Test drive Cadillac Escalade 2000 - 2006 SUV

King of the Road

Cadillac Escalade. The first SUV in the gamut of the luxury department General Motors Corp. For 96 years. Outwardly - except for the coat of arms of Cadillac - does not differ from Chevrolet Tahoe or GMC Yukon. The basic configuration costs $ 46.525 in the USA. Why so much - for a truck?
 
In order to objectively relate to Cadillac Escalade, one must take into account the circumstances in which this machine was born. More recently, the leaders of General Motors Corp. It was confident that they would never produce an SUV, even a luxury, the Cadillac branch - it is indecent.
 
There was no question about the competition with imported Lexus LX470, Mercedes ML or Range Rover - this is another category, including price. The main competitor was Ford with its Expedition model. General Motors strategists considered that the Yukon Denali, a refined version of the Chevrolet Tahoe/GMC Yukon, will be able to compete with the Expections in the luxury -in -road class.
 
Probably, at that moment they were right. But soon Lincoln Navigator appeared, which began to grab almost faster than they had time to bake. In addition, on each car Ford Motor Co. I earned thousands of about fifteen. And very quickly, the General Motors leaders have never turned into why not ...
 
The fact that the main culprit of the creation of Cadillac Escalade was Lincoln Navigator involuntarily forces to compare the cars among themselves - although in this case we will only talk about Escalade. (Lincoln Navigator test was published in the E11 Motor, 1997 - Ed.) This car is an excellent example of how some automakers react to the requirements of the public: more SUVs, and right now ....
 
The corporation emphasizes that Escalade was created in a record short time - in 10 months. How did you manage? Even the most nimble world manufacturers take at least two years to develop a new machine. The answer is simple: Escalade is not a new car! This is all the same Yukon Denali, which was supposed to produce the GMC branch, and now releases Cadillac. And if you wash off the paint, the same cargo platform will be found on which full -size Tahoe, Yukon and Suburban are built ...
 
At the first glance at Escalade, for some reason I remembered the old song by Roger Miller King of the Road - the car looks so confident. From the poor relatives of the Chevrolet and GMC departments, it has lower lining of the body sidewalls, chrome wheeled wheels, a radiator lining with a coat of arms and Cadillac inscriptions on the sides - the largest that you have met. But the car is rather big ...
 
To get to the driver's place, you will have to take a long step - up and sideways. Sitting, you pay attention to the leather-wooded steering wheel A la Jaguar, polished wooden inserts on the dashboard and the central console. Seats are magnificent, soft, like home chairs. Perhaps excessively soft, for my taste.
 
The leather upholstery of the seats in Escalade is probably the cool of what I have seen. This is perforated skin, as on the seats Seville Touring Sedan. She not only breathes, but also publishes a wonderful aroma. However, almost any new car smells good.
 
Categorically did not like the adjustments of the seat. It is regulated properly, but the appropriate controls are located on the outer sidewall of the pillow almost near the floor, and with a closed door it is very difficult to reach them. The button to turn on the heating of the seat can be found only if you open the door and look down, but it is easy to hurt in search of other adjustments. By the way, heating works only with a fastened seat belt.
 
The front panel almost completely migrated from its predecessors. It’s easy to reach all pens and buttons, everything is clear and functional.
 
The review from the driver’s place is excellent, forward and on the sides - due to high landing, back - thanks to large side mirrors.
 
The rear seats are decorated no less than the front ones, but their pillows are short, and it is not easy to get back - the doors in the lower part are narrow. External seats (those located closer to the doors) have electric heating - the middle passenger will warm the neighbors. There are head restraints, individual lighting, and ventilation control panels. Only now the rear side glasses are lowered only by a third. Why?
 
In general, the design of the salon and the quality of the materials used are quite consistent with the cost of the car, especially the leather of the seats and the mohair upholstery of the ceiling. And Escalade is equipped in full - no options are proposed, everything is included in the standard equipment (though you can choose the color of the body). But there are disadvantages. The plastic ceiling console got from Tahoe/Yukon looks strange on the luxury machine, and they didn’t get into color. The buttons of the electric windows do not have an automatic mode - to close the glass, the button has to be kept pressed. The navigation system ONSTAR and two CD players (single and store) were installed, and the air conditioner - the most common, with manual control. Saved? Or did you do it very quickly?
 
The luggage compartment Escalade has a very impressive volume - almost the same as that of Navigator, and much larger than the Range Rover or Mercedes ML430 (strictly speaking, comparing the volumes of trunk Escalade and Navigator is not entirely correct, the latter has three rows of 7 people, the latter, And Escalade - two for five).
 
If you fold the rear seats, the plywood sheet of 1220x2440 mm (4x8 feet) will almost fit into the flat sheet - only a few centimeters will stick out above the rearboard. It is in board that the rear door of the car consists of two halves on horizontal loops, the lower metal leaning down, like the side of the truck, the upper glass rises up. The height of the cargo compartment is almost a meter. There is also a shortage here. In order to fold the rear seats, the headrests must be removed from them, and they are so large that they almost rest against the ceiling.
 
The engine is quite old -fashioned - 5.7 L Lower Vortes V8, which is difficult to blame for economicality (with a tank of 113 liters, a real margin at one gas station is about 500 km). For that kind of money, the Northstar V8 could put it. But - they were in a hurry ... However, while gasoline prices remain at the current level, this engine will come off, its 225 hp. And he provides 447 Nm. Up to 60 miles/h (96 km/h) Escalade accelerates in 10.5 seconds. - For the truck, it is quite decent, although some do it faster. By the way, in California, gasoline has already begun to rise in price ...
 
On a flat road, Escalade is perfect, especially in a straight line. The car is like a fame - no creaks or knocks. The motor works quietly, the sound insulation of the cabin is excellent, but at high speed, the noise of the windshield cut by windshield and side mirrors of air flow is well heard (the aerodynamic resistance of the machine is as much as 0.45).
 
The chassis of Escalade is completely borrowed from the previous generation of General Motors pickups: the supporting frame, the front suspension is independent, the rear is an uncertain bridge on the springs. For Escalade, the suspension was significantly softened, and with uniform motion on a good coating in a long -standing machine, it is no less comfortable than in the Cadillac passenger.
 
Problems begin when even asphalt ends. There is a reckoning for luxury - on smooth irregularities, the car sways greatly, and on the comb, the rear wheels now and then lose the clutch, returning to the road with loud slaps. Truck, after all.
 
An attempt to adapt the archaic structure to the requirements of the luxury class due to simple softening of the suspension failed. In my opinion, with softening, the springs/springs are weak, or the shock absorbers are not suitable. This is especially manifested with sharp restructures. And the large weight of the car has nothing to do with it. The same Navigator copes with the change of stripes quite decently. Escalade, however, behaves like a huge bale of a wet pacley, responding to the rotation of the steering wheel with a strong side roll turning into swinging. And quickly the car does not want to return to its strip at all. And this is not a rearrangement, or a moose test, at the training ground, but a regular maneuver that has to be done almost every day, going around obstacles.
 
At high speed, the behavior of the car in the bend simply scares. The problem is aggravated by both a 213-mm road clearance and a completely cotton steering with an exorbitant power amplifier. The choice of rubber is not too successful - Firestone Firehawk LS tires behave well on dry hard coating, but on wet asphalt and especially on the ground they willingly lose their clutch.
 
Braking - without much comments, although the amplifier is excessively powerful, and the pedal is not observed. The braking distance is 52 m at a speed of 60 miles/h (96 km/h) and 67 m at a speed of 70 miles/h (112 km/h) - approximately like Navigator. The rear disc brakes Escalade would not hurt ...
 
The four -speed Autotrac automatic transmission has four modes, which are turned on the buttons to the right of the steering column. Depending on which one is pressed, the drive can be rear, constant (with normal or lowered nearby) or automatic full - with the supply of traction to the front wheels when the adhesion of the rear decreases. Everything is like a real SUV.
 
It is difficult to imagine that the owner of Escalade will someday bring him to the real off-road, so that the decent capabilities of the chassis and transmission will remain unused. Yes, and the creators of the car did not count on this, otherwise they would not have done the front and rear overhang so long that you could not overcome the ordinary ditch without crippling the bumers.
 
Why and who needs Escalade - essentially an archaic GMC truck with a Cadillac salon? Riding it around the city? So it has a diameter of a turn 12.4 m, the weight is almost three tons and fuel consumption - oh -e -e -e -e -e -e ... pleasure from driving - no, this is not the king of the road, but rather a sofa on wheels.
 
Maybe this is a passenger car? But in the rear seat, Escalade is not so simple, and a car cadillac with darkened glasses for a passenger is no worse.
 
It should be noted that Escalade is so solid and massive that, sitting in it, you feel almost complete detachment from what is happening outside the windows - you look down on street bustle. There are people who experience irrational craving for large cars ...
 
It was probably profitable for Cadillac to take the finished Chevrolet/GMC car, to cram into its standard equipment everything that was at hand at this moment (having deprived the buyer of the possibility of choosing) and release to the market under its brand, adding about $ 12,000 to the price. And they buy it!
 
Probably the traditional image of the brand is affected. Many dealers say that a significant part of Escalade customers already has one or two Cadillac cars in the family ...
 
And the last question. How does General Motors manage to simultaneously sell the same car under different brands with different names - Tahoe, Yukon, Denali, Suburban and Escalade? This is either magnificent management, or evidence that America on SUVs was completely crazy. However, the third explanation is possible. It seems that 99 out of 100 owners of Honda Passport do not suspect that they actually go to Isuzu Rodeo. So with Escalade - the potential buyer of Cadillac is unlikely to ever go to the Chevrolet dealer and even more so GMC. And if you tell the owner of Cadillac Escalade, that he actually has GMC Yukon, you can get it in the face.
 
Text: John Smith
 
 

Source: Motor magazine [No. 5/1999]