Rumours abound that with the soon-coming stiffening of miles-per-gallon standards in the United States that General Motors is considering arresting the development of larger Cadillacs (or has already) and that the next Cadillac Escalade won’t be on a shared platform with the GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Tahoe.
No, as the rumour goes, the gigantic Escalade could be a cooperative effort on the Lambda platform – the architecture that’s spawned the Buick Enclave, Saturn Outlook, GMC Acadia, and Chevrolet Traverse.
Heresy, you say. Can you imagine such a backwards solution? What ‘Slade owner would be willing to sacrifice their magnitude and grandeur?
Truth be told, of the three generations of Escalade produced so far, only the short-lived first-gen suffered in terms of differentiation. The first real Escalade (2001-2006) was a very unique vehicle, and the current Escalade is about as far from the Yukon and Tahoe as an SUV can get without jumping to a new platform. So fears that Cadillac wouldn’t be able to produce a sharp, edgy, high-class Escalade ought to be allayed with that realization.
Ignoring the Escalde ESV and EXT for a moment, have a look at the Numbers below. They show the dimensional differences between all-wheel drive derivatives of the regular Cadillac Escalade and the most luxurious Lambda to date, the Buick Enclave. Now, is it such a stretch…. or rather, such a shrink?
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680 – extra pounds on the Cadillac Escalade
0.7 – extra length of the Cadillac Escalade, measured in inches
0 – difference in overall width, measured anyway you like
2.1 – extra height of the Cadillac Escalade, measured in inches
2.9 – extra length between the wheels of the Buick Enclave, measured in inches
0.6 – extra height of the Cadillac Escalade in ground clearance, measured in inches
7.3 – extra cargo volume in the Buick Enclave, measured in cubic feet
18 – extra passenger volume in the Cadillac Escalade, measured in cubic feet
2.5 – extra seconds required by the Buick Enclave to hit 60mph from rest
3 – extra miles each gallon of gasoline will give you in the city in the Buick Enclave
