Cadillac Escalade CAR (2007) review

Ah, the Escalade. Is this American bruiser about to give Euro rivals like the Range Rover Sport, X5, M-class and Q7 a bit of a hiding?

In a word, no. Or more accurately, it doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell. The left-hand-drive only Escalade is like one of those misleading on-line dating descriptions – it all reads well but, in real life, it’s all horribly wrong. The ingredients are promising. There’s a single top-spec, one-model line-up, imposing chrome-laden styling, a sumptuous interior, mighty 409bhp V8 engine, six-speed auto and a name that carries a high degree of cultural awareness. But to look at, to sit in and to drive, it disappoints in every single area. Read on to find out why…

It doesn’t look that bad, does it?

Car design is a subjective area, but I think you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who would call the ‘Slade handsome or stylish. Compared with the Range Rover Sport or X5, it’s ungainly, gauche, heavy-handed and poorly proportioned. It may look sharp and snappy in the right context – cruising down the Strip in Vegas or tooling along the waterfront in Miami – but in Europe it just looks too big, overwrought and out of place.