The automotive landscape is changing rapidly for the consumer. Now, with ride-hailing and car-sharing services dominating major cities, especially for car-hating hipster millennials, the traditional car buying model is facing a massive change. Which is why many automakers are trying to get out ahead of the curve, with BMW developing its own ride-hailing service, as well as other car companies doing the same. However, Cadillac has come up with a pretty interesting idea for its own service and it could be an interesting idea for BMW as well.
Cadillac has come up with something called “Book by Cadillac”, a service for customers to subscribe to that allows them to drive basically everything in the Cadillac fleet. For $1,500 a month, customers can drive any Cadillac they want for basically any time limit that they want. That monthly fee includes the car, insurance, taxes, maintenance costs and all cars get unlimited mileage for each customer.
There’s no time limit on the duration of having the car, either. So if someone lives in a snowy winter climate, they can drive an Escalade for the entire winter and then switch it out for a CTS-V for the summer. Which sounds like a pretty great deal, to be honest.
“This isn’t necessarily a solution for urban mobility or a new ride-sharing kind of play,”said Cadillac Spokesman Eneuri Acosta. “We think there’s an interesting white space between traditional ownership models customers have now—leasing, buying, and financing—and your other extreme of the Ubers or Lyfts of the world. We feel this is a nice niche that can live in between those two worlds.”
The program starts in New York City next month but Cadillac is planning on rolling it out across the country and even having the program travel. So, let’s say you’re traveling to a different part of the country for either work or vacation, you can have a Cadillac of your choice waiting for you at the airport and drop it back off when your return flight departs, only to have another Caddy waiting when you land back home. “This will give customers the option of not having their vehicle ownership tied to a geographic location,” said Acosta.
Is it possible that BMW could provide a similar service as well? Though, BMW has a much wider product portfolio, so it would probably require a few subscription options. For instance, maybe have a $500 option that allows for only cars like the 2 Series, 3 Series and maybe the X1. There could also be a $1,000 option that could open up the availability of more cars like the 5 Series, X3, X5 and most M cars, like the M2, M3 and M4. But then there could be a more expensive option, like $1,500 or $2,000, that could allow for more expensive cars like the 7 Series and M6.
This could be a very successful idea for Cadillac and could help, with maybe some cheaper options, automakers survive the new push for ride-hailing and car-sharing services. It would allow for customers to have access to any car that they want or need at any time in any location without any of the maintenance or other costs that come with car ownership. But it will also allow for those same customers to have brand-loyalty, which would allow brands to compete with each other in this area. They could also have competitive offers for different monthly packages.
So is this something BMW should pursue as well, along with other automakers?
Source: Road & Track]
