First Drive: 2015 Cadillac Escalade

2015 Cadillac Escalade, centre stack, cabin. Photos by Derek Cutting. Click image to enlarge

Review by Steven Bochenek, photos by Steven Bochenek, Derek Cutting and courtesy of GM Canada

It was telling that GM Canada chose to launch the 2015 Escalade on the cusp of Toronto’s Honda Indy weekend. The Indy is as much about high living as it is speed. Or you could say the Indy’s about luxury and velocity. All these words create a mental segue into the Cadillac brand, especially since the sea change that the ATS wrought two years ago.

Cadillac followed that with the third generation 2014 CTS, which was actually launched (introduced, that is, not hurled by a catapult, as awesome as that would have been!) from the roof of an upscale Toronto hotel last year. Its choice of three massive engines confounded traffic lawmakers, while delighting fans and silencing performance critics. Next, cleverly zigging while many expected Caddie to zag, came the ELR, which demonstrated a leap of faith in just how much of the luxury market wants to be saving world during facials. Turns out, that might have been a bit too much of a leap.

Now there’s this fourth generation Escalade. Say it out loud. The very name suggests an unending upward spiral of comfort, pampering and red-blooded power. (Or, for the fashion bloggers, Ice-Capades.)

Their formula for success is working. In 2013, the Cadillac brand grew a chart-topping 50 percent, stealing 1.5+ points of market share. This past June 2014, marking its 21st straight month of sales growth, it enjoyed a 16 percent spike in sales.

No wonder the media launch began in Toronto’s Yorkville district. This neighbourhood is infamous for its expensive fashion boutiques, bistros and small roads crawling luxury vehicles operated by fragrant men of indeterminate age with unnatural hair — plus the odd flashy hood.

On launch day, pairs were formed from an interesting dichotomy of automotive writers and fashion bloggers (yes, it was easy to determine which was which) and our convoy of land yachts began floating northwards to Lake Simcoe — a little over an hour’s drive in light traffic, which, bizarrely, we mostly had. We also had a gorgeous day. So what’s the Escalade like?

Luxury Outside and Within

Columns and chains of LED head- and taillights brightly announce your entrance and departure. Exiting, the Escalade’s new hands-free power liftgate means never having to risk breaking a nail or mussing a manicure.

Riding in it feels like you’re several storeys high. So access is improved with power retractable assist steps, a hidden running board that slides out with the opening, then disappears with the shutting of doors. Step lightly though. It’s $1,920 extra. There’s also easier mobility to the second and third rows. The heated second row folds easily and the third flattens nicely.

2015 Cadillac Escalade front row & 2015 Cadillac Escalade. Click image to enlarge

Inside you’re well looked after.  The engineers have found ways to trim weight, replacing heavier materials where possible with carbon fibre. Consequently, the 2015 Escalade is fighting fit. Nonetheless, our tester weighs 48 kg more than the 2014 (105 lb). It’s weighed down with bling, and it’s easy to see where, like a successful boxer on his night out on the town.

Cut and sewn surfaces are a delight to the touch. You’re surrounded by different polished woods, leather and carefully placed accents. The seats offer so much comfort, some the paired-off driving teams fought over who gets to ride shotgun.

I’ve never been a big fan of the Cadillac User Experience (CUE — get it?) system but did find it easier to immediately interpret than when I first encountered one.

Besides, most of what a driver needs and wants is at your fingertips on the steering wheel or within inches surrounding the dials. The effect for drivers is somewhere in the range of an executive desk, home entertainment theatre and performance car… in that order. (You want near-to-the-ground feedback and control? Get an ATS or SRX. More on that below.)

2015 Cadillac Escalade cabin & 2015 Cadillac Escalade dashboard. Click image to enlarge

Back to luxuries. Not that you needed it — this vehicle is the size of postal code — but the 2015 Escalade provides increased storage in the console, doors and rear. Our tester, the ESV trim, is over half a metre longer the base model. Those letters could stand for elongated, stretched and vast.

We mentioned that it’s easy to see where they’ve added tantalizing extras. It’s also easy to hear it. Sound insulation is placed in key locations. The doors are triple-sealed. Windows feature acoustic laminate glass. Despite the gorilla beneath the hood, the cabin is as quiet as a monk’s cell — actually, make that a bank vault — until you crank the 16-speaker Bose audio system. Furthermore, with its active noise cancellation, you needn’t crank it all that loud at speed to hear what you like best in a given song.

2015 Cadillac Escalade. Click image to enlarge

The Premium edition comes with a larger-than-before drop-screen of nine inches to sedate passengers in the back with front-loading disc, USB, SD card and RCA jacks. (It’s available with Luxury trim.) So sitting in those heated seats in the second row, they need never be bored — or bothering you.  Everyone else enjoys near boundless connectivity, including support of up to ten Bluetooth devices, five USB ports, five 12-volt power ports and a 110-volt outlet. Use the Escalade as a traveling office during your next bid for mayoralty.

Safety — Protecting Your Investment and Other Loved Ones

Popular with gangstaz, the Escalade has always required advanced antitheft technology but the 2015 variant exceeds for the truly discerning. Assorted sensors detect motion, breaking glass and even imbalance in case miscreants try to steal your wheels and tires, tow it away — or, say, lift it with a crane onto a truck! (Testing fresh-from-factory units, we were discouraged from smashing glass and lifting these SUVs with tow motors.) And — this is so cool — there’s a self-powered horn. Cutting the cable no longer silences the alarm sounding. An anti-theft package even includes door shields that block those slim-jim tools from sliding past the window to the locks.

Remember, too, with this much bling at stake, the safety features are as much about keeping your Escalade out of the repair shop as yourself out of hospital, starting with front and rear park assist. However, for nervous parents, the available Driver Awareness and Driver Assist Packages check all the boxes on your list: a series of alerts, much of whose feedback is delivered by a tickle to your gluteus maximus, includes blind spot, lane change, rear cross traffic and forward collision. It also has automatic collision preparation, safety belt tightening and adaptive cruise control, which can be frustrating if you’d like to move closer to and get the attention of a slowpoke clogging the fast lane, plus automatic front and rear braking. Yes, it’s safe.

2015 Cadillac Escalade. Click image to enlarge

Performance and Power

For the entire hour and a half I drove this truck, it never once, as many driving enthusiasts crave and love to write, felt like an extension of myself. Make no mistake. This is a truck in shearling’s clothing. At heart is a jumbo engine whose quietness attests the GM engineers’ skills: a 6.2L direct-injected V8. For better fuel economy it has variable valve timing and active fuel management, which shuts down half the cylinders if conditions are optimal. Mind, the curb weight for the ESV, which is 518 mm longer than the already long 5,179-mm Escalade, is 2,761 kg. Vernacular would have us say the Escalade ‘weighs a ton’ but it’s actually over two and a half! On the other hand, it’s hearty enough to tow a 3,492-kg trailer.

So, between that active fuel management system and sheer bulk, the acceleration was noticeably less responsive than the true Cadillac cars mentioned earlier. There are plenty of hills leading up to Lake Simcoe and we gunned it, albeit quietly.

Then there’s the costs of fuel: Escalade 4WD 16.2 city / 11.4 highway / 14.0 combined L/100 km; Escalade ESV 4WD 16.8/11.7/14.5. These are the new 2015 ratings, so they should be reasonably accurate for typical usage. Moreover, the big engine prefers to drink single malt (premium gasoline). It will take regular but the manufacturers tested with premium to arrive at those best-case-scenario numbers, and therefore must recommend the top shelf stuff. Either way expect an expensive date.

Still, if you have a lot of passengers who expect pampering or want to tow something in comfort, the Cadillac Escalade is a beefy contender for the gig.

Pricing: 2015 Cadillac Escalade
Trim base price: $93,500
Total options & packages: $1,980
A/C tax: $100
Freight: $1,700
Price as tested: $97,280

Competitors:
Audi Q7
Infiniti QX80
Land Rover Range Rover
Lexus LX 570
Mercedes-Benz GL-Class/G-Class

Crash Test Results:
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)