2015 Cadillac Escalade
The better the model, the worse the CUE
General Motors has, over the course of sixteen years and four generations, tried differentiating the Escalade more and more from its Chevy Tahoe roots.
The new one certainly looks expensive, with its light saber-like head- and taillights, carefully wrought polished trim, and gorgeous 22-inch rims. Inside, the cockpit appears well built of generally excellent quality materials, including some gorgeous open-pore wood veneers and supple leathers. The cockpit design also appears to stand apart from its Chevy/GMC platform mates.
But spending a week and a few thousand miles with this latest Escalade revealed several very aggravating flaws and dampened much pre-drive enthusiasm. Part of this is down to the very changes Cadillac made, such as the use of its idiotic Cadillac User Experience infotainment interface. Its slow, unintuitive and erratic operation is made worse by the angle of the touch screen and shiny plastic of the inductive, non-moving buttons in the center stack below it.
Its like CUE was designed for the driver’s fingers to slide off instead of toggling in a command. Dealing with this at highway speeds while driving through a lovely Midwestern ice storm really made the point that this system needs to be junked—or at least significantly overhauled (the all-new CT6 shows that Cadillac’s engineers agree).
The other bugbear that became quite evident over many hours was that the steering wheel isn’t centered on the driver, so that his or her arms and shoulders start to fatigue, and a lack of a proper ‘dead pedal’ upon which to rest one’s left foot really is a silly oversight for a company who is trying to build world-class driver’s cars.
Dynamically the Escalade was disappointing too, with a brittle ride on those large, heavy wheels that never settled down even on seemingly smooth highways at higher speeds. This is the first witnessed instance of a vehicle with magnetic damping that doesn’t ride well. Add to that a new, 8-speed transmission that doesn’t respond to driver inputs well and a throttle that is calibrated in three stages: no response, minimal response and Balls Out, let’s-get-there-in-a-whopping-big-hurry fast.
Hiding the Cadillac’s lovely, 420hp/460lb-ft 6.2-liter V8 behind such amateurish EPA-sopping shenanigans is very disappointing—especially as the Escalade cant get close to said ratings—and it makes Ford’s long-in-the-tooth Expedition (tested here) and Navigator sibling seem paragons of power and response.
Really, it is time to switch to an independent rear suspension, GM; this generation’s continuing use of a live rear axle means less space than its predecessor and a very uncomfortable 3rd row, shockingly disappointing in something so big outside. While many of these sins are forgivable in a Tahoe, or even the well-liked GMC Denali (which has the same powertrain), it’s much harder to be charitable when the Escalade costs about $15-20,000 more.
EPA ratings: 15/21mpg, 17mpg combined
0-60mph: 5.6sec (CarandDriver.com)
Price as tested: $89,360
Here is what Cadillac has to say.
Isaac Bouchard is owner of Bespoke Autos, an auto brokerage that helps people save time, money and hassle when buying or leasing vehicles. Since 1991 he has helped his clients save over $1 million dollars. He has written extensively about getting the best deal possible when buying or leasing a vehicle, arranging financing or trading in a car. Isaac has been a professional automotive journalist as well for over 12 years, having reviewed most all types of car, truck and SUV.
