2021 Cadillac Escalade Sports Platinum
One of the first new cars that are featured as latest high end SUVs is the Cadillac escalade it is a fan favorite. Why wouldn't it be, I mean it is an american icon this behemoth of an SUV family. And finally for 2021 it got a complete facelift now our vehicle here this is the sport platinum four wheel drive it is the top end trim sold around the globe and it is a 38 thousand dollar price increase over the base msrp from the GMC Yukon Denali that is another high-end roadster. The actual equipment on this puts it quite a bit more expensive vehicle, tested as nine thousand four hundred and forty dollars (9440 $) in the US. We've got a lot of options on here much like we had on the GMC Yukon and it's pretty well equipped being the top end trim you expect a lot of stuff.
One thing that I would do because it is black on black and everything looks really good as it is. But for better combination I would prefer to get the monochromatic badging package replacing the front and back badging with essentially grayscale. That would look really good and give a beautiful color combination, other then that it is pretty well equipped.
I do find that this is pretty much what you would expect from an escalade it is beautiful on the road as you're driving along but more on that when we get to our driving segment now even though this is a stable mate of the GMC Yukon these specifications do change a little bit compared to what we saw last week you get a little bit more front headroom and a little bit more second row headroom but the third row is pretty much identical all the specifications there are the same but for the other specs for the interior yeah the front shoulder room front leg room things like that that's all down a little bit compared to the GMC Yukon, I do feel that especially with the legroom and shoulder width it is just a little bit less but nothing to complain about.
This vehicle is 48 millimeters longer than the GMC Yukon and it is 5 millimeters taller. But what else can I tell you about this redesigned escalade, well this depiction of escalade is more true to Cadillac's current design language than the previous generations which still shared somewhat same design cues. This one of 2021 really stood out as its own type of vehicle. The front end on this very reminiscent of what Cadillac has across the board both for their crossovers and sedans. The rear end looks even great as well Cadillac says that they have three foot tall full led tail lights on there to complement the size of this vehicle and you have the Cadillac crest etched into the design of it so when you're braking somebody's really close too close or if you're in a parking lot and you're looking at it you can see that from there front lights are led and they're thinner than they were on the previous generation. The horizontal lights take up less space at the bottom.
and then the vertical daytime running lights look absolutely phenomenal you know that this is an escalade if you're driving along and see it at night and they turn into turn signals with the click of a switch so great stuff going on with the design language on this. I personally love the look of this escalade, loving the fact that they've put the Cadillac badging on the back sort of c-pillar area much like we saw on the front of the Cadillac ct6 they had the badging up there so they're really showing that this is a Cadillac it's a flagship they're making it big, making it bolder and they're taking this vehicle in a new direction. Although the old Cadillac was luxurious but still it required a lot of room for improvement. In order for a real competition with the German brands. After spending some time with it now, I can tell you that this is going after that top-end Mercedes GLS or the BMW X7. Whereas before the escalade while it was still a very high selling vehicle. It didn't really come up to the same caliber as are the German luxury offerings.
We're going to talk about everything you need to know if you're in the market for the new Cadillac Escalade 2021 Sports Platinum version. Once you get into this you can see that there truly is a difference first off there is this incredibly gorgeous display here. It says it provides up to 38 inches of diagonal total display area the system includes three screens all of them are O-led.
- The first one on the left of the driver is a 7.2 inch touch control panel for the driver information so things like your trip computer and also which information is being displayed.
- In the center you also have a 14.2 inch display that has a number of options including the map you can have that display there as well as an augmented reality navigation system which uses a camera built in to the windscreen area where the rear view mirror camera is you can see out of that and if you're using navigation it will show you on that display where you have to turn or which areas you need to be in for the lanes and where you get to your destination which house it will actually be once you've arrived that's also going to be used for night vision if you're driving at night you can switch it over.
- The third section is the 16.9 inch display in the center console area now that is the maximum size it is a curved design a little bit. It sort of curves at the right side as you get closer to the passenger area but for the most part it works great. I would recommend not using apple car-play or android auto with this yes it does have wireless for both but because the way this display is set up you're losing a lot of screen real estate if you go with the traditional apple car-play or android auto design you can't change that that's built in from those manufacturers so you do lose that on tons of space that you could be using for beautiful navigation maps so i recommend just skip android auto apple car-play completely.
The navigation system on this works great and you can have it set up pretty much the way that you want now you also do have ambient lighting on this it's light compared to what we see from some of the German competition. It gives a nice accent when you're driving along at night you can control everything through the infotainment system. Along with having it set up to give you colors based on the driving mode that you're in now. All of this is great, we do have a small head up display for the driver it is not the same one in other variant, and that's probably because a there's so much tech already in this car. Thus, you have so much information on this triple screen setup for the driver you don't really need a whole lot more in the hud.
We do have the rear view camera we've seen that across the board for Cadillac vehicles and trickling down it works well. It has the led lights buttons for the third row. The sunroof stuff that's pretty much carried over and then the window switches but everything else is pretty much exclusive to the new Cadillac Escalade sports platinum. Also, including the seats with massage function.
Front seats here have both heat and ventilation and you do have two driver memory options along with an easy exit setup the second row only heat back there. The second row to have ventilation and that's again where this vehicle will come up short compared to the German competition. But I think the people who are buying an Escalade will be buying it to drive it whereas maybe if you're buying an x7 you're going to be driven in it. The second row also has the dual 12.6 inch media screens back there you can plug in usb or hdmi and listen or watch movies as well as be able to send navigation instructions to the driver up front. For the third row of this escalade, there's nothing back there just the usb port so you won't have any light coming from a sunroof there's no heat back there and there isn't a separate climate zone you just have tri-zone two on the front and then one for essentially everybody in the back.
There now, there are still a few reasons why you would want to consider this Cadillac Escalade over other variants in such SUV class, or particularly the GMC Yukon. First of all for 800, we have this in console fridge that might be handy for anyone. I put my wallet in there so it stays nice and cold but you do have that with controls to be able to decide how cold it is and whether it's on or off so it's nice thing that you can option on.
The gorgeous O-led display and the 36 speaker AKG studio reference system with a 28-channel audio experience, three amps provides in-vehicle communication and absolutely stunning audio performance experience. For example, if you're driving and you've got people in the back seat you can use the built-in microphones and speakers to be able to have a better conversation with the people in the back that does it automatically you can turn it on or off with a button on the steering wheel. Same thing goes for the second row everybody can hear each other a little bit better. Moreover, if you don't want to hear anything you just want to listen to music then this AKG audio system blows away everything. We've tested when it comes to bose or harman kardon, this is in line with the top-end bowers in wilkins system that we've tested on a number of bmw vehicles. Also the bang olufsen systems that we've tested. This one has incredible sound out of it, for having complete advantage of it you're going to want to have usb files to be able to play that music to the highest quality but even without it it sounds amazing. 36 speakers in here pretty similar to what we saw with the Cadillac ct6 with head mounted speakers and roof mounted speakers to give pretty much each passenger in the vehicle their own performance experience.
This also allows the front passengers to have different audio levels so if you've got somebody beside you who maybe doesn't want to listen to the same thing you're listening to and just wants a little piece of quiet. Then you can turn their volume down individually from the driver or you can turn it up accordingly.
For the 2021 escalade now we did our fuel economy testing. We found it a little bit worse than the GMC Yukon Denali. It is because this has more stuff on it. And it is a heavier vehicle that would weigh more. Moreover, the fuel economy is also largely dependent on road conditions and driving styles of drivers. However, talking of the engine and transmission system used is same as the GMC Yukon, only difference being in interior, exterior and some extra features offered in this Escalade.
Why are you gonna be buying the Escalade sports platinum?
there's a number of reasons, number one it's because of the image sure there are a lot of other luxury vehicles out there. Some are pretty big as well, like the BMW X7, Mercedes GLS those are pretty big SUVs and if you need to fit seven or eight people in them they'll do the trick. But this is still an icon it's an American icon that just can't be recreated. When you think about big SUVs it's all Escalade that comes in mind. There's nothing that competes with it really. You've got the navigator but people don't sing songs about driving their navigator as much as they do in an Escalade. I've had a lot of people who have looked at me and given me some thumbs up this week, so far because I'm driving this it's new it's fresh even though the design is sort of an evolution of what we saw with the previous generation. You can tell right away that this is a new Escalade but everything that you would want out of a big vehicle is here the ride is really good it's very quiet and extremely comfortable. The cabin is amazing together with incredible feels of sitting in it.
I'd say it's a very quiet and sleek piece of machine. We do have the alcantara headliner instead of just a regular black headliner so that helps to isolate a little bit of the road. The tires on here are pretty quiet the windows and you open them and close them super silent. So, if you're looking for a quiet experience on the inside this one is it. However, the 36 speaker AKG audio system you can listen to whatever you want and pretty much be transported to a different dimension, when it comes to the audio experience on this vehicle. It uses an air ride on top of it to enhance the overall experience, yes, it's a complicated piece of machinery. Whether it's a Cadillac, BMW or Mercedes-benz, the ride is great going over bumps, train tracks and other things. General Motors explains their automatic system as being essentially present in rear wheel drive all the time unless it detects wheel slippage and then it'll put some power to the front wheels. It'll ease off of it once the traction loss has been alleviated. The problem is when we're driving on snow or slippery surface, it's slushy and it's a little slippery so it's much better to have it in four. That way one do not have to worry about the back end slipping out a little bit. All four wheels at a single time, It allows you to have a little bit of extra control, a little bit of extra safety and security as well.
You do have sport touring tow haul and the off-road mode. When you put it into off-road mode that's when you can raise the ride height with that air suspension a little bit higher. So, if you were to do some off-roading with this the option is there for you. I don't think anybody's going to be taking this off-road not the regular type of off-road. Most off-road that this vehicle will see, is if you live in a area that maybe doesn't have paved roads or you take taken up to the cottage every summer and you're driving down your gravel driveway. I don't think anybody's taking this thing off-roading it's fine it's not meant to do that the Escalade sports platinum is meant to get you to where you're going in style and comfort. It really does that and that's my takeaway when it comes to this vehicle.
The engine here offers a beautiful V-8 engine type with a total of 6.2 liters engine. It is capable of producing a hefty figure of 420 horsepower and a torque of 460 lb-Ft. The engine is packed with wholesome power to tow a total of 7700 lbs of weight. Together with this powerful engine, comes the stunning looks, front and back bossy lights together with amazing interior. Moreover, you're getting quite a bit for it the tech on there is excellent and everything that you really want out of a vehicle is there and it just gets taken to another level when it comes to this sports platinum edition. The display here, O-led multi-display setup here is so beautiful. There are some complaints of that the display screens cannot be seen in direct sunlight, but only a limited people have reported the issue whereas mostly, no such visual issues have been observed.
To sum it up, everything that you would want out of a luxury vehicle is in this new Cadillac Escalade sports platinum 2021 version. And this is why I say this really is something that competes with a bmw x7 or the mercedes gls. The company has taken it to that level to make sure that Cadillac can now be synonymous with that same luxury you expect from bmw and mercedes-benz. So, if you're in the market at 100 and I'd say 18, skip night vision and skip the rims on this. You're going to be very very happy. Excellent job Cadillac this is what I expected to see with a next generation Escalade.
0 Comments