I tried Cadillac's $1,500 per month subscription service for cars to see if it's worth it (GM)

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General Motors is making it clear that it doesn't just want to be known as a car maker. 

During 2016 alone, the auto giant invested in a number of mobility services including a $500 million investment in the ride-hailing service Lyft and launched its own ride-sharing service Maven. 

The company's latest move, though, is one of its most forward-thinking endeavors. 

In January, GM's Cadillac brand announced the beta launch of its new Book service, which is a subscription-based concierge service for all Cadillac cars. Basically, users pay a flat fee and have access to whatever Cadillac car they want, whenever they want. 

Because it's a beta launch, the service is currently only available in the New York City region, but the company has plans to expand to more US cities in the future.  

We recently had the chance to try out Book for a few weeks and quickly embraced the subscription model. However, given it is still a beta version of the service, we did find a few things that could use some slight improvement. 

Here's a breakdown of how Cadillac's premium subscription service works and what it's like to use. 

First things first, Cadillac's Book service is not cheap. It's $1,500 a month plus a one-time initiation fee of $500. The pricey service automatically narrows the pool of who can sign up for the service.

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Members can cancel at any time and they can also reinstate their subscription at any time without paying any fees. 

That being said, the Book service actually comes with quite a bit included so if you have the extra cash, you may be able to justify the cost. Also, there's a chance that the company could revise its pricing structure.

Hollis Johnson

The Book service includes 18 car exchanges within 12 months, unlimited mileage, insurance, and registration costs are included, and you never have to worry about car maintenance.

Cadillac's brand marketing director Melody Lee told Business Insider that they decided on $1,500 because it seemed liked a competitive price when considering all that is included with the service. 

"We looked at a lot of different elements in order to come up with a price point that was both indicative of the premium experience you would get with Book, as well as something that we thought was compelling," Lee said. 

"And when you really look at the $1,500 number and you consider insurance and registration, maintenance, detailing, a lot of things that you traditionally have to worry about separately are all just rolled into this all in one price, I think it becomes a very compelling thing."

However, Lee said that Cadillac could change the pricing structure after the program is out of beta and may even consider a tiered subscription service. 

 

Price aside, the Book experience itself is quite impressive. It's all app-based and incredibly intuitive.

Cadillac

To enroll in the Book service, you must first sign-up online. Once you are accepted into the program, you simply download the app and make an account.

Cadillac developed the app in-house and plans to keep improving the app's user interface via software updates. 

"We are going to continue to make the experience better and better," Lee said. "In the next phase, expect to see even greater improvements for our users. We want to make it even more intuitive and for the UI to be extremely simple and easy to use."

 

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