Bold SUV like second home for the family
It’s hard to pick a starting point when it comes to reviewing something this large. There’s just so much to say about the 2022 Cadillac Escalade.
I don’t often see Escalades in my neighbourhood, but I did happen to park awfully close to an all-electric one at a park near my house.
Okay, yes, it was a Power Wheels version that belonged to a four-year-old, and it housed a 12V battery instead of the 6.2L V8 engine in this tester, but that kid, much like me, was travelling in style.
Needless to say, my tester was a bit more luxurious and far more expensive than the Power Wheels. This tested Cadillac Escalade is the Sport Platinum trim that starts at $120,498; with the addition of Super Cruise, Night Vision, and a few other options, this tester rings in at $130,878 (including destination fee). You could bump down to the base Luxury trim ($90,498) but what’s the point? Go big or go home — heck, this giant vehicle could probably be your home!
If you’re looking for a home — and let’s face it, a family vehicle can easily become your second home, especially once the toys and snacks start making their way into the crevices of the seats — this could be the one, maybe. It’s extremely spacious, comes with built-in massage seats, has rear-seat entertainment and an awesome AKG sound system, a wireless phone charger and several charging ports throughout the vehicle, and everyone gets their own room seat.
HOME AWAY FROM HOME
While this home-away-from-home is obviously missing a kitchen and bathrooms, the Escalade could double as the top floor of a house. The front row is the master bedroom, the second row belongs to the kids, and the third is essentially the guest bedroom or dining room that no one uses unless you’re entertaining company.
Let’s start at the back, which is somewhat the garage of the house. It’s likely where you throw all your junk and store the belongings that don’t have a designated spot within the main areas of the house. This cargo space/garage (with the third row up) wouldn’t fit that small Power Wheels Escalade in it, but it does have a relatively generous amount of space (more on that in a bit). Besides, if you don’t have any visitors in the third row, then with the press of two buttons, the 60-40 third row folds down, at which point it could definitely act as a winter storage for the Power Wheels Escalade.
As previously mentioned, the kids’ rooms/seats are likely in the second row, and they’re truly treated to a lavish lifestyle, with heated captain’s chairs and a 12.6-inch screen directly in front of each seat, in addition to wireless headphones, if they so choose to use them. I found the rear-seat entertainment to be a bit complicated. I couldn’t get a movie to work through a USB because it requires a connection through an HDMI port. So, instead of movies, we brought a gaming console and the kids were entertained throughout the traffic on Highway 401.
Did you ever have to share your room (or completely evacuate) when a relative slept over? Well, it’s more or less the same type of situation in the Escalade. If you’ve got passengers who need to get back to the third row, it’s really easy to flip the second row’s captain’s chairs down, and then they tumble forward. If you have a car seat latched into one of the middle-row seats, there’s a ton of walk-through space in between the two seats. Once back there, guests are also treated to a USB-C port on both ends. The secondrow seats can also be moved forward a bit to provide a little extra legroom for them to overstay their welcome.
The front cabin, also known as the master bedroom, is where all the magic happens. I mean, it’s usually a different type of magic, but magic nonetheless. The front seats are big and spacious, and with a flick of a knob at the side of the seat, you’re treated to several different types of massage modes — though none will go deep enough to relieve any significant pains. There is a wireless charger and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto capabilities which makes the parallelogram-shaped infotainment screen super-easy to use. Outside of CarPlay, there are a ton of options such as ambient lighting, rear climate, trailering, and Alexa. While it’s fairly simple to get to those things and doesn’t require digging into layers of menus, I wouldn’t suggest trying to change any of the settings while driving.
NIGHT VISION
What you can do while driving is toggle through a little touchscreen to the left of the gauge cluster. If you’re bored of looking at the plain old gauge cluster, you can click a map view, AR camera, or Night Vision. I found the AR (augmented reality) screen to be extremely distracting, and it made me feel like I was in a video game. Night Vision is an interesting feature to use (at night) but costs an extra $2,300 and is a bit pointless if most of your night driving is on well-lit highways or local roads. There is a head-up display, but truthfully, it gets lost amongst all the other fancy things in the vehicle and is, in my opinion, unnecessary in the Escalade.
From the driver’s seat, it’s a super-comfy ride, but there are a few quirks about driving something this large. It feels heavy and takes a minute to get used to the little jerk if you press down on the gas with the same force you might use to get something smaller going. Instead, to avoid that jerk, it takes a slower take-off. Likewise, slamming on the brakes will throw the vehicle forward a bit, more than you’d feel in a smaller SUV.
The surround camera is truly appreciated when driving something this large and in charge. When driving it to the mall or grocery store, it’s interesting to see how it fits into normal-sized parking spots, especially beside other vehicles. On one occasion, I couldn’t figure out how to forward-park into a spot, and ultimately gave up and chose the farthest parking spot where I knew no one would park beside me (but of course, someone did). On another occasion, I chose to reverse into a spot beside two other SUVs, and while it’s totally doable, I’d prefer to not do it again. The camera works well and is a great aid, but there are some spaces that are a bit too short or tight, which means a bit of the vehicle’s front is jutting out a bit, plus those heavy doors swinging open beside surrounding cars are a dent waiting to happen.
I wish I had tested Teen Driver — a customizable setting that limits certain vehicle features for a specific key fob — on myself. I’d be interested in seeing an in-vehicle report card of my driving habits in the Escalade.
SUPER CRUISE
I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about Super Cruise (an additional $2,875) and its competition in the hands-free driving segment. It’s a bit scary to trust technology enough to put your entire life (and that of your passengers’) in the hands (wheels?) of a vehicle. You never know when something can glitch, causing it to malfunction. If anything does go wrong, it should just disengage and give you full control, but still, you never know!
The first time I used it was in the 2022 Cadillac XT6, and you can find a pretty detailed overview of Super Cruise in that review. I won’t go too deep into the Super Cruise functionality here, but I do have a couple things to mention. First, while it’s definitely helpful if you want to safely take a sip of your coffee, it’s also a bit weird having nothing else to do with your hands. Do I just leave my hands in my lap? Keep it on the wheel? Throw them in the air and wave them like I just don’t care? It’s awkward.
One part of Super Cruise I’m not too fond of is that it doesn’t adapt to turns in the roads. It’s not often that highways in the GTA aren’t packed, but if you happen to be driving on a relatively empty stretch, it’ll take those curves at your set speed, without slowing down. The system uses LiDAR, map data, realtime cameras, radars, and GPS to keep vehicles within a lane; meanwhile adaptive cruise control has the capability to change the speed based on the
vehicle in front. I’m no techwhiz, but if the vehicle knows a stretch of the highway is about to twist, shouldn’t it be able to adapt the speed to slow down a bit for the turn, even if there’s no car in front?
Finally, the XT6 wouldn’t allow me to test switching lanes, but the Escalade has this function, so I tested it on Highway 407 — where there wasn’t much happening around me. After a quick glance back to ensure there was no one in my blind spot, I signalled to go into the left lane. On the digital screen, a notification popped up ensuring me the Escalade was looking for an opening, which it quickly found and moved over into. Another notification indicated that lane change was complete and I took off the signal — which seems like something it could have done by itself. I didn’t get a chance to test this feature on a busy Highway 401, but unless someone kind gives you an ample amount of space to cut in front of them, I am left wondering if it would ever find an opening to switch lanes, and if it would notify the driver of a failed attempt or just continue looking until you deactivate the signal. If you’re interested in a video of the Escalade changing lanes on its own, check out this YouTube video of celebs using Super Cruise for the first time.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I often tell myself that even if I had an abundance of wealth, I wouldn’t spend it on big, fancy things, much like this Escalade. But the heart wants what it wants. And if your heart wants a Cadillac Escalade, then your wallet better have upwards of $150 for every empty gas tank. After spending a week in it, I quickly got used to the luxury and spacious area and didn’t mind leaving my house with all three kids who were kept entertained — though maybe that’s just the novelty of the fanciness and I’m sure that feeling would have quickly worn off.
That said, it wasn’t the money aspect that brought me back down to the real world. It was cleaning the car at the end of the week and realizing that a bigger SUV just means far more area to clean. (Seriously, there was an oddly concerning amount of crumbs to be found, and I sincerely hope I got it all.)
As if cleaning your home wasn’t enough work — who wants the added stress of cleaning their second full-size home?