Cadillac has an army of 900 dealerships at its disposal, and it plans to leverage the network as it expands its Book car-subscription service. Automotive News reported on Sunday that the brand has begun a dealership referral initiative, which rewards dealers for directing customers to Book.
The program began on March 1, and dealers receive a sizable financial reward for placing customers in Book by Cadillac. Melody Lee, global director of Book, did not expand on how large the incentive is, but said it’s only the beginning to involve dealers in the program.
So far, a handful of dealers have already signed on for the program and Cadillac has already received a few dozen referrals.
Cadillac launched Book ahead of rivals to gain an early advantage in the car subscription market. Since then, Volvo and Porsche have introduced the most direct rivals to Book. Cadillac’s program costs $1,800 per month and includes the ability to swap cars 18 times a year, registration, taxes, insurance and maintenance.
The program initially cost $1,500 per month, but the $300 raise came as Cadillac understood customers were willing to pay more. It also gave dealers more distance from leasing and financing cars in the traditional sales model, Lee told AN.
Comments
Its an extremely unique situation…Problem is, beyond wanted to play with Super Cruise and having an Escalade for an occasional weekend trip, won’t the CTS-V get the subscription 99% of the time? And if that’s case, why not just buy or lease (can always purchase a leased vehicle)?
So Book has been in existence for a year, and maybe 6 mos of planning before that..,
And they’re just now (Hi, Melody) figuring out Book needs to win over dealers with a ‘referral initiative’, haven’t figured out who will do the upkeep and maintenance (like, y’know, dealers) – the details, in other words.
Meanwhile, Book has managed to open an outpost in Munich. Yes, the one in Germany.
The story’s on AN if you click through above – just reminded me of how relatively smoothly things have been going since Uwe and Melody departed.
But I read the AN story, and it took me back to the ‘Grand Plans/little follow through’ days of yore.
They had to get too those dealers that were on board, they were some of them that were fighting it whole step of the way. So ya finally are bring it these dealers.
Absolutely – they’re still rasslin’ about the Project Pinnacle details …
but, say, the pilot program for Book in NYC … wonder how dealer(s) and service were handled – sounds like they’re just getting started on the Book deal, if you take a look at that story …
$1800 is too much, $1200 and im on board ALL day long.
No sense of true ownership..
It’s like paying a huge rent bill that goes down the drain.