Eric's Autos: Reviewing the 2016 Cadillac Escalade
WHAT'S GOOD
Elvisian styling. The heartbeat of a Corvette. The most - of everything.
WHAT'S NOT SO GOOD
22 inch wheels (standard on Luxury and up trims) don't exactly deliver a luxurious ride. 4WD system lacks two-speed transfer case and Low range gearing. V6 Navigator can pull more than V8 Cadillac.
UNDER THE HOOD
All Escalades come standard with V8 power. A big V8. 6.2 liters.
Sourced from the Corvette, the Escalade's V8 makes an incredible 420 hp and 460 ft.-lbs. of torque. Put that engine in something that weighed a couple thousand pounds less (like a Corvette) and you'd have a supercar. Tasked with pulling what amounts to two Corvettes, the 6.2 V8 manages to deliver supertruck acceleration: Zero to 60 in about 5.8 seconds for the RWD Escalade; a few tenths more for slightly heavier 4WD versions.
To get a handle on that, ponder the fact that the Escalade - six thousand pounds or so, as tall as an NBA forward (well, almost) and with the aerodynamic slipperyness of a pinball machine on roller skates - is only about 1 second or so off the 0-60 pace of a new Camaro SS. And the Camaro can't pull 8,100 pounds - much less carry seven people along for the ride.
The 6.2 V8 is paired with a new eight-speed automatic (vs. the previous six-speed automatic) which together deliver mileage stats almost as miraculous as the 0-60 stats: 15 city, 21 highway for the rear-drive version and 14 city, 21 highway for the 4WD-equipped version.
To get a handle on that, my old muscle car - a '76 Pontiac Trans-Am - which has a big V8 but nowhere near 420 hp - gets maybe 10 MPG. And it does not have 4WD.
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