Santa Claus has a separate, white-glove service for his wealthiest clients. Those who can drop six figures on a holiday gift have access to exclusive options the rest of us don’t. For $485,000, they can participate in a treasure hunt in Indonesia via private yacht. For $210,000, they can visit the summer Olympics in Paris and enjoy exclusive access to the house where Team USA athletes stay.
But neither of those is this year’s most exclusive gift. This year, the top of the list is a Cadillac.
“The list” is the Neiman Marcus Fantasy Gifts catalog, an annual curated list of extravagances.
There’s usually a car. Last year, it was a one-of-a-kind Barbie-pink Maserati with a $330,000 asking price. This year’s car carries a sticker nearly three times as large.
For 2023, the most expensive item in the catalog is a “one-of-one Cadillac Carmen Celestiq” priced at $975,000.
About the Celestiq
If you’ve never heard of the Celestiq, you’re not alone. The first Celestiq hasn’t reached a buyer yet.
The car is meant to reintroduce Cadillac as the kind of aspirational ultra-luxury brand it was in the days when Elvis Presley drove a Fleetwood Sixty Special, and the brand called itself “the standard of the world.”
The all-electric ultra-luxury sedan has opulent seating for four and, Cadillac claims, a zero-to-60 time of 3.8 seconds. It’s unapologetically battleship huge, with the kind styling automakers use to get attention. Some will find it beautiful. Some will find its odd, rear-heavy proportions hideous. But everyone will talk about it.
Inside, the Celestiq is even more distinctive. An art-deco-meets-flatscreens design aesthetic makes it simultaneously the 1920s and the 2020s inside. Each occupant gets a climate control system. The sound system has 38 speakers.
But the car’s most unique feature is that each model will be one-of-a-kind.
Rather than using a traditional factory assembly line, Cadillac artisans will hand-build each Celestiq to the owner’s specifications. Buyers can even ask Cadillac to work with bespoke materials. For instance, a Cadillac spokesperson told us that a buyer ordered trim made from the wood in their grandfather’s orchards.
Cadillac lists the base price as “by inquiry only” but has projected $300,000 as a starting point.
You Also Get Dinner
The hand-built nature of the Celestiq makes us question the value of the Neiman Marcus plan. The company’s gift package includes a 2-day trip to watch artisans build the car. But Cadillac is already working so individually with each buyer, we suspect any Celestiq customer could ask for that perk.
You might even get to help. General Motors already offers interested Corvette Z06 buyers the chance to participate in building their car.
Neiman Marcus also promises a visit to the Cadillac House design studio, “a stay at a luxury hotel, and meals at award-winning restaurants.”
But we can’t help but note that, for the same $975,000, you could get a trip to Milan to have award-winning interior designer Nina Magon redesign the interior of one room in your home (one item on the list), take a curtain call with the American Ballet Theatre (another), design your own Baccarat crystal item in Paris (another), and still have enough money left to customize a Celestiq without Neiman Marcus’s help.
