Test drive Cadillac Escalade
“Cool car, brother!” - the only one who appreciated the new Escalade in Paris was a Russian-speaking immigrant. He stuck his thumb out of the truck window and waited for us to shout words of approval. France, and almost every other country in Europe, is no place for huge SUVs. Here they look like a hippopotamus in the center of Tbilisi. Native residents of narrow city streets - Fiat 500, Volkswagen Up and other compacts.
In Russia, on the contrary, the size of the car is valued regardless of where it will be used. So the Escalade has every chance of success - Cadillac understands this too. According to the forecasts of the company's marketers, about 2015 cars will be sold by the end of 1, which will become a new sales record for our country (000% of all purchases, by the way, should be made in Moscow and St. Petersburg).
The new generation Escalade is a great alternative to the very expensive SUVs of European brands during the crisis. Not for those, of course, who have lost their jobs and are now looking for a new place (the price of an American SUV starts at $ 57, and the extended ESV version costs at least $ 202). Cadillac is suitable for those who, fearing new interventions by the Central Bank in the foreign exchange market, decided to reduce spending, but at the same time does not want to give up their usual living conditions.
For example, Mercedes-Benz GL 400 costs from $ 59. However, if the GL is at least approximately approximated in terms of equipment to the base Cadillac, then the German SUV will already cost almost five million and, at the same time, in the number of options it will still be slightly inferior to the American. A long-wheelbase Range Rover with a 043-liter engine in the lowest version will cost $ 5,0. The difference even with the extended version is significant.
Most likely, it will be ESV that will buy. After all, the fact that they began to supply this version to Russia is an event that, perhaps, overlaps all other changes that have occurred with the car. All those new headlights that creep into the hood, large glass area, three-band grille, boomerang-like fog lights and new side mirrors (why, by the way, did they get so small?) - beautiful, but the start of sales of the 5,7-meter version is a real bomb. It remains a mystery who now needs a regular 5,2-meter Escalade at all.
The difference in price between the basic trim levels of these cars is $ 3. This is a decent amount in a vacuum, but not when you buy a car for more than $ 156. If the standard version had some special "trick", then the purchase of such an Escalade would be justified, because the main trump card of the car is luxury. And in the elongated version, this wealth is exactly 52 millimeters larger.
At some points, the American SUV is even more interesting than the Mercedes-Benz GL. The fully digital panel has three configurations of data display (the user himself chooses which indicators will be shown in different sectors of the display) and an unusual, but convenient angle of inclination. The car has seven or even eight USB ports, a 220V socket for second row passengers. There are also a lot of storage compartments, parking sensors, which, for greater informational content, in case of danger, send a signal to the driver by vibration of his seat. In the top trim levels there is also an automatic braking system at low speeds, which also works when reversing.
The CUE multimedia system, which has a voice control function, also looks great. Almost everything in Escalade is touch-sensitive: the opening of the glove compartment, the buttons on the center console, the sliding lid of the lower compartment under the main display. The problem is that the CUE is still damp. It certainly performs much better on the Escalade than on the ATS, but it still slows down a lot. You have to poke your finger at one key several times. And sometimes the system works itself. Over the 200-plus kilometers that we drove, the heating of the rear seats itself turned on several times.
Both rows of rear seats fold at the touch of a button. There is really a lot of space on the third row: in the long-wheelbase version, three people can easily fit in the gallery, and a couple of suitcases will definitely fit in the trunk. If you fold the second-row seats, the backs of which, by the way, are devoid of tilt adjustments, you get a bed - no worse than the Ottoman.
Some crooked seams, protruding threads or non-ideal fittings of some interior details can lead to thoughts that the crisis has nevertheless come. There is a chance to stumble upon such things in any of the new Escalades. All these shortcomings are the flip side of the manual assembly of interior parts. On Rolls-Royce, for example, there is also an uneven line. There are no extraneous noises in the SUV: nothing creaks, does not rattle - the feeling of a loose connection is purely visual.
Big disappointments that will certainly remind you that you are not in the Range Rover and Mercedes-Benz, and you had to give up something, there are two in the Escalade. The first is the absence of mechanical watches. Maybe I'm an Old Believer, but this particular accessory I associate with premium and luxury. Let it not be Bretling, which can be removed and put on your hand, quite ordinary ones will do - such as, for example, as they were on the previous generation of an SUV. The second is a huge poker of the gearbox (the transmission here, by the way, is a 6-speed one - exactly the same as on the latest Chevrolet Taho, but without a downshift). American traditions are good, but an ordinary lever in such a modern interior would look much more organic.
Perhaps a compromise Escalade engine will help to partially reconcile with the shortcomings. On the one hand, a volume of 6,2 liters, 8 cylinders, 409 hp, 623 Nm of torque, and on the other, a half-cylinder shutdown system. It was also on the last generation of the car, but there the activation of the system was too noticeable. Here, my colleagues and I deliberately tried to sense the moment when this happens, but the transition to work "half-hearted" remains completely unnoticed.
It will not be possible to save on fuel: according to the passport specifications, the average fuel consumption on the highway is 10,3 liters per 100 km, and in the city - 18 liters. We got about 13 liters on the highway. Not a bad indicator, besides, the fuel tank (117 liters for the extended version and 98 liters for the regular version) is enough to call in to refuel no more than once a week.
In terms of noise isolation, the Escalade is one of the most comfortable cars in its class. The car's suspension eats up all the bumps that come across on the way. This is largely due to the adaptive Magnetic Ride Control dampers. You can choose one of two operating modes: "sport" or "comfort". The system autonomously changes the suspension settings while driving, based on the nature of the road surface. The stiffness of the shock absorbers can change up to a thousand times per second.
And one more very important point: the person who chooses the Escalade will not feel that he has exchanged the prospect of driving an assembled German (or, say, English) SUV for a traditionally rolling, mercilessly rocking American sofa. Escalade has almost got rid of rolls - in turns it behaves very obediently and predictably. The steering wheel is empty in the near-zero zone, but it allows you to confidently and without any tension feel almost a six-meter car. There are questions only to the brakes, which are difficult to get used to. You expect more from a standard pressing, but a 2,6-ton car (+54 kg to the mass of the previous generation) starts to seriously slow down only if you press the pedal with all your strength.
To complete the experience, the Escalade lacks only door closers and air suspension. But even without this, Cadillac came out with a chic, large and well-equipped car. With the new generation, he has matured, become more stylish and technologically advanced. And enough of the neighborhood rap jokes. The new Escalade will have a different audience.
