We’ve previously shed some light on the competitive disadvantage faced by Cadillac in offering a standard, no extra cost white paint color for both the Cadillac ATS and Cadillac CTS. As a reminder: if one wanted a white Cadillac ATS or CTS, one could only get one by paying roughly an extra $1,000 over the car’s base MSRP by getting the Crystal White Tricoat hue. But that’s all about to change when the 2020 Cadillac CT5 arrives in showrooms this fall.
Our sister site, Cadillac Society, has managed to uncover that the Cadillac CT5 will offer Summit White – a non-metallic white paint color – for no additional charge. Summit White was never offered on the first-gen Cadillac ATS and third-gen CTS, putting them at a competitive disadvantage against rivals from BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Lexus, and Genesis – all of which currently offer a no-cost, non-metallic white color.
2015 Cadillac ATS in Crystal White Tricoat
It may seem like we’re making a big fuss over a single color, but Cadillac’s lack of a non-metallic white on the ATS and CTS irritated many customers who simply wanted a white car, but were forced to pay extra for a metallic hue they didn’t desire. A common practice in the luxury space is to offer two variations of white – a base, non-metallic color offered at no extra cost, as well as a metallic white sold as an optional, extra-cost color. For instance, for its 2019 3 Series G20, BMW offers Alpine White as standard, and Mineral White Metallic as a $1,000 option.
Cadillac CT5 in Summit White undergoing testing in April 2019
The 2020 Cadillac CT5 will be switching to a similar strategy, with the base color being the new non-metallic Summit White. In fact, we already brought you real-world photos of a Cadillac CT5 in Summit White a few months ago. Cadillac Society says that the CT5 will still offer the premium-level Crystal White Tricoat as an extra-cost option.
To that end, Cadillac has yet to share the CT5 color palette, which means that we still don’t yet know whether Summit White will be available on all Cadillac CT5 models, or if it will available only on lower-end trims while being excluded from higher-end models like the new CT5-V. In addition, we don’t yet know how much Crystal White Tricoat will cost, but we’re guessing it’ll remain in the vicinity of $1,000. But by finally offering a standard white paint on its new bread-and-butter sedan, Cadillac has finally removed one of its competitive disadvantages in the segment.
Even better, we have reason to believe that the dual-white color strategy will also carry over to the 2020 Cadillac CT4.
Source: Cadillac Society
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Comments
What? Who complained about a metallic white? I’d rather pay an extra $1000 for a proper, elegant, shade of white then just some bleeh monotoned rental car color. Crystal White Tricoat wasn’t even that special of a color – *THAT* should have been free!
Hell – I’d honestly pay $2500 if they’d bring back White Diamond Tricoat from the beginning of this decade – I miss that color immensely.
That color should be called “National Car Rental White”.
Heck, you can even smell the musky car freshener just looking at it.
More GM greed. Almost all metallic colors are extra cost, when most of the competition offers theirs without extra charge.
Completely false, most of the competition offers theirs WITH extra cost.
I know for a fact Lincoln charge for their metallic black for their vehicles.
Free basic white paint job. All you have to do is pay $30- $60,000 to get it. Thanks for such generosity.
The biggest con-job in the auto industry may just be paying for a color other than flat black or basic white. Come on, really? Charging between $300 and $700 for silver? Blue? Gray? Buick now does this. Volvo does it. In fact, most brands do it now and it’s a total con-job. I give credit to Jeep (and any others like them) who don’t charge extra for nearly all their colors.
Every customer can decide whether he wants the free simple or the expensive metallic white. $ 1000 is a low surcharge for the beautiful metallic color. I would still take the simple white. Otherwise I like dark blue and burgundy very well with Cadillac. Copper, orange, yellow, green like me as expensive special paint good => see BMW Individual / Mercedes Designo. Matt coatings also fit the V-Series Cadillacs. See the new BMW M8.
Better: Cadillac offered many special paints, otherwise make just BMW, Mercedes and Porsche this then …
I leased my ATS with a limited selection off the lot in Crystal White.
Dealers had 50 XT5, 12 Escalades and 2 ATS Sedans.
Crystal white is $1250, but I pay only half of that during the lease.
Crystal White will grow on you and is sharper than plain white and the dull looking White Diamond.
I can see the 3 step colors costing more, but I agree it’s lame to charge for simple metalics, when
it’s already an expensive car.
GM did a nice job with the latest Silverado, offering most of the colors for no extra cost. I’m still not sure why they think people want three shades of gray though. They finally got a good brown color, and a nice blue. Still no green. Still no yellow. Still no orange. Some people want a little color in their life.