The Cadillac Celestiq certainly has its fans, but one point of contention has been its rear design. Some aren’t fond of the unique shape of the rear end, which is a cross between fastback and hatchback, with a set of tail lights (the running lights) mixed in for good measure. Internet commenters have been particularly brutal in their criticism of this part of the Celestiq, calling it “truly ugly”, “a fail”, and “far too busy.” Some have even gone so far as to call the ultra-luxury sedan “rear-endable.”
Cadillac Sollei concept
Cadillac Celestiq
Enter the Cadillac Sollei, a concept car unveiled by Cadillac this past July. The Cadillac Celestiq serves as the foundation for the Sollei, but with a few significant differences. For example, the Sollei is a convertible instead of a sedan, and features two doors instead of four. But one distinction that particularly stands out is the rear end.
Compared to the Celestiq, the rear of the Cadillac Sollei sports a sleeker, rounder shape along with taillights that seem to be more purposefully integrated into the design. The reason for shaping the rear end of the Sollei this way is at least partly functional, as it accommodates the convertible top of the car. However, it also seems to resolve several of the complaints about the rear design of the Celestiq.
This prompted us to wonder, “What would the Cadillac Celestiq look like with the rear end of the Sollei Concept?” To answer this question, we rendered a Cadillac Celestiq with the rear end design of the Cadillac Sollei Concept. We think the rear end design in the rendering flows seamlessly with the rest of the Celestiq’s design motif, tying together the entire look of the electric ultra-luxury sedan much better than the production version.
Will Cadillac one day incorporate the rear design of the Sollei concept into that of the Celestiq? The luxury marque hasn’t announced any plans to do so as of the time of this writing. Still, it’s interesting to imagine the possibilities.
Comments
The light bar as an automotive design element is close to jumping the shark. I prefer the celestiq standing out rather than conforming to not so timeless design trends.
No, what horrible about the Celestiq is that God-awful hatchback design.
Good Lord, kill that with fire!!
the rear of thus car must be instead a coupé, a sedan one
I think it looks better, but I don’t think there is anything anyone can do that would make it look good!!!
I am very certain a Celestiq is the only car that looks better after a rear end collision than it does leaving the showroom. I have no idea how they will get anyone to pay $300k for even one of them.
I have to agree here…there is no need to have a lowly “Hatchback” design on such an expensive luxury car and although the changes shown to the car using the convertibles rear end design (which is a beautiful design looking much better as a two door instead of a four door) is a vast improvement, Cadillac isn’t going to change a damn thing, trust me once someone whose in control and allowed that “Butt-Ugly” overweight, over priced, under powered, all EV (yech!) monster to actually make it to the market place, nothing in heaven and earth is going to change it! Cadillac will go ahead with it’s plans, produce another failure with very few sold while the road test editors probably will be touting this Caddy as “mediocre at best” and not up to the quality and performance levels of vehicles costing the same, only then will GM allow Cadillac to do some minor alterations to this behemouth but by then, it’ll be too late as with other past Cadillac products that have failed. I’m sure you can all think of a few like them Cimmaron, or the pathetic Diesel, or the goofy V8-6-4 engine, or the over priced Alante, or the dismal XLR or…well, you get the idea, right? It’ll be another GM /Cadillac failure for the books!
And…that’s too bad, because while you can give Caddy a “thumbs up for trying”, you have to give them a “thumbs down” for the end result product. Seriously Cadillac, if you really wanted a successful product, in my humble opinion, at least for gosh sakes bring out this vehicle in Hybrid guise, do not make it a full on all electric vehicle and PLEASE drop that MSRP, no one in their right frame of mind is going to pay that kind of cash for a Cadillac, the all EV market place is pretty much saturated with every kind of variance of EV already, so there is no need to add another one that’ll probably be the laughing stock of the automotive industry in it’s current shown guise. There might be a market for the convertible if you make it a hybrid design (the latest rage ) able to run on electricity and petrol and keep the price well under $200,000 and even at that price you will sadly be limiting the amount of sales which will limit your profit considerably. You can think about doing this all EV luxury sedan barge but…don’t do it! Okay, ‘Nuff said. Good Luck Cadillac, you’re going to need it!
TL;DR
I get it the Lyric design works on the CUV, but it looks odd and squatty on an expensive luxury sedan. The Sollei rear end looks better on the Celestiq, it has more to do with the rear quarter. It blends better when it’s entirely body colored. Less obtrusive and busy. It’s got the Aztec problem, how do these concepts make it to production???
They must have hired the kids of the designers of the AMC HORNET, or its derivative ‘chopped up’ Gremlin.
Anyone remember the Gas Station Attendant who said of the GREMLIN, “Who stole the back of your car, Toots?”
This is what the Celestiq looks like to me – very unimaginative.
I think it’s still tacky looking. Honestly, it would take a lot more than some minor styling tweeks to fix what’s wrong about it.
I think it is interesting that Cadillac was saying production is underway and that the planned 400 units per year are sold out for two years. John Roth said production started in January but he later retracted those words. GM also brought the automotive media to Cadillac House at Vanderbilt a few months ago to see the production process and publish photos yet nothing apparently was actually being built. Now they say the first units will be 2025 models to be delivered later this year.
I have to wonder if they truly have all those orders (what ever happened to the claimed 90,000 reservations for the Hummer EV?) and if maybe the reason production is being pushed back is because they don’t. Has anyone seen any of the braggadocious nouveau riche saying anything about their Celestiq being on order? Seems like there might be at least a few of those 800 folks posting things on social media about customizing their cars or visiting Warren to make their selections. Seems like GMA would be reporting on that too if it was out there.
Finally saw one up close and personal last Friday. It’s even uglier in real life. The load floor under the hatchback is very high limiting cargo capacity. Tires are too big. Huge on the outside but did not appear generously spaced for the 4 passengers inside. A $350k+ Aztek.
After they sell a few to rap stars and NBA player, then what?
Mark Reuss was the chief engineer for the Aztek. That says a lot.
2002tii,
How did you see one? GM is now saying production did not start in January as previously stated. Are you in Michigan; was it a prototype or a GM show car?
I found it interesting that when the car was first shown to the press at a future product preview and they could comment on it but not photograph it, no one from the media knew what to make of it. There were no glowing articles about it or really much mention of it at all. I never understood that as all recent Cadillac proposals had been stunning but then GM released photos and it all made sense.
It was a red prototype driven by a GM Engineer parked at BWW in Flint, MI.
Yea, you can see them running around Milford all the time too…for obvious reasons.
I love the Celestiq from the front to the back edge of the rear doors. Then it just looks terrible to me. On the other hand, the Sollei looks amazing from any angle!
I think the Celestiq was purposely made to look controversial for a reason. Kind of the same reason Tesla made the, ah, butt ugly Cyber truck. They garner attention.
So my opinion would be to take the Celestiq and give it a proper back end, kind of like the rendering they did with the Sollei hard-top coupe.
Designers, being artists at heart, absolutely yearn to design statement vehicles. They really couldn’t care less if they sell because there’s no consequences for them directly. It’s all about the attention.
It’s up to smart, market connected senior management to review and bring the reality factor into play. As we’ve seen time-and-again, gm senior management has a spotty record in that regard.
JL,
While I agree with this that designers want to do something artful and statement-making, I thought it was interesting that Wayne Kady said simply his job was to design cars the public wanted to buy so as to make money for General Motors. He said this in one of the interviews Adam Wadecki did with him about his work as Cadillac lead designer in the 70s/80s. The interviews are online and each one focuses on a specific car like the ‘71 Eldorado or ‘80 Seville. I was surprised by how humble and genuine he is and I wonder what he’d have to say about Celestiq.
Rocket,
Thank you for your informative reply.
I’m not surprised by your comments about designers from that era. GM was a leader because of guys like them. While that was a bit before my time at GM, I was still fortunate enough to work with some legendary GM designers on a few of my vehicle programs. These guys were legendary because they had an excellent balance (or “sense”) of design push vs marketably that resulted in products that people loved and hence sold well. It was a genuine pleasure to work with them.
I re-read my post above and I made the mistake of implying that all designers want to make a statement product whether it’s successful or not. That’s not true of course. Still, a dog gets let out of the box sometimes and it makes you wonder….
Does it look better? Yes.
Does it look good? Absolutely not.
Get rid of Celestiq and replace with Sollei.