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Cadillac Celestiq Lands On NACTOY ‘Best Of 2025’ List

The Best of 2025 semifinalist winners in the annual North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year (NACTOY) awards has been announced, and the Cadillac Celestiq ultra-luxury sedan made the cut. Semifinalist vehicles will now move on to the second round of judging to determine the three finalist vehicles in each of the three NACTOY categories (cars, trucks, and utility vehicles), while the finalist winners will be announced early next year. In total, ten cars, five trucks, and ten utility vehicles will advance to the next round of judging.

The side view of the Cadillac Celestiq sedan.

In the car category, the Cadillac Celestiq will face off against the BMW 3 Series, BMW M5, Dodge Charger EV, Fiat 500e, Honda Civic Hybrid, Kia K4, Mercedes-AMG E-Class, Porsche Panamera, and Toyota Camry.

“We have a great variety of vehicles on the list, from the sporty to the family sedan,” said NACTOY president and the automotive reporter for WWJ Newsradio 950 Jeff Gilbert. “This list is an example of the great products that the auto industry is producing, from cutting edge electric vehicles to traditional gasoline powered cars and trucks, but also hybrids, which are a growing share of the market.

NACTOY award judges consider a broad variety of criteria in determining winners, including “innovation, design, safety, performance, technology, user experience, driver satisfaction and value.” Judging duties are handled by a jury of 50 veteran automotive journalists from the U.S. and Canada representing a broad variety of publications, including print, web, and broadcast media.

With the semi-finalists now determined, jurors will next meet in October for the annual NACTOY comparison drive to determine the finalists for each vehicle category, with jurors conducting their own individual evaluations prior to casting their vote. Finalists will be announced in Los Angeles on November 21st, while the winners will be announced January 10th at the Detroit Auto Show.

Notably, the GMC Sierra EV was named a semifinalist for the 2025 North American Truck of the Year award, while the Chevy Equinox EV was named a semifinalist for the 2025 North American Utility Vehicle of the Year award.

Jonathan is an automotive journalist based out of Southern California. He loves anything and everything on four wheels.

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Comments

  1. Lee

    …so did the Chrysler PT Cruiser in 2001

    Reply
    1. theflew

      Hopefully it sells PT Cruiser type numbers.

      Reply
      1. Matthew William Berg

        They’re targeting production of hundreds a year. This is a bespoke vehicle, and a lot of the value is in its exclusivity.

        Reply
    2. Bill Howland

      Hahaha Lee !

      Most people who bought one refer to it as the “PT LOSER”, haha.

      These dumb awards remind me of the 160-180 awards FORD universally got for its 3 cylinder 1,000 cc Fiesta Engine – you know, the one that had that double overhead cam timing belt running INSIDE THE ENGINE IN OIL, that would DELAMINATE at a measly 45,000 miles. And you had to catch it before it snapped since all the crap would go into the engine and ruin everything, Of course the pistons would smash into the valves before that so the engine was quickly turned into a big paper weight.

      Of course, changing the timing belt (if you were proactive at say, 40,000 miles) was a big production – namely a $3,000 repair every 40,000 miles, – that is if the rest of the crap (Turbo, etc) kept working….. 3,000 mile oil changes were a necessity no matter what the silly owner’s manual said.

      The fact that literally hundreds of award grantors couldn’t foresee these obvious problems (belts just “LOVE” oil), makes me shudder at the thought of changing the oil out on the 3 cyl 1,200 cc Chevy Trax the first time at 7,500 miles, and the first timing belt change (very similar to the fiesta abortion) at 150,000 miles.

      So now they’ve awarded the Celestiq – a car that I can’t justify the price of if it were half price (i.e. $170,000), let alone what they want for it.

      Jay Leno usually goes GAGA over this kind of thing, but he ended up thinking the $500,000 Rolls Royce Spectre EV was the far better value. Can’t say I disagree….

      Reply
      1. Hank

        …TL;DR

        Reply
  2. Rocket

    If they haven’t built any of these, how can anyone participate in a comparison drive in October, which is weeks away, to judge the Celestiq against the other nominees. Further, shouldn’t all the nominees be actual on-sale products available to consumers. Celestiq may never actually be built and I haven’t heard that the Charger EV is for sale at this time either.

    Reply
    1. Bill

      A few have been built and are on the road as demos.

      Reply
  3. Johnls_39

    So has the Rolls and Bentley made the list in the past also? Don’t think the CELESTIQ will make the cut to the finalist but again, strange things have happened in the auto industry so it would not surprise me one bit if the CELESTIQ win overall.

    Reply
  4. M Smith

    Just an observation: WHY this Cadillac made the list does not appear to be stated. Could it be as mentioned by others, that this model is not available to the public as of 17 September, 2024?

    Reply
  5. Cigna

    The only model ever to be a finalist for an award with sales of zero. I seriously don’t believe this ugly overpriced vehicle will win any awards. Maybe an award for zero sales.

    Reply
  6. JL

    NACTOY = zero credibility and it’s been that way for years.

    Reply

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