Senior Editor Seyth Miersma stretches out in the super-lux Cadillac Escalade.
TranscriptSEYTH MIERSMA: Hi, all, this is Seyth with Autoblog and I am behind the wheel of the 2016 Cadillac Escalade Platinum. Now the Escalade that I'm in today is a four by four regular wheelbase trim. As I said, it's got the Platinum package, which means it's got a lot of stuff on it-- tons and tons of feature content.
The base for the Platinum four by four in this size is around $91,000. And I think with a few extra added options, the one that I have goes just over $95,000 delivered. So this is an expensive, very luxurious, and very large SUV.
One thing that the Cadillac doesn't lack for is motivation. There's a 6.2 liter V8 engine under the hood cranking out 420 horsepower and 460 pound feet of torque. It always feels ready to get up and go, even for such a big car. And there's certainly plenty of power. I like the white paint that it's got, the sort of white purple paint. That's a couple hundred dollars extra option and I think it actually serves the truck fairly well.
The big strong graphics in terms of the lighting elements front and rear, I think, look really premium and cool. Very over the top. And then of course, it wouldn't be an Escalade if it didn't have some pretty massive impressive-looking wheels. And in this case, these are 22 inchers. And I think they suit the role very nicely.
Actually, the confines of this cabin right now are some of the nicest that I've ever been in a Cadillac. And certainly, you can tell that they've gone up a level from the previous generation Escalade. You've got leather everywhere. You've got this sort of microsuede material that's on the sort of lower half where you'd usually see a lot of hard plastics or plastics in general. Leather over the IP and the dashboard. Nice leather steering wheel. We've got massaging seats for the front two seats. There's a giant refrigerator in the center console if you want to keep your beverages cold-- non-alcoholic, of course.
On top of the center console, there is charging mat. You can just set the phone down right there and charge and listen to your media and do everything that you'd normally do without having to screw around with the wire, which I think is actually really cool. It's got to see back screens here. And it's got a really big full down screen that actually has a Blu-ray player, too.
All of that tech and all the way that it looks and feels really fits perfectly with the driving experience, as I found. We talked about-- a little bit about the power. There is the luxury of having enough power to kind of do what you want when you want, which is great. But there's not really a compromise, even on these giant wheels in terms of overall smoothness of ride, noise deadening.
The character is just really posh. It's-- the ride is well-damped. It's quiet. You do hear it a little bit more than you might in something like, you know, an S class or an Audi A8, or something that-- you know, another sort of limo-style car. But it is a really nice quiet, refined, buttoned-down experience.
OK, so you'll probably notice that I haven't really listed a lot of negatives for the Escalade. And that's because I really haven't found a lot. If you really look at the vehicle for how it does what it's really designed and built to do, I think that it meets those requirements exceedingly well. So in that 75,000 to $100,000 range, you can just buy a lot of like really nice, very posh SUVs these days.
All in all, I've really been enjoying myself cruising around on a lovely fall day in a big pretty car and having a good time. Thanks for coming along, guys. For Autoblog, I'm Seyth Miersma.
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