Just how much creature comforts are found in the Cadillac Escalade Platinum (our review here)? Too much to be cleverly featured in a 30-second ad spot, that’s for sure. However, that didn’t stop Caddy’s marketing team from at least showing off a few things in the ad below.
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Love how he says “Today is an especially nice day” as the Camera points to the girl in the passenger. Nice!
Indeed 🙂
What the actor doesn’t mention is how the 3rd row of his ESV 1) doesn’t fold flat and 2) has these terribly ugly clamps right in the middle of the trunk for said 3rd row. How’s that for “how fully the interior elements adjust to suit [one’s] personal comfort”? But I digress — we all know this will be fixed with the next-gen 🙂
The Escalade is not a perfect machine, It’s about SWAGER and that’s what it has in common with Nurburg ring dominating supercars like the CTS-V.
These days, those options once reserved for only the most advanced, expensive cars are now available on mid-market and even entry-level cars. Just as an example, everything mentioned by the Escalade commercial (and more) is available on a Dodge Charger. The Ford Focus offers auto headlights, heated seats, dual-zone auto climate control,rain-sensing wipers and can parallel park itself. Nissan’s hideous new Quest has power folding rear seats and power tailgate that adjusts for height. And the upcoming Ford C-Max has a tailgate that responds to your foot gesture to open up when your arms are full.
Even in areas like ride quality, interior sound level and quality of materials, the distinctions are begging to blur. A Toyota Avalon is almost as polished (if completely numb and unexciting) as the Lexus ES350.
This is all to point out that it harder and harder for any luxury car to distinguish itself in this competitive market. Other than the “swagger factor” the Escalade doesn’t offer much more than a loaded GMC Yukon or Chevy Suburban.
Very true. I was actually thinking the same thing re luxury vehicles the other day when I drove my Cruze back-to-back with a $40,000 3 Series. The BMW had more power and some nicer touches all around, but for $20,000 less, the Cruze is just great value. The same goes for the Focus and the ill-driving Elantra.
It will be interesting to see how luxury makes differentiate themselves in the coming years from the onslaught of loaded mainstream vehicles. Perhaps we’re in a “rubber band” period right now, where mainstream has caught up to luxury from a feature-for-feature perspective, with luxury makes looking for the next-generation of differentiable features.