End of year Cadillac bargains deliver affordable luxury

End-of-year deals don’t get much better than this: You can save $12,000 to $15,000—or more—on a new Cadillac. That should get you to Grandma’s house for the holidays in high style.

It's possible to get as much as 20 percent off a new 2014 CTS. This is one of the best Cadillacs we’ve tested in a long time, a car that we found very enjoyable to drive. If you play your cards right when negotiating, you can get a $2,000 cash incentive and a $4,000 dealer “purchase allowance” on a $59,000 car. A purchase allowance is a cash sales incentive that the dealer can pass on to you. If you currently own a GM car (even if it's your trade-in), you can get an additional $4,000 in GM owner loyalty cash. Bump that up to $5,500 if you’re leasing from GM. Even if you’re leasing a non-GM car, you can get $1,000 lessee “conquest cash.”

That adds up to between $6,000 (or about 10 percent) and $11,500 off the car. And there’s still room for you to negotiate an even lower price. We’ve seen offers for as much as $15,000 off a CTS.

The CTS has average reliability in our Annual Auto Survey and is a Consumer Reports Recommended model.

For more Cadillac pricing and to check the latest deals on all makes and models, visit our car model pages.

Savings are similar on most other Cadillac sedans. Even the large XTS sedan, the choice for limo fleets in many cities, has smaller discounts worth as much as 24 percent of its sticker price. Unfortunately it has well-below-average reliability in our Reliability survey.

Perhaps the granddaddy of Cadillac deals is on the plug-in hybrid ELR coupe, which has a $15,000 dealer cash incentive, plus the owner loyalty, lease, and conquest cash. That could amount to more than $17,000 off of the inflated $75,000 sticker. But that's not all. On top of that, you get a $7,500 tax rebate for buying an ELR, because it runs mainly on electricity. Suddenly, your $75,000 car could be a $50,000 car. Consumer Reports hasn’t tested the ELR.

But you likely have to act quickly. Most of these incentives aren't available on 2015 models, and dealer inventories of 2014 models may be running low. You may have to shop around to find one.

So if you’re looking for a luxury-car bargain this holiday season, it could pay to swing by your Cadillac dealer before the end of the year. The biggest downside may be living with the brand’s aggravating CUE touchscreen for the next several years.

– Eric Evarts