There’s a moment on the road out on the town, windows up, Phil Collins climbing towards that drum in “In the Air Tonight”, where cadillac optic The press car stops being and becomes a problem. The problem is that I didn’t want to give it back.
We had it for a week. By Sunday night I emailed Cadillac asking for a few more days, which I don’t usually do. Press debts are like footballers’ wives. They come, they go, you don’t learn to connect. I wanted to keep it going, and that’s what I’m always told.
I’ll get the bad news out of the way, because there is some, and pretending otherwise would just make me one of those reviewers who had canapés.
But first, the size. Because size is everything.
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Size is confusing – neither big, nor small
The OPTIQ is Cadillac’s smallest and “cheapest” model, which in American terms means it’s still 4,823 mm long and almost two meters wide. In Australian terms, that makes it about the size of a wagon, and I mean that’s the highest praise I can say for a car.
It’s the footprint everyone says they want and no one actually builds it anymore. Long, low, planted. It sits in a parking spot as if it belongs in that place rather than hovering over the world. Cadillac’s own engineers say this “Baby Caddy,” Which is a bit rich for something this big, but the proportions are perfect in a way that huge three-row stuff never does around here.
The boot expands from 744 liters to 1,603 liters with the seats folded. I tested the same way I test everything, which is to say, I went to surf. A six-foot board slides flat with the rear seats, and the tailgate closes without any interaction. Misha, my Bordoodle, sat in the back seat for the dog to run on the beach and had room to turn around.
Both boxes got ticked before I got it running properly.
This is luxury done right, not fake Chinese luxury
This is where I will upset some people. There are a lot of “luxuries” being sold in this country right now that are luxury in the same way that the servo sandwich is a delicacy.
Some Chinese brands, BYD chief among them, will tell you that their cabins are luxurious. They are not. they are Busy. There’s a difference between a nice place to sit and a showroom that explodes OPTIQ understands this.
The interior gets really tough. We had red paint on the outside, which I came to see, although for the record I had black on black every day of the week and twice on Sunday. The highlight of the cabin is where it gets interesting.
Phantom Blue is an unlikely choice on paper, and it looks fantastic in the metallic, the kind of color you’ll never tick on the configurator and then never stop being glad you did.
It has a 33-inch diagonal display, dual-zone ambient lighting with something as absurd as 126 colors, and material choices that seem handpicked rather than ordered by the kilo. At this price point it feels more expensive than anything else.
The larger 21-inch wheels help. They fill the arches the same way wheels should be filled and do so rarely, wrapped in 275-section rubber. Most cars at this end of the market have a wheel tread that looks as if it has shrunk during a wash.
If you are not choosing black then the black roof options on silver, white and red exterior colors would also be my choice.
Imagination Yours here.
AKG sound system is reason enough to buy it
The 19-speaker AKG studio system, tuned with Dolby Atmos, is extremely exclusive.
AKG is a microphone company. The real one. His gear recorded The Beatles at Shea Stadium and sat in the room for “We Are the World”. So when Cadillac partnered with them, it wasn’t just a badge on the parcel shelf; It was a real music-engineering studio.
OPTIQ chief engineer John Cockburn, the guy who oversaw the whole thing, talks about the cabin like a recording studio rather than a car, and after a weekend, I’m not going to argue with him. This is true.
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The 7.1.4 channel layout means seven speakers near your ears, one for bass, four firing from top to bottom. In this, records of the same format are mixed.
So when that “In the Air Tonight” break finally lands, it lands nearby You. I sat in the car parked in the office car park listening to the 1981 Phil Collins track twice in a row because I couldn’t believe how good it sounded.
this is what you will get OPTIQ included in several shortlists. It came to me almost permanently.
a little bit where i’m honest
Being a weekend car hobbyist I don’t forget how to read a spec sheet.
The OPTIQ runs a 75kWh battery for around 425km WLTP range, which is enough for most of us to actually use the car. The dual-motor setup makes 224kW and 480Nm and gets to 100 in 6.3 seconds, so it’s quick precisely when you want it to be, and never the weak link.
Charging is where OPTIQ plays it stably Instead of attractive. It peaks at 110kW on DC, which is good for a range of around 94km in 10 minutes, which works out on a road trip without breaking any records. The real win is at home, where the 22kW AC rate is truly one of the best in the business. Plug in overnight and you’ll never think about a public charger again.
There’s no head-up display, which some people will miss, but that’s hardly a deal-breaker.
What does over $80,000 really get you on the road?
Let’s talk about numbers, because numbers are at play.
Eighty grand is a real chunk of money before on-road, and it’s also exactly the bracket where buyers stop buying on price and start buying on feel. No one at this end of the market is scraping together their last dollar. They’ve largely decided what they want to spend, and now they’re deciding what they want to spend Happen.
This is the bracket where the OPTIQ becomes a real contender rather than a curiosity.
For your eighties you’re getting a cabin that looks like it costs more, a sound system that has no business being that good, wheels that fill the arches, and a footprint that’s the right size for real Australian life.
You’re getting something that runs through the school pickup line or in the MCC members’ car park and it reads like money well spent, not money saved.
And here’s the part that matters at this price.
A lot of the cars in this bracket look like they were built for a purpose. They hit the number and you can feel where the number went. OPTIQ feels like the opposite. It feels like someone spent a budget on things you touch, hear, and sit with every day, and then trusted you to pay attention to them.
Eighty grand buys a lot of merit. It rarely buys character, and that’s why OPTIQ earns a spot on the list. You’re not striving for it and you’re not compromising with it. For a car at this price, that balance is rarer than it should be.
That’s why I would happily give the money. The only reason I don’t do it is because I pulled the trigger on something just a few weeks ago.
DMARGE’S TWO CENTS ON OPTIQ
OPTIQ does not pursue specific warfare, and does not need to. Charging and range are only OK, but those are the only notes in an otherwise very long list of things this car does right.
This does luxury properly. This is the perfect size. It looks more expensive than its price tag and has an AKG sound system which I’m still wondering about. For many buyers, that will be This is the easiest $80,000 we’ve ever spent.
cadillac optiq specifications
| Imagination | cadillac optic (australia) |
| price | $80,000 before on-road costs |
| Type | Single Sport AWD Grade |
| powertrain | Dual-motor, all-wheel drive |
| Power | 224 kilowatts |
| Torque: | 480Nm |
| 0-100 km/h | 6.3 seconds |
| top speed | 210 km/h |
| Battery | 75kWh Lithium-Ion (NMC) |
| Category | 425 km (WLTP) |
| energy use | 19.9kWh/100km (WLTP) |
| DC charging | Up to 110kW (about 94km in 10 minutes) |
| ac charging | Up to 22.1kW (about 100 km/h) |
| tare weight | 2,379 kg |
| Length | 4,823 mm |
| Width | 1,912mm |
| Height | 1,644 mm |
| boot space | 744L / 1,603L seats folded |
| seats | 5 |
| wheels | 21-inch alloys, 275/40R21 self-sealing tires |
| Display | 33 inch diagonal 9K LED |
| sound system | 19-speaker AKG Studio with Dolby Atmos |
| Guarantee | 5 years/unlimited kms |
| battery warranty | 8 years/160,000 km |
| first delivery | Q3 2026 |
