Cadillac Escalade Big SUV Reviews
Today we are talking about the 2023 Cadillac Escalade. This one is their big luxurious three-row SUV. It’s got a big naturally aspirated V-eight. There are a lot of smarts and sensors in the car and also a lot of technology packed inside.
It’s a tester that I have for this week. This is the sport platinum version with four wheel drive. So this clocks in at $120,000 after all of the add-ons and delivery. So this is kind of a mid-tier representation of the Cadillac Escalade.
It’s not at the $80,000 price range. It’s also not at the super high Escalade V $150,000 price tag.
So if you’re looking for a big luxurious 3-year-old SUV and at this price range, then you’re also probably looking at the Grand Wagoner and the Lexus LX 600.
So at the very expensive $120,000 price range. Is this the best luxury three-row SUV?
Exterior Panel
let’s start with the exterior on the front side This Escalade resembles the other Cadillac vehicles because they’ve applied the same strong angular cues for this Escalade.
There’s the big dark chrome or blacked out grill, and that gives a commanding presence on the road and even more commanding are the headlights, and I feel really sorry for anyone driving towards this Escalade at night or in front of it or around it because these headlights are gonna be blasting you in the face.
They are extremely bright and that’s just the low beams that I’m talking about because the high beams are even crazier.
And as a cherry on top, just in case you wanna see even better at night, there’s a really cool feature inside that Cadillac introduced more than 20 years ago, and it’s now just becoming more common in cars.
Side View
Around the side This Escalade looks almost identical to the Tahoe and the GMC Yukon, with the exception of the trim pieces and the wheel designs.
They are on the same GMT platform of course, with the Escalade ESV, the stretched wheel based version of this shared with the Suburban and the GMC Yukon Excel.
And from the side this comes with the powered step assist and it really helps to get inside this tall SUV.
Back Side
At From rear Side The Escalade looks very modern with the tall vertical LED taillights, and this will do a LightUp sequence as you walk up to it, the rear bumper and the hatch has that sharp creased features that reflects the luxury feel of the Cadillac brand.
And I love the square exhaust trim that are actually functional and they compliment the overall style.
So from the exterior, this is such a good looking luxury three row SUV, and if you want one that looks even better, check out the Escalade V because that has a revised front and rear bumper.
Interior View
Inside the Escalade Looks and feels like an expensive luxury SUV. The materials feel premium and the design looks very modern between this Escalade, the Lexus LX 600 and the Grand Wagoneer.
First Row Of Escalade
These guys have a real screen measuring contest going on because this Escalade brags about having more than 38 inches of display area.
So that’s measuring the diagonals of the screen, but that doesn’t quite compare to the grand Wagoneers 45 inches of display for the front row area.
Even the passenger gets their own screen. Now the kicker for this Escalade is that these displays are LED. So just like your more expensive TVs, they have a better contrast ratio.
when you’re seeing the screens at night, the displays look higher quality and more crisp, and the infotainment system also works pretty well.
They work pretty quickly and I like how there’s built-in wireless apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto, and also since there’s a pair of screens for the second row, you could get a preview of what’s being displayed and in case they’re misbehaving, you could just turn off all of the screens.
I also like that the infotainment system is customizable, so in case you want to drag and drop different shortcuts, you can modify the left hand column to have whatever you want.
And I like to have this 360 degree camera shortcut right in the lower left corner there so that I could pull it up anytime and see all around me for the screen on the left hand side of the instrument cluster, this is also a touch screen and this one is a nice bonus display because it really sort of declutters some of the menu functions that you have to hunt through sometimes between the two screens or sometimes the one screen.
Trip Meter Console
So talking about trip meters is as easy as just swiping on the left hand screen. And since I can easily change what’s on the instrument cluster, I like to take advantage of the different screens as well.
First, let’s start with the augmented reality display, and this takes the video feed from the camera mounted right in front of the rear view mirror.
Now if you’re using the navigation system to guide you somewhere, there will be arrows that pop up over the road so you’ll know for sure which turn to take.
And then there’s the night vision camera, which uses thermal imaging to help you more easily identify pedestrians and animals that may cross your path.
Camera and Button Function
This camera and the infrared sensors are mounted a little bit lower to the ground, so they have a different perspective and also a different field of view compared to the augmented reality camera.
As for the rest of the front row, I really like the materials in this car. I like the leathers, the wood trim and the metal trim on the steering wheel.
I like the physical buttons and dials, and I like how there’s the heated steering wheel button right on the steering wheel itself.
There’s also paddle shifters here to control the 10-speed automatic transmission. As for the buttons and dials on the left-hand side, the climate control and also the gear stick over here and this I drive like controller, they all feel pretty decent quality and look pretty good too.
Over on the right hand side, we have very large panel here that can move out of the way. And your cup holders also there, some cubby holes here and your USBC and USB type A connections.
And then right over, we have this vertical slot for your phone and this is also your wireless charger.
And in all the cars that I’ve tested, the cars that have a vertical slot, wireless charger, they tend to work the best because they have methods to keep your phone biased against the side here and it just maintains a good contact so that your phone is always charging.
And right behind that you have a fairly large storage container and this one comes with the cool box so that there’s two levels of refrigeration here. And then you have another set of USB ports, one USB C and one USB type A.
Second Row Of Escalade
When it comes to the second row, there’s plenty of leg room here, and also here you have the center console and it comes with heated seats for the second row.
Captain’s chairs, if you pull this out, nice little sturdy cup holder here, which I really like.
And if you look up, there’s a big entertainment screen for the second row occupants, and you could pull up different things like YouTube and also Hulu. It doesn’t have the best interface because this is pulling up the webpage version of YouTube.
This is such a meta experience. The user interface itself isn’t really the best. You have to pull up from down below and then go home and then toggle between your different inputs so you could watch Hulu.
There’s also YouTube kids, and again, this pulls up the website version of those streaming services. And this is probably because we’re just so used to having our own phones and everything and how they’re so smart.
These displays that you normally find in cars, they’re usually already very antiquated, so it doesn’t have stuff like automatic brightness setting, so you have to manually go into the menu and adjust this screen brightness because this thing will stay in one brightness setting at all times when you’re at night.
Sometimes these screens can just be blinding.
Third Row Of Escalade
As for the third row, if you want to get in, you have to lift this twice so that you could fold it out of the way.
It’s not a one-touch thing, but that’s all right. And then once you’re back here, you could fold this back up.
And what I like the most about this third row is that the floor is not too high so that my legs are not way above my hips, and that could be really uncomfortable. So this is a good three-year row, SUV that could fit adults pretty nicely.
Third row occupants, you have stuff like the USB C port and also a cup holder, but really not much else behind here. And if you wanna climb out, you could pull this twice just like the other toggle and then that just folds out of the way.
Cargo space
When it comes to the cargo space, this has a lot of room. By the way, it took me the longest time to figure that out, but that’s the button, the logo itself.
And back here you have 25 and a half cubic feet of storage behind the third row. Now you could also lower the third row from back here using buttons. And with the third row folded down, you get 73 cubic feet of storage space.
And if you wanna lower the second row using these buttons, you’ll get up to 121 cubic feet of space with all the rows folded down.
That’s a lot larger than the grand wagoneers, 94.2 cubic feet and basically a whole additional carves worth of storage larger than the Lexus LX 600, which has 71 cubic feet of maximum storage space.
Driving experience
When it comes to the driving experience, let’s start with the power. There’s plenty of power under the hood. There’s a 6.2 liter V eight making 420 horsepower and 460 pound feet of torque.
That engine has made it to a 10 speed automatic transmission, and with the more than 5,800 pound curb weight, you can expect to go zero to 60 in the low six second range.
That’s only very slightly slower than the Jeep Grand Wagoner with the 6.4 liter V eight, which has a 50 horsepower advantage, but a bit less on peak torque.
So zero to 60 under six seconds, and this escalated is slightly faster than the 3.4 liter V six twin turbo of the Lexus LX 600, which does it at 6.7 seconds.
All three of these big luxury SUVs don’t feel slow, and if you need to tow anything with the right trailer package, they can all tow over 8,000 pounds.
And that is the mark for this class. When it comes to the ride quality, the Escalade rides like a proper luxury car. There’s plenty of sound insulating materials used throughout the car and the road and wind noise is managed very well.
The air ride suspension is pretty good too. It helps smooth out some of the rougher roads. And just like most air ride suspensions, you can raise and lower the car for off-roading situations.
You can add up to two inches of ride height for more ground clearance, and when you’re on normal roads, you can lower it for better stability and better aerodynamics.
Both the Grand Wagoner and the Lexus LX 600 have the same equipment, and it’s a really nice feature to have.
Handling
Now, when it comes to the handling, these big SUVs are not typically good for carving canyons, but GM has added magnetic ride control for some of the more expensive trims of the Escalade and the Chevy Corvette.
The magnetic ride control is pretty amazing. Being able to change suspension characteristics on each corner allows the car to stay incredibly flat, making you feel more confident as you switch directions.
In the Escalade, you won’t be winning any autocross races, but it does help this Cadillac feel a little bit less big than its size compared to the other two biggest SUVs that we’re looking at.
This Cadillac feels more athletic, but in my opinion, the best part of driving this Escalade is to actually let the car drive itself.
This car comes with the GM Super Cruise Technology, and that is a level two automated driving assistance system so the car can take care of the accelerating braking and also steering, but the user still has to be engaged and monitor the road at all times.
If the roads are mapped properly, as in the car knows the road well, it is one of the best level two adas systems out there.
It’ll proactively change lanes on its own. No need to turn on your indicators, you can just keep your hands off the wheel.
The downside is that it really depends on the road, and if it’s not yet mapped or not compatible, then you can’t access the GM Super Cruise, even though it looks like a simple and straightforward highway.
But when it works, it amazing and it truly sets this luxury SUV apart from the others. It really is something that you have to experience yourself.
So when you’re test driving, ask the dealer to take you to a road where the Super Cruise works and see it for yourself.
So all things considered the powerful engine, the capabilities, and also all of the driving smarts.
I think the Cadillac Escalade is one of the best luxury three-row SUVs out there right now. And in my opinion, I think this is a lot better than the Grand Wagoner or the LX 600.