Cadillac gets early jump in high-tech luxury with 2003 CTS
Ever since the production of the NorthStar V8 engine, Cadillac has moved to, and defended the position of, the technology leader of General Motors.
Forget Chevy, or Pontiac, or even specialty things like the Corvette; the NorthStar V8, with its dual overhead camshaft, 32-valve design, spent the better part of a decade as the only evidence contrary to the notion that bean-counters would forever doom GM customers to aging or ancient motors. Along with that engine, Cadillac also redesigned the Seville, making it a true contemporary Caddy to tackle the many high-tech imports on the market.
Other attempts to expand the Cadillac line have been less successful. A sports car named Allante was neat, but didn’t sell. A small car called the Cimarron was a thinly disguised twin to the compact of other GM branches, and didn’t sell. The Catera came out as the “Caddy that zigs,” but when it came to sales, the rebadged version of a German-GM Opel “zagged” where it should have zigged, and didn’t sell.
For this year, however, Cadillac has struck it rich, it appears. It has come out with a new model, which now has been declared a 2003 model, called the CTS. That may mean that the folks at Cadillac are fresh out of viable nicknames, or collections of rational syllables that might sound impressive. But whatever they’re calling it, the CTS is the real deal.
Not only was it the runner-up to the Nissan Altima as North American Car of the Year — which was interesting, particularly since it was close to being a 2003 model winning the 2002 car of the year prize — but it meets all the requirements of a world-class sporty sedan for performance, technology and unique styling, but also for moderate price. The CTS starts with a base of $29,995, and lists for a reasonable $34,000 more realistically.
That puts the CTS in the midst of the near-luxury bracket, with the Audi A4, BMW 3-Series and 5-Series, Mercedes C-Class, Infiniti I35, several Lexuses, the top-rung Acuras, plus assorted Volvos, Lincolns and the best Chrysler. Performance-wise, the CTS fits in there too.
Let’s start with the only negative I can perceive about the car. It has front engine, rear drive. That is not a major drawback, unless you’re a mainstream driver, whose mainstream consists of driving in the snow belt during the winter. Most winters, we should say, because this winter has been so meek that slipping, spinning and skidding have been scarce, and the only time you seem to see a plow truck is when they’re zooming up and down the freeways, awaiting some storm that has been erroneously predicted to be oncoming.
While anyone who has driven both knows that front-wheel-drive has many inherent benefits for snow, ice and hills, the rest of the country doesn’t care.
Styling is impressive. At first, I thought it was a little too much. The front is tall and sort of stacked in the way that a lot of concept cars seem to be, and I wasn’t sure I cared for it. However, as the week passed, it grew more attractive to me. The angled grille and the tall headlight cover leads directly to a wedgy flow of lines angling along the sides. From the side, the CTS has a very impressive slant, and the rear deck is tall, housing a huge trunk, and leaving a stylish canvas for designers to play with. They did well, with tall and distinctive taillights, angling back to a vertical point at the midpoint of the trunk, topped by a neat little horizontal bar that tapers off the top edge as a high brake light.
If it looks good from the outside, it feels good from the inside, too, with leather seats and a wood shift knob. The CTS can be had with a manual transmission, although the test car I had used the 5-speed automatic. That connects to a 3.2-liter V6 engine, with dual overhead camshafts and 24 valves, which turns out 220 horsepower at 6,000 RPMs and 218 foot-pounds of torque at only 3,400 RPMs.
Cadillac claims 0-60 acceleration times of 7 seconds. That seems quick, but there is no question the car is adequately swift in off-the-line performance, as well as cruising or high-speed passing punch.
The CTS can be had with traction control and the StabiliTrak skid control device on the sport package.
While having a sporty and moderately-priced vehicle is a huge advantage for Cadillac, with a price point right in there with the top Bonnevilles and other GM top-line sedans, having a classy feel is every bit as important. The CTS delivers there, with a uniquely styled steering wheel, loaded with remote buttons for operating the audio system, and, on the lower part, cruise control.
The instruments are neatly styled with italic figures and easy to read gauges, and the audio system includes an in-dash CD player.
Comfortable bucket seats and a roomy rear seat add to the motoring pleasure of the CTS, which means Cadillac engineers also did a job under the skin. The platform is GM’s new “Sigma” layout, wich has independent suspension front and rear, with the components isolated in separate little cradles. That helps prevent the shocks from reaching the interior, and it also makes the CTS feel like it has natural stability, rather than a beefed-up, artificially enhanced shock system.
The front suspension has an extra-firm setting to prevent front “dive,” which is the deep-bowing dip that many U.S. cars, and particularly soft luxury cars, used to be unable to avoid. Hit the big 4-wheel disc brakes hard in the CTS and it simply stops, fast and firm, and without bobbing its front bumper.
Driving the CTS for a week, the car attracted many curious onlookers. Some thought the styling was over the edge, but most were impressed at the futuristic look. It does look like a concept car come to life, and for both General Motors and Cadillac, having a car suddenly considered on the cutting edge of high-tech is a major benefit.
Refinements make Toyota’s hybrid Prius worthy winter warrior
Along with than helping to facilitate outdoor hockey rinks, there are other good reasons for subzero temperatures in the Northland. I was able to celebrate our most recent cold snap because I was test-driving a Toyota Prius that week.
The Prius is pronounced PREE-us, and not PRY-us, which is appropriate, because PRY-us would too closely connect to the prying force needed to hoist U.S. drivers out of the large, oversized seats of our large, oversized vehicles to find compromises that give us dependable transportation and the bonus combination of vastly improved fuel economy and vastly decreased emissions.
The Prius (pronounced PREE-us) does those things, and the cold test proved to me a large improvement in driveability since the car was introduced two years ago.
For decades, automakers have sought to find alternative energy vehicles, realizing that we are using up what is a finite amount of the planet’s petroleum, despite the tunnel-visioned belief of those people of influence who have strong ties to the oil industry. Even if we did have unlimited sources of oil, wouldn’t it just be great to not have to depend on importing sufficient oil from those wonderful Middle Eastern nations in the current proximity of much of our military.
Anyhow, electric cars don’t make sense on their own, because you get wonderful amounts of power, but you also have to recharge the electric motors, and would overuse coal-burning power plants to the point of creating worse pollution than we now have achieved. Hydrogen fuel cells make sense, but I think we’re a lot of years away from making them useful to the masses.
No, the absolute best alternative is what Toyota and Honda have already put on the market — hybrid powered cars that combine tiny but efficient gasoline engines and electric motors. The Honda Insight uses the little gas engine, and the electric motor power kicks in when you need to accelerate hard or pass, and when you let off, it cuts out and is recharged by the little gas engine.
The Prius is similar, but different. The electric motor works with a 1.5-liter 4-cylinder engine with dual overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder and variable valve timing, and the power comes from both sources, alternating or combining by computer-controlled engine management.
When I first drove the Prius, two winters ago, I was impressed, until one day, when it got down to a couple degrees below zero. Then all the warning lights came on, and it threatened me not to drive the car. My theory was that the electric motors had been drained, as happens in extreme cold, and the little gas engine was traumatized while trying to decide if it should move the car or recharge the battery pack.
With eagerness, I got a new 2002 Prius to test during one of those rare weeks when the Northland was, indeed, the Great White North. The Prius ran smoothly and impressively, whether on the freeway between Duluth and the Twin Cities or on the hills of Duluth or anywhere in between. It got down to 10 or 15 below at my house on the hill, but the Prius fired right up and was ready to go.
Actually, fired right up is a little strong. Because when you turn the key to start the Prius, you hear nothing. The little gas engine murmurs to life, but until you engage the transmission and step on the gas pedal, you are certain the silence means that nothing is running.
The Prius system has a hybrid front-wheel-drive transaxle with an inverter and special battery, and two permanent magnet motor generators. It is now linked to a continuously-variable automatic transmission, which is electrically controlled and makes the Prius move right along, without the hesitations while the previous model searched and selected which power mode and which gear to be in.
Performance is right there at the adequate stage, with a lot of small commuter cars. The Prius is not unlike the Toyota Echo, which is a subcompact gasoline-engine car. The Prius has similar look, which is nicely compacted with a fast-sloping hood, pleasing lines, and a spacious, four-occupant interior. That is one clear advantage the Prius has over the Insight, which is strictly a two-seater, and which has prompted Honda to offer a soon-to-be-released new Civic model with the Insight powerplant.
Seating is comfortable in the Prius, front and rear. From the driver’s seat, there are some curious things. For one, there are no instruments ahead of you. You have the steering wheel, then the road, thanks to the sloping hood. In the center of the dash, there are two gauge openings, with LCD readouts for speed up on top, and to inform you of various other selected things in a larger middle window, things such as whether the gas or electric motor is doing most of the work, how your fuel economy is doing, and the outside temperature.
The computer, and not the driver, has control over which motor does what amount of the work, but the end result is smooth performance, and the fantasyland realization that you can use a lot of electric power and it recharges itself off the gas motor without ever to be plugged in.
The EPA estimates on the Prius fuel economy are interesting, because it projects the Prius will get 45 miles per gallon on the highway, and 52 in town. That’s the first vehicle I’ve seen that gets better mileage in city driving, but it makes sense. The small motor will get you up to 65 or 70, and it will hold you there in cruise control, but it’s probably working harder doing that than it is when you’re doodling around in stop-and-go traffic or on residential streets.
I got 43 miles per gallon, dipping down to 41.3, but I was accelerating hard — for test purposes, only, of course — to check on the Prius performance.
It is obvious that there is enough technology in the Prius to make each one worth $30,000 or more. After all, you can get a large truck or SUV with great power but comparatively low-tech stuff and pay well over $30,000 these days.
But Toyota presents a nice surprise there, too, while also staying in hot competition with archrival Honda. The Prius, as tested, listed for $21,066. Base price is $19,995, undoubtedly just so Toyota can say the car lists at “under $20,000.”
For the base price, you get the trick hybrid powerplant, the continuously variable transmission, power rack and pinion steering, independent front suspension, regenerative antilock brakes — which means it acquires electric braking power from the recycling charge system for the hybrid motors — plus keyless entry and security system, airbags from front occupants, alloy wheels, a rear spoiler, color-coordinated bumpers, door handles and power outside mirrors, and the interior features such as climate control, power windows and door locks, air-filtration system, intermittent wipers and AM-FM-cassette audio.
From the option list, the test vehicle added cruise control, which is a must for a soft-spoken car, plus side airbags to supplement the standard front airbags.
There has been a wonderfully impressive resurgence of efficient but fun compact cars in the past year, and we’ll get to several of them in the coming weeks. Even those of us who need and want a big SUV could and should choose a smaller, fuel-efficient vehicle as a second car.
And if your “other” car is a Prius, with its contemporary features and futuristic powerplant, chances are it will become the family car, and your other vehicle will become the family’s “other” car.
[[[cutlines:
1/ The low-sloping hood provides great visibility from inside the well-designed Toyota Prius.
2/ Natural energy is impressive from a crashing wave of Lake Superior, or from the hybrid recharging gas-electric motor in the spacious, four-passenger Prius.
3/ From the driver’s view, no gauges straight ahead, but speed and driving features are charted on center gauges.
4/ The Prius name is embossed into the floormats. ]]]]]
Subaru brings rallying sizzle to roadways with Impreza WRX
Subaru has established a solid tradition, over the years, of being quirky but dependable. Sometimes the styling was a little off from mainstream, as well as the “boxer” horizontally flat-opposed engine. But the full-time all-wheel-drive was also unusual in an inexpensive compact.
That all adds up to an impressive package for folks who live where it might snow a little in the winter. You can find a lot of happy Subaru owners in Northern Minnesota, and across the upper reaches of Wisconsin, as well as in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. You want snow-belt? That’s snow-belt.
Along with being quirky and unusual, Subarus also have always been hardy. Tough, rugged design, capable of slamming off the road a bit long before off-roading became such a cult thing. So it was natural that Subaru would become popular as an inexpensive car for rally competition. In a rally, unlike a race on a track, cars must negotiate roadways, the more obscure and treacherous the better, along a course they must try to follow, and they are timed against themselves, then against the field.
As rallying became more popular, rally cars became more powerful, and Subaru went sailing along with the trends. The whole concept has reached 2002 with Subaru introducing the WRX model of its compact Impreza line. If you’ve seen or competed in rallies at any level, you’d be impressed with the WRX. If you’ve never been to a rally and never intend to go, but you might drive in some pretty foul conditions now and then, the WRX might still be the perfect answer.
The real beauty of the WRX, however, is that if you cared nothing about any of these other assets, but just wanted a car at a reasonable price that would be a blast to drive, this still is worth considering.
There is a strong trend going on right now, perhaps as the next rage after we outgrow the SUV craze, of creating smaller and more economical cars that are fun to drive. As that occurs, Subaru will have its WRX parked up near the front.
The little flat-opposed four-cylinder is still there, bt it has gained 16 valves with dual overhead camshafts and an aluminum block and heads, and it has an intercooled turbocharger blowing fuel into the engine. With a redline of 7,000 RPM, the WRX turns out 227 horsepower at 6,000 revs, with a torque peak of 217 foot-pounds at 4,000 revs.
That’s a lot of power for a little car, and all that is from an engine that measures just under 2.0 liters, at 1,994 cc. But consider this: In true rally form, where 2.0 is a plateau for cmpetition displacement, the Subaru engine gets tweaked to put out 261 horsepower in European trim, while in Japan, the STi version cranks out 276 horsepower with 275 foot-pounds of torque.
We may not ever get that one in the U.S., but — trust me — 227 horses and 217 for torque sends the WRX on its way promptly. The all-wheel drive configuration does push it over the 3,000-pound mark, to 3,125. But with that power being distributed evenly, unless wheelspin convinces it to send more power to the wheels with traction, the WRX takes off with serious vigor with the 5-speed manual transmission.
It’s 0-60 acceleration times have been reported at 5.7 seconds, which is right there in Corvette country.
As a specialty version of the perky Impreza, the WRX adds all sorts of special touches, such as alloy wheels with low-profile 16-inch tires, and interior styling with drilled aluminum pedals, custom steering wheel, special supportive bucket seats and simple but efficient gauges and controls. Subaru kept it simple, but makes sure you’re aware that the car is for driving. As for fancy stuff, don’t look for polished wood or high-buck options.
From the outside, the WRX sits at a low stance, like it’s ready to spring. From the front, it has huge, round foglights up front, just like the pro rally guys. And those lights work wonders to light up the shoulder and fill in the low spots from the headlights.
The price of the WRX, naturally, is jacked up from the readily affordable Impreza because of all the hot upgrades. Base price of the test car was $23,995. But at that price, everything is standard.
That includes the all-wheel drive, the turbo motor, four-channel antilock disc brakes, front and side airbags up front, limited slip differential, special rally suspension and dual tailpipes, air-conditioning, aluminum pedal covers, radio, cassette and in-dash CD changer, cruise control, keyless entry, power locks and windows, and a piercingly bright blue paint job.
While the test car was a 4-door sedan, it has the lean and hungry look most manufacturers seek when they build a racy coupe. The WRX fuel economy is another issue. The EPA estimates say 20 in town and 27 on the highway, but you’ll have to stay off the gas to get those figures. Driven moderately, the Impreza WRX might well deliver that sort of gas mileage.
But when you face the temptation of so much fun just waiting for you to unleash it, driving the WRX moderately is a challenge itself.
[[[[cutlines:
1/ Huge foglights mounted down low give instant identification to the new Subaru Impreza WRX, a consumer version of its successful rally car.
2/ Even parked, the Subaru WRX looks like it wants to get going, and quickly. ]]]]]
Lancer OZ, Protege5 and upgraded Focus offer fun on budget
OK, I confess. I love fast cars, but they’ve got to be fast cars that handle and stop as well as they go. In recent years, the spread of such cars has expanded greatly, to include all sorts of competent sedans as well as sports cars, but the prices also have escalated beyond normal means.
The great thing about the auto industry, though, is it keeps coming back around to pick up those stragglers who may have been left off various bandwagons.
Perhaps the most exciting thing about the 2002 model year is that a whole bunch of manufacturers are trying to go back and recapture the fun-on-a-budget crowd.
When the swift, sporty cars shot over the price horizon, a lot of young and eager hot-car zealots started building their own. The trend started on the West Coast (naturally) was to take a basic but competent little car, like a Honda Civic, and trick it up with a hotter computer chip in the engine management system, better wheels and tires, stiffer shocks and exhaust pipes finished with those trendy, gigantic tips.
Honda finally got the message and started marketing a Civic Si version that had some of those features without the prohibitive cost of upgrading. The hot Civic has come and gone and come back again, joining the Volkswagen GTI Golf as the standards of the industry.
But for 2002, a lot of other companies are jumping into the bargain hot-car market, and are doing it with 4-door sedans and even station-wagon-like vehicles. Here are a few that even first-time buyers can afford:
MITSUBISHI LANCER OZ
Poor Mitsubishi, ever since Japanese cars first came into the U.S. marketplace, Mitsubishi tied up with Chrysler in what undoubtedly was a worthwhile connection, because it produced a number of great little cars for Chrysler, like the Dodge Colt, Dodge Stealth, and others, plus long-lasting, durable engines for Chrysler cars and vans that were valuable assets.
But the company basically missed out on the launch of popularity that Honda, Toyota, Mazda, Nissan and others enjoyed. But Mitsubishi has never made cars that weren’t fun and durable, and the Galant remains one of the neat cars and best bargains in the intermediate industry.
For 2002 however, Mitsubishi has replaced its very good Mirage compact with a new line, and it has adopted the “Lancer” nickname used by the company for professional rally prowess. So the Lancer OZ hits the streets, and fits right into the new hot-compact segment.
It came in test form in hurt-your-eyes bright yellow, as a four-door sedan with a neat rear deck spoiler and big front foglights, plus allow wheels and low-profile tires. So it looks the part. In reporting on the Subaru WRX, that company’s rally-inspired new hot compact, I mentioned that there were a lot of competitors with the same concept, and the Lancer OZ is prominent among them.
The OZ adds to the basic Lancer, which starts with the tight body, rack and pinion powr steering, four-wheel indfependent suspension, front and rear stabilizer bars, stainless steel exhaust, plus convenience items such as air-conditioning, power windows and locks, with a 30-second retained power feature for the windows, for those of us who tend to shut off the car and forget the windows are still open, cruise control, a neat gauge cluster, speed-sensitive intermittent wipers, and an eight-way adjustable driver’s seat.
Sporty touches include front and rear stabilizer bars for added firmness in cornering, a covered sport steering wheel and shift knob, the 15-inch alloy wheels, auto-off headlights and the color-keyed rear spoiler.
All those items are standard, except for the spoiler, which costs $360. The total price of the car is $15,487, and you nudge over $16,000 with the spoiler and destination costs.
For that you get a visually stimulating car that performs and handles with quick efficiency. The 2.0-liter 4-cylinder is a single overhead-camshaft unit with 16 valves, and the 5-speed manual transmission brings it to life with peppiness, while the suspension lets you fling it around corners with minimal swaying. The EPA fuel estimates are 26 miles per gallon city and 33 highway, which means the car qualifies as an economy car, but also fits the mold as a fun car.
MAZDA PROTEGE5
While the Lancer is a 4-door sedan with sporty touches, Mazda has taken its highly successful Protégé compact and added two hot versions, including a wagon-backed thing that is called a 5-door, but you have to promise to run the “5” right onto the name — hence, Protege5.
Mazda is another company that is tied to a major U.S. firm, in this case, Ford. For years, the Escort GT was a fantastic sleeper, because it came with a tiny but fantastic Mazda 4-cylinder engine, that would rev and run with the hottest of cars and still deliver 30-plus miles per gallon.
The engine belonged to the Protégé, which always could be obtained with a mild high-economy engine, or the dual-overhead-cam screamer. The Protege5 has the updated version of that engine, now measuring 2.0 liters, with the DOHC set-up running 16 valves and delivering EPA estimates of 25-31 miles per gallon.
The test vehicle I drove came in — stop me if you’ve heard this before — hurt-your-eyes bright yellow. It was a sport-wagon, with the squared back of a mini station wagon. The spoiler high on the tail and the overall look, with the alloy wheels and all, was definitely sporty. And the engine lives up to the image.
The 5-speed manual can be run up to the 6,500 RPM red-line with ease.
Inside, you get the neat white-faced gauge package, with a sunroof, roof-rack, and cloth bucket seats that have good support, good room in back, and cushion adjustment as well as firm lumbar support.
The 4-wheel disc brakes are excellent and the all-season tires are low-profile and aid the front-rear stabilizer bars and front strut tower bar in making the car stay firm and flat during the hardest cornering.
Like the Lancer, the Protégé is built solidly and with an eye toward the latest safety tricks of crumple zones fore and aft of a solid passenger compartment. The air and audio are upgrades, with an AM-FM-CD player, and remote keyless entry, foglights and cruise complement the pwore locks and windows.
The Protégé handles well and carries five, plus a lot of stuff in the rear. But the best thing is that the striking good looks and the performance are there for $16,895 — if you add the optional glass moonroof and ABS with side airbags. It’s fun, it looks sporty and it performs at least as well as it looks.
FORD FOCUS ZX5
Ford came up with a world-wide winner in the Focus. It is a tight, competent little car that comes as 2-door or 4-door, and for 2002 can be had decked out in SVT trim by the Special Vehicle Team that brings you the Mustang Cobra. I have not had a chance to drive the SVT version yet, and I am eagerly awaiting it.
But the basic upgrade to the Focus fits the trend of the Protege5 or the Lancer OZ. It is the ZX5 model, with the 2.0-liter Zetec 4-cylinder engine, with 16 valves and a 5-speed manual. It also is a mini-wagon, with a high rear roofline and what looks like a body that was stretched to go from 2-door to 4-door.
The Focus is fun to drive, even though the ZX5 doesn’t quite meet the sportiness of the Lancer OZ, Protege5 or Subaru WRX. No matter, the SVT will take care of that, and the more modest power of the Focus still is more than adequate to equate to fun driving.
Most surprising is the amount of room inside the compact Focus, and how quick and agile the car is. It came with a 6-disc CD player in the audio system, and has neatly styled heat/air vent controls. It also had auto-lock, which is an amazing nuisance, and which probably can be turned off by some mystical sequence of button-pushing, although I never found it in a week.
I like power locks when I’m parking and leaving the car, but I prefer to push a button and click all four doors locked, rather than have some computer gadget do it for me when I start driving.
Fold-down rear seats allow you to stow a lot, and the wagon back feature makes it a useful family hauler, but it’s always fun to drive, thanks to the peppy engine and stick shift, with well-designed suspension. Again, I eagerly anticipate the SVT version, but the basic car has a big advantage in being reasonably priced, at $18,080.
You can get a more basic Focus for less than that, of course, but the upgrades make it more fun to drive. And, based on the hot competition, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Ford start offering some discounts to meet the renewed hunger of the common folk who want — and deserve — fun while they drive.
[[[cutlines:
1/ Mistubishi’s new Lancer comes with an “OZ” model that adds sportiness to the look and performance, on a budget.
2/ Mazda’s Protege5 is a 5-door wagon with all the sportiness of a hot engine and firm, sporty suspension.
3/ The Ford Focus ZX5 has a sportier big brother coming in the SVT, but in basic form, it’s fun on a budget. ]]]]
If Cadillac needed a pickup truck, Escalade EXT does the job
Tell the truth now. Didn’t you, as an American automobile fancier, think that Cadillac really needed a truck?
Didn’t think so. But Cadillac has a truck, all the same, with the new Escalade sport-utility vehicle. And now the Escalade has branched out to the Escalade EXT. It’s big, it’s very big, and it fits the current mold of U.S. manufacturers who are well aware that SUVs can make a lot of money, and luxury SUVs can make incredibly more money.
The Escalade was the subject of a previous column, as Cadillac’s answer to the enormous — and enormously profitable — sport-utility vehicle phenomenon. Earlier, the Avalanche was another subject of a column, as Chevrolet’s new idea to allow the Suburban to proliferate into a combination SUV and pickup truck.
The Avalanche is a long, hefty vehicle that is definitely an attention-grabber, and the Escalade EXT takes on those additional three letters to prove that Cadillac, too, can have a pickup-box on the back of its new and luxurious SUV.
From a luxury standpoint, the Escalade EXT is filled with it, from that large and imposing grille, the large and imposing clear-lens headlights, the large and imposing — well, EVERYTHING on the EXT seems to be “large and imposing.”
To visualize the EXT you must first visualize a Suburban, which is General Motors’ giant SUV. Then imagine replacing all the features, inside and out, with upscale and more luxurious stuff. Now, you may have thought the Suburban itself was pretty luxurious, but Cadillac found a way to make the seats cushier, the instruments more distinctive, the console more like a vast luxury cabinet, and even the steering wheel more fancy with its wood and leather design.
Then you carve off the third row of seats, and scoop it out to make a pickup truck box back there. Just like the Avalanche. The similarity continues by adding the unique-to-Avalanche (heretofore) rear panel that can be altered. The window goes down and the panel can be removed, stretching the pickup box length to just over 8 feet. This feature allows you to haul long things, but, as I reported during my Avalanche test drive, real-world workers probably don’t want to have their cargo sharing the cabin, to say nothing of swirling dust clouds that might intrude if you were ever to take the EXT on a gravel road.
Is this a great country, or what?
Before you can say that a beast like this could only be built in the USA, remember this is General Motors, which is building the Escalade EXT in a plant in Mexico. Of course, it was conceived and designed in the USA, and new GM boss Bob Lutz gave a brief and direct speech on the logic behind such a vehicle in his speech at the New York Auto Show last month.
“There are people who would like to see large SUVs go away, and think that people should all drive those nice, light, little crossover vehicles,” said Lutz. “But I can absolutely guarantee that’s not going to happen. Big SUVs are the replacement for what station wagons used to be. Station wagons are not gone, they’re alive and well, calling themselves sport-utility vehicles.
“Why do we make large vehicles with V8 engines? We can’t legislate what our customers want to buy.”
So with full fanfare and bravado, Cadillac, even, gets into the truck biz.
To get up to Cadillac’s level, the Escalade EXT gets a 6.0-liter V8 under its hood. This is NOT any version of the high-tech Cadillac NorthStar V8 system, with dual overhead camshafts and multiple valves. No, this one is an expanded version of the tried and true, 50-year-old Chevrolet pushrod V8, which has been tweaked to churn out 345 horsepower and 380 foot-pounds of torque, through a 4-speed automatic transmission. That extra dose of power proves that you can make a 5,900-pound truck feel as swift and powerful as a hot-rod.
You pay the price for that power at the gas pump, where the EPA estimates 12-15 miles per gallon, and you’re most likely to be at the lower end of that scheme.
All the extra features of the “base” Escalade EXT boosted the price of the test vehicle to $49,990 if you included destination charges, which is about one parking ticket under $50,000.
Because Lutz and GM officials want to make Cadillac stand above and beyond the rest of GM, the Escalade EXT had to be “the most powerful” luxury SUV. So the 6.0-liter V8 gets installed, with its 345 horses.
While it might be easy, too easy, to ridicule the Escalade EXT, it is plush, and it is pleasant to ride in or drive. And it is loaded to the hilt with features, with obvious intent to attract buyers who figure they don’t want to compromise, and money is no object.
Leather seats and zebrano wood adorn the inside, 10-way power front seats with heated cushions and backrests are standard, and so is the Bose premium music system, with an in-dash 6-CD player in addition to the cassette and radio, with rear seat audio controls and headphones. Power controls for windows, locks and foldaway outside mirrors (heated, of course), which tilt down to view the curb when you back up.
For performance, the all-wheel-drive has automatic torque-split between axles, with the Stabilitrak stability system that alters power and brakes to keep the EXT headed straight ahead. Traction control, 4-wheel disc brakes with antilock, and an automatic level control are other standard goodies.
The Ultrasonic rear parking warning device signals when you’re getting close to squashing some poor vehicle that’s behind you.
The Escalade EXT obviously has the intention of battling the Lincoln Blackwoods, which is a Ford Expedition with the third row of seats replaced by a pickup box. The Escalade had an edge on the Blackwoods right off, because it had all-wheel drive, while the Blackwoods, inexplicably, cannot be obtained with more than rear-wheel drive.
SUVs have taken over the marketplace, and they have grown in all directions, from normal size, to compact, to large and luxurious. The large and luxurious ones make the most money for their makers, reportedly somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000 sheer profit — per vehicle. That, alone, tells why everybody wants to have a luxury SUV, and why going over the top on luxury can be a good thing, for the manufacturer. So Cadillac, to support its lofty stature, would like to see the Escalade EXT be the most over-the-top in the industry. It may have succeeded.
[[[[cutlines:
1/ The Escalade EXT strikes an imposing pose as Cadillac’s first attempt at a pickup-style combination SUV.
2/ Supple leather and dark zebrano wood fill the luxurious inside of the Escalade EXT, which costs under $50,000 — but not by much.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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