New York–based Cadillac might portray itself as cool, edgy, and urban these days, but it can’t live without a vehicle whose DNA is deeply encoded with heartland perceptions and values. A vehicle that, like the hapless Cimarron, started life as a cynical corruption of a brand that once proclaimed itself “The Standard of the World.” Yes, we’re talking about the Escalade.
The original Escalade was a GMC Yukon Denali—itself a fancy Chevy Tahoe—with wreath-and-crest badges and some wood ’n’ leather inside. It was GM’s panicked riposte to the Lincoln Navigator, the gussied-up Ford Expedition that helped topple Cadillac from its position as America’s No. 1 luxury brand for the first time in history. Today’s Escalade more deftly riffs on current Cadillac design cues, and the interior is laden with luxury car prerequisites. But no amount of window dressing can disguise the fact that it remains a truck in a tux, obviously related to quotidian Tahoes and Yukons.
That hasn’t stopped it from outselling all of Cadillac’s car lines in the U.S., and by a considerable margin at that. Combined Escalade and Escalade ESV sales through August this year made it the brand’s No. 2 model line—only behind the much less expensive XT5 crossover. As the priciest Cadillac you can buy, the Escalade is also hugely profitable. Most of the $24,000 to $40,000 price premium the Escalade commands over a fully loaded Tahoe is pure gravy. GM’s bean counters love this thing.
There’s no polite way to say this: An SUV that’s more truck than limousine is Cadillac’s flagship vehicle, its halo model. That sound you hear is Brooklyn marketing hipsters sobbing into their Aperol spritzes.
Over the past decade, Cadillac planners have looked several times at the idea of moving the Escalade off GM’s truck architecture. But the math has proven inescapable, so the next-gen Escalade will also share hardware and key components with forthcoming Tahoe and Yukon models.
