You can subscribe to books, music, and video online—so why not cars? While that might be hard to imagine, General Motors’ (GM) Cadillac division is doing just that with its BOOK by Cadillac service.
Here’s how it works. For a flat monthly fee of $1,500, BOOK by Cadillac gives users the ability to drive Cadillac vehicles without the commitment of leasing or buying. Using an app on their phones, users can reserve the latest premium trim Cadillac models (Platinum level vehicles including the high-performance V-series) to use for as long as they want.
The vehicles will be delivered to the user’s location and can be exchanged at any time for a different vehicle. In addition, maintenance, insurance, taxes and detailing are included in the monthly flat fee. The service launches on February 1 and will initially only be is only offered in New York City.
Melody Lee, director of brand strategy and planning at Cadillac, says BOOK by Cadillac is filling the void for many would-be car owners.
“There’s a little bit of a white space between traditional [car] ownership—which is leasing, financing, purchasing—and on the other side you have the more efficient, but a little bit less personalized services of car sharing, ride-sharing, and rental,” she notes in the attached video. “We think right in the middle there’s a place for someone who might want to have a car always in his or her possession, a luxury vehicle, with the flexibility of a month-to-month commitment.”
It’s a compelling package for someone who desires access to vehicle at any time plus the flexibility to choose from a variety of cars. But for Cadillac, there are other important reasons to launch the program.
For one, it has been trying to get the younger, affluent consumers that traditionally flock to Audis and BMWs to give Cadillac’s new cars a try. The brand’s new cars—like the ATS sedan—definitely do not drive like the Caddys of old (I should know as my first car was an ‘84 Seville). And the ability to swap out a car for an SUV like an Escalade gives users tremendous options.
Yet, at $1,500 a month the price to entry is steep, especially for New Yorkers who don’t really need cars. Lee says Cadillac is exploring other pricing tiers, but wanted to launch the service in New York City at the higher price point.
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Pras Subramanian is a reporter/producer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @Pras_S