any of its competitors, or even some loaded retail-brand three-row crossovers like the Kia Telluride SX Prestige and Toyota Highlander Limited. Those people were taken advantage of.

Now though, there are people who want to pay more than $375,000 for a second-hand example of an ultra-luxury Cadillac. That’s an enormous win for the brand, even if it’s early days. While this is currently just one point, don’t be surprised to see more Celestiqs popping up at auction as the years tick by.

Top graphic image: Bring A Trailer