2009 Cadillac Escalade Two Mode Hybrid Road Test Review
Escalade Hybrid Photos
With the words Hybrid emblazoned on the side of the Escalade, it’s hard to miss what this Cadillac is all about. Plus, as a snapshot of what is happening in Detroit right now, this greener Escalade is the perfect microcosm of what’s good and bad with the car industry.
My first thought was to observe the subtle but significant changes Cadillac made to reduce the aerodynamic drag on the Escalade. Nice touch, no awkward lines anywhere.
Open the door and with a whir the running board slides out to allow access to the tall cab. This is more like a private railroad car on a 116 inch wheelbase than a street vehicle. Yards of leather, planks of walnut, and a small airplane wing’s worth of aluminum accents. No bucket seats here, these are thrones that make you feel like a kid perched on a high chair until the highly adjustable electric seats are fitted.
Even though the exterior is quite a bit smaller and shorter than a full-size van, the interior makes you feels like you’ve entered a living room… OK, a mobile living room. The kids loved it. So did we, not only could they not reach across to smack and annoy each other, but the ceiling-mounted DVD player meant that there was blessed silence as long as our DVD supply held out.
A simple key starts the engine, mirrors turn down to view the sidewalk and the back-end camera activates as the Escalade is shifted into reverse. Between the vast glass, cameras, rear firing radar beeping and tilting mirrors, shifting the beastie around is much easier than expected. The 22 inch chrome wheels are definitely overkill, telegraphing every road imperfection on broken side streets, the standard 265/65/18s would have been fine, thank you, as the 22s only smoothed out on the highway. And the highway is where the Escalade really hits its stride.
Even better would be the SUV’s immense practicality. First duty was to pick up a really old cast iron-based child’s desk. Pull the tab and flip the split third row seats forward and toss the desk in standing up, lots of room with no need to fold the second row seats.
Second foray was to a favorite Chinese restaurant where the owner had me park the Escalade right up front. Tossing the keys, he made a very thorough inspection and then brought his wife over, smiling approvingly he said “the Japanese cars are just too small, not safe, I like this.” Then he looked at the EPA ratings of 20 city and 21 highway and stated that his sedan did not do that well on gas and was half the size. His observations are correct, half of the sedans tested in the last year did not get over 21 mpg in the real world where most large SUVs struggle to achieve 14 mpg unless you hold 60 mph with a strong tailwind.
On the long ride to Sacramento we were seeing over 22 mpg while doing slow down and speed up back-road touring. On one stretch there was a Volvo wagon with a car and a truck on its tail as it refused to go over 50 on a long, clear 55 section. Time to use some of the SUV’s beefy 417 foot pounds of torque (peak at 4,300 rpm). Punching the 6.2-liter V8 we dropped two overdrive gears down to fourth and galloped from 50 to just under 90 mph in three vehicle lengths, still accelerating as we dispatched the clueless wagoneer. Not bad for a near 6,000 pound vehicle with 403 horses at 5,700 rpm. Hitting the highway we put her to 75 mph for the rest of the trip. As usual we were late leaving going back, and with the next day being a school day we poured on the coals and joined the fast traffic pushing 75 to 80 mph. Not only was the Escalade tremendously comfortable, but in spite of my best efforts we still pulled off 19 mpg on premium, noting that the Escalade can operate nicely on regular gas if needed. Had this been the regular Escalade, rated 12/19, it might have been a single digit gas mileage trip. Which makes me wonder… if the Escalade Hybrid gets a towing capacity rating of 5,800 pounds, what would actually towing something do to the its gas consumption?
That brings us back to why the Escalade is a microcosm for what is right and wrong about Detroit right now. Note that no one in our household owns any stock in the big three, or the small three, or much of anything three. Ten years ago this writer panned GM, Chrysler and Ford for building too many crap cars while promising durability, and all in all failing the people of North America with too many empty promises. Just in time, Bob Lutz arrived at GM with a “take no prisoners” attitude; Ford dismissed large chunks of the insular senior management that had paid total lip service to customers and dealers on quality and warranty issues; Mercedes helped Chrysler established quality controls that Jim Press has only improved upon since joining Chrysler.
The Big Three have really cleaned up their act. But after years of the Michigan-based automakers fighting every step Congress has taken to mandate increased fuel mileage, the Congressional sound-bite masters took the Big Three to task at the latest hearings. Should these automakers see a Federal hand-out of $34 billion, their latest request?
The reality is that if the Big Three fail they will take down hundreds of suppliers with job losses that could easily obliterate hundreds of thousands of jobs. Not a pretty picture. The Big Three and particularly GM and Ford have mortgaged every asset they have to pour money into making solid vehicles that are now some of the best on the market. Do we have a choice? If you judge GM by the newest Escalade, the Malibu and
the very promising Volt, Ford by the Fusion, and each with their documented gains in quality control and durability, it might just be prudent to find a way to support the them until they can get back on their feet, based upon the fact that they now offer excellent products.
The alternative of massive job losses snowballing is a hard prospect for this scribbler to grasp, nor the loss of such an excellent SUV as this Cadillac Escalade Hybrid.
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