2015 Cadillac Escalade

Now in its fourth generation since its 1999 introduction, the Cadillac Escalade remains one amongst the automotive world’s patron saints of consumption. Checking in one.5 inches wider, 1.4 inches longer, and regarding a hundred pounds heavier than the model it replaced, the large-livin’ 2015 Escalade makes no excuses for its imposing presence.

Built on constant truck-based underpinnings because the remainder of GM’s large SUV fleet, the 2015 Cadillac Escalade at the start launched with the recently updated half-dozen.2-liter V-8 mated to a six-speed automatic drive. manufacturing 420 HP and 460 lb-ft of force, the engine thirstily body part its substantial load, hustling the six-speed-equipped Escalade around city and down the main road with ease.

However whereas we tend to were busy lashing the six-speed Escalade on the check track, gramme was finalizing plans to place its new eight-speed case (essentially constant transmission that handles gear-swapping duties within the Corvette) into the Escalade, still as within the half-dozen.2-liter-equipped Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra, and GMC Yukon McKinley. gramme patterned that transplant the eight-speed into the ’Slade would be a comparatively easy thanks to improve performance on variety of fronts. Curious to ascertain if the General’s hunch paid off, we tend to re-upped for associate Escalade equipped with the new ’box and strapped on the check gear.

As was the case with the eight-speed-equipped GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Silverado we tend to drove earlier, low-speed drivability is dramatically improved with the new transmission. A numerically higher low facilitates seamless takeoffs, and also the additional tightly spaced ratios mean the transmission stays busy even underneath light-weight acceleration. nevertheless it shuffles between gears with a definite, virtually unseeable action, seldom material possession the revs climb higher than 3000 rev.

Mat the accelerator at any speed, however, and also the measuring instrument swings for a budget seats, the transmission material possession the robust V-8 rev to around 5700 rev before grabbing another gear. due to the tighter gap between ratios, the engine spends longer within the meaty portion of its force curve, creating the foremost of its output and disposition a additional fluid feel to the proceedings.

First impressions fashioned, we tend to set out for the track in search of confirmation that our finely honed seat-of-the-pants meter was properly mark. initial up was the zero-to-60-mph dash, wherever the eight-speed Escalade announce a five.6-second run, devastation to the half-dozen.1-second time of the six-speed truck. the remainder of the information continued  to fall in favor of the eight-speed, with the quarter-mile passing in fourteen.1 seconds at a entice speed of ninety nine mph­­, border out the six-speed’s run of fourteen.7 at ninety six mph.

Unfortunately, the eight-speed Escalade remained even as thirsty as our six-speed check vehicle, returning constant fourteen mpg in mixed driving. To be fair, neither gramme nor the Environmental Protection Agency were claiming otherwise; the newer version’s one5/21-mpg city/highway estimates ar barely higher than the six-speed model’s 14/21 mpg (that’s for four-wheel-drive examples like ours; rear-drive Escalades devour 1 mpg on the Environmental Protection Agency main road cycle with the eight-speed). Grip on our 300-foot skidpad remained unchanged at zero.75 g, GM’s Magnetic Ride management adaptive  suspension labouring to stay the large lady on the amount.

Fans of the Escalade’s rich interior and brassy exterior are happy to understand that little or no has modified outside of the powertrain. the enormous Cadillac still brandishes its glitzy grille and connective tissue proudly, our latest version riding high on ex gratia 22-inch wheels ($600).

Accessing the leather-lined, clubroom-like, Kona Brown interior is created easier by the ex gratia power retracting aspect steps ($1695), a feature we tend to’d leave off unless we were hampered by stature or lack of flexibility. we actually took a feeling to the natural matte-wood interior trim, that appearance a small indefinite quantity additional organic sans the standard ladled-on gloss end.

Unnecessary  to mention, nearly each creature comfort associated contrivance within the gramme catalog makes an look here—heated and cooled front and rear seats, all manner of safety assists and blind-spot warnings, a four-color head-up show, Bose audio, and much, much more. It’s as you’d expect of associate $89,360 SUV—which currently contains a transmission additional appropriate of its lofty sticker.