The Cadillac Celestiq Drives Much Better Than It Looks

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During a faux spec session one evening with the Celestiq designers in Beverly Hills, I selected a deep oak green with a leather interior the color of a Hermès saddle and accents done in open-pore rosewood. I was aiming for the feel of the Porsche 928s and Citroen SMs that would have dotted Paris in the late 1970s, since the elongated shape of the Celestiq is somewhat reminiscent of their form. The final result, rendered in digital form, looked superb.

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Customer deliveries of the Celestiq will start by the middle of 2025, a spokesperson says. 

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The Good

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Cadillac’s engineers boldly urged me to take the car up Angles Crest for a few hours on my test drive. Angeles Crest Highway is a world-class driving road and an efficiency nightmare: It’s chock full of curves, with 3,500 feet of elevation gain and lead foot Subaru owners hyped up on gasoline fumes gunning to pass anyone slowing their roll. An early Porsche Taycan I took up there years ago had dropped more than half its battery life after just 26 miles up the hill. 

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But I was pleasantly surprised at how well the Celestiq held its charge, retaining nearly 75% of battery by the time I hit my turnaround after around 30 miles of aggressive driving. I was even happier with how planted it stayed when I whipped past views of Hoyt Mountain and San Gabriel Peak. God bless the folks who perfected the active rear steering and roll control that kept the car nimble, despite its length; electric power steering and newly developed front and rear suspension isolators kept everything feeling calm without resorting to just numbing it all out. I felt connected to the road, with the steering wheel, seatbacks and tires informing me of every driving detail as I climbed higher toward Wrightwood. 

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Zero to 60 mph in the Celestiq is 3.7 seconds—not blinding acceleration, but it was more than enough to satisfy my competitive nature with those Subaru fellas. (Top speed is a disappointing 126 mph. No further comment, your honor.) 

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I found the turning radius to be delightful on the side streets of West Hollywood where I drove for a morning coffee, and under the shady oaks of Pasadena, where I parked on the street for lunch. Even navigating the graffitied halls of the Arts District downtown were easy to work through—including an errant U-turn!—as the afternoon sun dropped low. Bottom line? Experienced from behind the steering wheel, the Celestiq is simultaneously fun and peaceful. I actually preferred driving it myself to riding in the back.   

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The Bad

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The styling here is challenging. It’s not as odd as it looks in photos, but it’s tough to understand because it’s tricky to categorize. Want to call it a hatchback? Go right ahead. Much of my resistance was assuaged when I allowed myself to think of the Celestiq as a station wagon. When framed that way, it dons a certain appeal.

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Still, it’s not for the faint of heart. If you’re considering one of your own, proceed very carefully as you choose your colors: The Agent Orange (my words, not theirs) paint job on the launch vehicle did it no favors as a first impression; that garish hue is more fitting for a Dodge Charger, not something Cadillac is trying to persuade us is an object of art and grace. And black just makes it look like a hearse. 

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Beware significant rear blind spots while driving and the front door that closes automatically—it shuts when you put your right foot on the brake, even if your left foot and the leg attached to it are still outside the car. I learned that from experience. Ouch. 

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The single worst thing about the Celestiq is the one you’ll see and feel the most: the key. Made out of plastic, covered in a thick leather sheath held together by industrial-looking contrast stitching, it was completely out of context compared with the rest of the car. I am dumbfounded that Cadillac would spend years developing a vehicle meant to attract Rolls-Royce owners but spend apparently zero time developing the most important detail: a fob that matches that effort. It’s like putting on couture, jewels, hair and makeup for the Met Gala but then donning a pair of old tennis shoes you found in a cardboard box in the back of your garage.

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If You Remember One Thing

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Keep an open mind: In a decent color, this could be your new favorite station wagon.

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(1) While they were in LA, multiple Cadillac folks told me that the car starts at $360,000, but in writing a spokesperson would confirm only that the car starts in the “mid-$300,000” range, since final pricing is determined by the level of customization required by the purchaser.

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