2015 Cadillac Escalade Road Test

Edmunds.com

2015 Cadillac Escalade Road Test

Edmunds' Road Test of the all-new, full-size 2015 Cadillac Escalade luxury SUV.

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jeffinoh

As well as US carmakers do trucks, this feels like a miss. Its obnoxious enough to sell, but the details are all just a little off. The taillights- yuk! And what's with the back doors??? A window, a fixed vent and a blacked-out pillar all in one small opening? Why didn't they just run the glass of the vent over the pillar, as on the rear quarter? Repeating details enhances consistency. It'll sell, tho, cuz its huge.

kokomojoe

The body style is nice and should be adopted to the truck line.

markinnaples_

Not bad, but why is the rear floor flat only in the upper trim levels (if I read that correctly)? And, you left off the Navigator and the other GM sister models in the competitors section. We have an '08 Navigator and it's certainly the closest to an Escalade aside from the other corporate GM SUVs. Our Navigator is a worthy competitor to the Escalade and I really don't get the derision by Edmunds against them.

patinthecity

@jeffinoh: consistency is for common design to please the masses. I've always noticed that design on higher price tagged anything always had a bit of an eccentric spin on it, not necessarily for outright good looks that would please the masses; more so to

aston_dbs

Ah, the finger print magnet center console is a beaut, isn't it?
A single look at the auto show is enough for me to skip this obsolete and over-rated behemoth...

agentorange

Is there an option for a bigger grille?

desmolicious

So, $85k for a creaky boat that makes you look like an airport limo driver? Sweet!

themandarin

Gigantic truck leaves little hip room for front occupants due to even more outsized center console. They need to bring back the front bench option

throwback

"Full-time all-wheel drive has also been ditched for 2015. Instead, a part-time 4WD system is optional."

This is surprising, and I assume it was done for fuel economy reasons. How many Escalade owners will want a part time, manual 4WD system? These aren't Wrangler owners. Seems like step backwards to me.

legacygt

I checked out this car (along with it's Chevy and GM siblings) at the NY Auto Show and, while I haven't driven any of them, found them to be competent updates in terms of appearance, features and comfort. There is one glaring flaw and it's in the cargo area. GM must have run some focus groups where they learned that people like a flat load floor when the seats are folded. However, they seem to have received this information AFTER the suspension, rear hatch, rear seats and interior floor were designed. The solution was to add a raised shelf on the floor behind the third row of seats. It looks silly to see this seemingly tacked on shelf in such an expensive car. It also raises the load height and decreases the overall usable height of the cargo area. The shelf has storage underneath but it's only a couple of inches deep so you're not talking about particularly useful space. Why does this matter? Well it's a very expensive vehicle (even in Tahoe and Yukon form) and you would like to see better execution of the interior packaging. And these cars are all about the cargo so the cargo area should get as much attention to detail as the rest of the car rather than be treated as an afterthought.

bankerdanny

@markinnaples: I think they left off the Navigator because it's not very good competition. The Escalade has some luxury cred in the US and the Navigator doesn't. The top engine in the new Navigator is the EcoBoost V6, which pales next to the Escalade's LS

kokomojoe

I think the GMC and Chevy versions should be the bases for the new pick up, it is a much nicer body style then they are using for the pick up now.

dfelix70

So, does that grille convert to a cooker during your rounds at the TX BBQ cook-offs?

tourian

@throwback
The AWD system did not have a low range which was deemed a disadvantage. The Escalade has more capability even if it will never be utilized by many of its owners. Which can be said for many Landcruiser/LX owners, QX owners, Range owners, etc e

quadricycle

@tourian: The high floor is almost exclusively so because of that big axle, not what kind of fancy shocks it is running. GM had a choice (with that rear axle option) of having a low floor and a seat that doesn't fold flat like the last generation, or a hi

legacygt

@tourian, clearly trade-offs were made. The problem is that the result thrusts those tradeoffs into plain view and makes the vehicle less useful. Some people actually buy these vehicles to use the vast cargo space they provide. The raised floor in the rea