Review: The 2015 Cadillac Escalade 4WD Premium – an Apartment on Wheels (Video)
“We designed [the 2015] Escalade with what we call the beauty of contrast,” Eric Clough, director of design, Cadillac Interiors, said in a press release about the fourth-generation model.
The luxury utility is a rolling embodiment of that last word, inside and out – down to its core as a vehicle. However, in my seven days with the upscale General Motors product, I found one of the contrasts it presented had a blemish.
Still Going Strong
There’s no denying the popularity of crossover utility vehicles these days. They offer better views of the road and greater interior storage capabilities than sedans, but provide similar ride characteristics, in addition to sensible fuel economy from their modest power plants.
The Escalade is old school in comparison. It’s a traditional body-on-frame SUV with four-wheel drive and a giant V8 under its hood. Cadillac introduced the model for 1999, back in the heyday of sport utility vehicles.
Fifteen years later, the Escalade is still around, a testament to the enduring appeal of truck-based rigs. The 2015 version has the same 116-inch wheelbase as the 2014, but overall height is down 1.5 inches to 74.4, while width grows by the same difference.
Length has gone up by almost the same amount, to approximately 17 feet. With the power-folding second and third rows stored away, there’s 94.2 cubic-feet of cargo capacity. There was plenty of room in every direction for my 5’10” frame in the front and middle rows, but I found the rear to be a little short on head space. My knees were uncomfortably higher than normal because of the lowness of the bench and the step-up in the floor.
Out back, my review vehicle was capable of towing up to 8,100 pounds. Of course, its 6.2-liter, 420-horsepower, 460-lb-ft. V8 was partly to thank for that strength. It made one hell of a throaty and aggressive roar, too.
Even though I often chased that sound with my right foot, I still exceeded the EPA’s combined mpg rating of 16 by 0.1. The agency gives this Cadillac figures of 14 and 21 for city and highway driving, respectively.
Hard Lines and High Luxury
With the exception of its optional 22-inch Ultra-Bright wheels, my review vehicle was an eye-catching tribute to ruler-only artistry. The designers responsible for this model found a way to remove all the 2014 vehicle’s visual softness and curves, yet they succeeded in making the newest incarnation even more attractive.
From its unusual stacked headlamps flanking its bold grille to its chiseled profile to its dramatic “edge-lit blade” tail lights, the 2015 Escalade was impossible for me to ignore.
The hardness of the exterior lines was matched by the softness of the interior materials. Cadillac made extensive use of cut-and-sewn leather, as seen on high-end furniture. The only surfaces I remember being hard to the touch were supposed to be: the Cadillac User Experience (CUE) touchscreen, the metallic trim and the American Walnut wood veneers.
The Escalade’s cabin was an ambitiously crafted and luxurious place to be. Every time I opened a door, a power running board deployed. The IntelliBeam LED front lights automatically turned the high beams on or off, depending on what was in front of them.
Adaptive Cruise Control kept a certain distance between me and the car in front of me. Sitting in my cooled seat, I was able to listen to the 16-speaker Bose Centerpoint Surround Sound system or put a destination into the (occasionally slow-to-react) navigation system.
The Blemish
For being what I called “an apartment on wheels,” the seven-seater Escalade was amazingly quiet. Cadillac’s combination of “triple-sealed doors and acoustic-laminate glass and Bose® Active Noise Cancelation technology” was to credit for that.
Magnetic Ride Control enabled my media tester to almost imperceptibly soak up rough pavement in Tour mode and take long, sweeping freeway turn-arounds in the Sport setting without causing my knuckles to turn white as I gripped the steering wheel.
If I had one major complaint about the Escalade, it was the same that I had about the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 High Country: the transmission. It wouldn’t allow me to be relaxed and gentle with the throttle in the lower speeds of first gear. It felt as if a giant rubber band was around all 420 horses and the only way to break it and let them into second gear was to be more forceful with the right pedal.
If I wasn’t, power delivery wasn’t as smooth. That unrefined tuning and the annoyance it can cause on a daily basis is out of place in a premium offering with an as-tested price of $86,480. The six-speed automatic also had a tendency to hold gears a little too long, even on flat surfaces.
Using the plus side of the switch on the column shifter was an awkward experience that seemed to have no significant effect on the time it took for the next gear to become engaged.
Looking Ahead
As posh as my media loaner was, it wasn’t the pinnacle of Cadillac finery. According to Car and Driver, the automaker will bring back the Platinum trim line before the end of 2014. I hope it includes the sueded microfiber headliner and pillar covering I enjoyed in the ELR.
There’s even talk of a Vsport variant. An SUV that weighs nearly three tons hotted-up like a sport sedan? Talk about contrast. Given Cadillac’s current iteration of the “Art & Science” design language, I know it will be a beautiful one.
Check out exterior and interior tours of the 2015 Cadillac Escalade in the videos above and picture galleries below. Tell us what you think about the latest Escalade in the forum.>>
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STUDIO
via [Cadillac 1], [2] and [3]; and [Car and Driver]
photos [Cadillac]
