Yahoo Autos 2023 Cadillac Escalade-V First Drive Review: 682 horses, loud exhaust, $5 gas
PHOENIX – The 2023 Cadillac Escalade-V was not always in the cards. According to designer Robert Hunwick Jr., his team did a rendering of a more performance-oriented version of the next-generation Escalade during that truck’s development. Focus groups loved it, commenting that it should be part of the lineup from the get-go. Obviously, it wasn’t – the current Escalade debuted for ’21 without a V. But two years later, that performance-oriented Escalade is here, complete with a 682-horsepower supercharged 6.2-liter V8. Just in time for gas prices to hit $5 per gallon.
Cadillac conveniently made the Escalade-V available for press drives before official EPA gas mileage estimates are available, but considering the regular 4x4 Escalade and its naturally aspirated 6.2-liter V8 returns 16 miles per gallon combined, one can assume adding 262 extra horses is going to make it a wee bit thirstier. Maybe 13 mpg combined? The trip computer showed 14.5 after 150 miles of highway driving. So yeah, that’s terrible. As is Cadillac’s timing. Or luck. Either way, the purchaser of an Escalade-V will have to be OK shelling out loads of excess cash to Shell.
Now, we frequently hear the argument that people happily doling out giant sums of money for giant SUVs couldn’t care less if their gas tank costs more to fill up than someone else’s more efficient giant SUV. Gas mileage? Who cares! The environment? Ha, good one. Very well, then. Let’s just accept that those with sufficient financial largesse to afford the Escalade-V’s starting price of $149,990 do not care about such things.
Perhaps they will instead care about the 682 hp and 653 pound-feet of torque that pours out of the hand-built V8 to the tune of four fat exhaust pipes that blare, warble, crackle and pop enough to completely reimagine the Escalade soundtrack. When it comes to the V, the tunes outside matter just as much as those inside – though we’ll be touching on the punching AKG sound system a bit latter. There are actually three exhaust sound levels, including a not-exactly-accurate Stealth mode that you’ll need to have the foresight to engage before early-morning start-ups. The ignition bark is otherwise so loud, borderline startling and some would say absurd, that you’re bound to make enemies amongst neighbors and family members alike.
“You woke up the baby with your damn Escalade again,” seems like a likely refrain among the Escalade’s surprisingly young, 40ish average buyer.
The Escalade-V’s engine shares architectural similarities with the CT5-V Blackwing V8. The biggest change is the larger supercharger, which gusts 2.65 liters of air per rev into that small block. The Escalade’s higher inlet pressure and higher exhaust pressure necessitated the larger blower. There are also bigger charge coolers, an extra electronic fan for a grand total of three, and a swap to an electronic throttle body. The end result is an engine that can catapult 6,217 pounds worth of full-size SUV from zero to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds. You can add a tick or two for the 6,407-pound, Suburban-sized Escalade-V ESV we drove, but dude. This is some seriously quick family transport.
And indeed, that’s exactly what the Escalade-V is intended for. There was no ridiculous talk of canyon carving, nor were we taken to the dusty confines of a track somewhere to fully test the fat six-piston Brembo brakes and magnetically controlled, adaptive air suspension with V-exclusive components. It’s a much faster and louder Escalade, and is certainly more responsive to drive, but it’s still authentically an Escalade. It has three rows of seats habitable by even tall adults (unlike the even-quicker Mercedes-AMG GLS 63) and a class-leading amount of cargo space. The latter swells even further with the ESV.
Escalade Sport left, Escalade-V right
The design team also mercifully restrained itself, refraining from goofy carbon fiber appliques and the sort of extravagances of questionable taste past Cadillac V models were festooned with.
