Test Drive Cadillac Escalade since 2006 SUV

King of the Road

Cadillac Escalade. The first SUV in the Gamma Luxury Department General Motors Corp. For 96 years. Externally - if you do not count the coat of arms Cadillac - does not differ from Chevrolet Tahoe or GMC Yukon. In the basic configuration costs $ 46.525 in the USA. Why is so much - for a truck?
 
In order to objectively treat Cadillac Escalade, it is necessary to take into account the circumstances at which this car appeared. More recently, the leaders of General Motors Corp. Confidently stated that to produce an SUV, even if the luxury, Cadillac branch would never be indecent.
 
About the contest with imported Lexus LX470, Mercedes ML or Range Rover. It was not a different category, including price. The main competitor was Ford with its Expedition model. GENERAL MOTORS strategists considered to compete with Expedition in a luxury-off-road class and Yukon Denali - like the Chevrolet Tahoe / GMC Yukon version.
 
Probably, at that moment they were right. But the Lincoln Navigator appeared soon, which began to praise almost faster than they had time to bake. In addition, each Ford Motor Co. I earned thousands of fifteen. And very quickly, the leaders of General Motors turned into why not ...
 
The fact that the main culprit of the creation of Cadillac Escalade was Lincoln Navigator, involuntarily makes it compare the machines among themselves - although in this case it will only be about Escalade. (The Lincoln Navigator test was published in Motor E11, 1997 - Ed.) This car is an excellent example of how some automakers respond to the public requirements: more SUVs, and right now ....
 
The corporation emphasizes that Escalade was created in a record short term - for 10 months. How did you manage? Even the smallest world manufacturers on the development of a new car takes no less than two years. The answer is simple: Escalade is not a new car! This is all the same Yukon Denali, which was supposed to release the GMC separation, and now releases Cadillac. And if you wash off the paint, the same cargo platform will be found on which the full-sized Tahoe, Yukon and Suburban are built ...
 
At the first glance at Escalade, for some reason I remembered the old song Roger Miller King of the Road - so confidently the car looks. From the poor relatives of Chevrolet and GMC departments, it is characterized by lower linings of the sidewalls of the body, chrome-plated wheeled discs, the lining of the radiator with the coat of arms and the inscriptions of Cadillac on the sides - the largest people who have come to meet. But the car is rather big ...
 
To get to the driver's seat, you will have to make a long step - up and lobby. Sit down, pay attention to the leather-wooden steering wheel A La Jaguar, polished wooden inserts on the torpedo and the center console. Seats - lush, soft, like homemade armchairs. Perhaps unnecessarily soft, my taste.
 
Leather seat upholstery in Escalade - Probably the most cool of me. This is perforated leather, like on seville touring sedan seats. She not only breathes, but also makes a wonderful aroma. However, almost any new car smells well.
 
Categorically did not like the adjustment of the seat. It is regulated properly, but the relevant controls are located on the outer sidewall of the pillow with almost the floor, and with a closed door to reach them very difficult. The button for heating the seat heating 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, it is heated only with a fastened seat belt.
 
The front panel almost completely swallowed from predecessors. Up to all the handles and buttons reach it easy, everything is clear and functional.
 
A review from the driver's seat is excellent, forward and on the sides - due to high fit, back - thanks to the large side mirrors.
 
The rear seats are decorated no less luxury than the front, but their pillows are short, and it is not easy to get back - the doors at the bottom of the narrow. Outdoor seats (those located closer to the doors) have electrically heating - the middle passenger will warm the neighbors. There are headrests, and individual lighting, and control panels of ventilation and music. Only here the rear side windows are descended only by one third of the stroke. Why?
 
In general, the design of the cabin and the quality of the materials used is quite consistent with the cost of the car, especially the skin of the seats and the mobility upholstery of the ceiling. And Escalade is equipped with the full program - no options are offered, everything is included in the standard package (though, you can choose the body color). But there are deficiencies. The plastic ceiling console, which took place from Tahoe / Yukon, looks stranger on the luxury car, and did not fall into color. Buttons of electric windows do not have automatic mode - to close the glass, the button has to be kept pressed. OnStar navigation system and two CD player (single and shop) installed, and the air conditioner is the most common, with manual control. Savery? Or did it quickly?
 
The Escalade's luggage compartment has a very impressive volume - almost the same as Navigator, and much greater than the Range Rover or Mercedes ML430 (strictly speaking, comparing the volumes of Escalade and Navigator trunk volumes are not entirely correct, the last three rows of seats are 7 people, And Escalade is two on five).
 
If you fold the rear seats, the plafhmy of the plywood sheet of 1220x2440 mm (4x8 feet) will almost fit (4x8 feet) - only a few centimeters will hang over the back side. It is the board - the rear door of the machine consists of two halves on horizontal loops, the bottom metal folds 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 flawed here. In order to fold the rear seats, it is necessary to remove the head restraints, and they are so large that at the same time slightly rests in the ceiling.
 
The engine is rather old-fashioned - 5.7 liter Vortes V8, which in economy is difficult to blame (with a tank of 113 liters, the actual reserve of the course at one refueling is about 500 km). For such money could also put Northstar V8. But - in a hurry ... However, while gasoline prices remain at the current level, this motor will come down, its 225 hp. and 447 nm it provides. Up to 60 mph (96 km / h) Escalade accelerates in 10.5 sec. - For a truck is quite decent, although some do it faster. By the way, in California, gasoline has already begun to rise ...
 
On a flat road, Escalade is perfect, especially in a straight line. Pigned the car to the glory - neither creak, no knocks. The motor works quietly, the soundproofing of the cabin is excellent, but at high speed, the noise of the dissected winding glass and the lateral mirrors of the air flow (the aerodynamic resistance coefficient of the machine - as much as 0.45) is well heard at high speed.
 
The running part of the Escalade is fully borrowed from the previous generation of GENERAL MOTORS pickups: carrier frame, the front suspension independent, behind - the continuous bridge on the springs. For Escalade, the suspension softened significantly, and with a uniform movement on a good coating in a long-pass machine, no less comfortable than in the Cadillac passenger.
 
Problems begin when smooth asphalt ends. It comes to pay for luxury - on smooth irregularities, the car is strongly swinging, and on the ridge, the rear wheels are also losing a coating clutch, returning to the road with loud slaps. Truck, as-in no way.
 
Attempting to adapt the archaic design to the requirements of the luxury class due to simple softening the suspension failed. In my opinion, the softening was moved - whether the springs / springs are weak, whether the shock absorbers are not suitable. This is especially manifested with sharp rebuildings. And the large weight of the car has nothing to do with it. The same Navigator copes with the change of the strips is quite decent. Escalade also behaves like a huge bale wet pakley, opposing the steering wheel with a strong side roll, moving into rocking. And the car does not want to quickly go back to your strip. And after all, it is not a rearrangement, or a power test, at the landfill, but an ordinary maneuver, which have to make almost every day, circling obstacles.
 
At high speed, the behavior of the car in turn simply scares. The problem is aggravated by a 213-millimeter ground clearance, and perfectly cotton steering with an amplifier of exorbitant power. Not too successful and selection of rubber - FireStone FireHawk LS tires behave well on dry solid coating, but on wet asphalt and especially on the ground willingly lose the clutch.
 
Braking - without special comments, although the amplifier is excessively powerful, and the feedback on the pedal is not observed. The braking path is 52 m from a speed of 60 mph (96 km / h) and 67 m from a speed of 70 mph (112 km / h) - approximately like Navigator. Rear disc brakes Escalade would not prevent ...
 
The four-stage automatic transmission AUTOTRAC has four modes that are included with the buttons to the right of the steering column. Depending on which of them is pressed, the drive can be rear, permanent full (with normal or lowered nearby) or automatic complete - with the supply of thrust to the front wheels, when the adaptation of the rear decreases. Everything like a real SUV.
 
It is difficult to imagine that the Escalade owner will ever bring it to the present off-road, so that the decent possibilities of the chassis and transmission for the most part will remain unused. Yes, and did not count on it the creators of the car, otherwise they would not make the front and rear skes so long that the ordinary ditch would not overcome, not kneading bumpers.
 
Why and who needs Escalade - essentially an archaic truck GMC with a cabin from Cadillac? Ride on it in the city? So he has a diameter of the turn of 12.4 m, the weight without a small three tons and fuel consumption - oh-her-her ... pleasure from the control of the machine - no, it is not a king of the road, but rather, a sofa on wheels.
 
Maybe this is a car for a passenger? But on the back seat, Escalade is not so easy, and the passenger Cadillac with darkened glasses for the passenger is not worse.
 
It should be noted that Escalade is so solid and massive that, sitting in it, you feel almost complete removal from what happens outside the windows - we look down on the street bustle. There are people who experience irrational cravings for big cars ...
 
For Cadillac, it was certainly advantageous to take a ready-made car Chevrolet / GMC, to crawl into its standard equipment all that at this moment was at hand (depriving the buyer the choice of choice), and release to the market under its brand, adding about $ 12,000 to the price. And they buy!
 
Probably affects the traditional image of the brand. Many dealers argue that a significant part of Escalade's buyers has already in the family of one or two Cadillac ...
 
And the last question. How General Motors persists at the same time to sell the same machine with different names under different stamps - Tahoe, Yukon, Denali, Suburban and Escalade? This is either magnificent management, or evidence that America on SUVs fought finally. However, the third explanation is also possible. It seems that 99 out of 100 owners of Honda Passport and are not suspected that they actually go to Isuzu Rodeo. So with Escalade - the potential Cadillac buyer is unlikely to ever go to the Chevrolet dealer salon and the more GMC. And if you say the owner of Cadillac Escalade, that in fact he has GMC Yukon, you can get around the face.
 
Text: John Smith
 
 

Source: Motor magazine [№5 / 1999]