The 2016 Cadillac Escalade, well, the entire Escalade’s life, has turned the current, and future, Cadillac brand motif upside down.
It’s a body-on-frame SUV. It shares much of its parts with the Chevrolet Tahoe/Suburban and GMC Yukon. It’s a problem for Cadillac executives.
But, it’s a good problem to have.
The Cadillac Escalade brings home the bank for the brand, and has an average transaction price of around $85,000. As Automotive News points out, that’s a whopping $33,000 more than the Cadillac CTS.
We’ve visited this once before but, as Cadillac divulges its unfolding master plan, President Johan de Nysschen, frankly, is stumped how to balance the Escalade’s success without compromising the equity built in the latest brand strategy.
Cadillac doesn’t want the Escalade to act as an icon, even though it is without trying. While every vehicle in Cadillac’s portfolio today are well rounded machines, they don’t hold aspiration to them. The Escalade? No one feels ashamed rolling up in an Escalade. It oozes what Cadillac wants every single one of its vehicle to exude.
And that goes hand-in-hand with demographics; the Cadillac Escalade hosts the youngest buyers for the brand, residing in the late-20s to early-30s bracket. The question is, how does Cadillac get those buyers into another Cadillac?
Foremost, having additional crossovers is a good start, something being remedied as your read this, and something that has already begun with the 2017 XT5.
But, there’s something to be said of the Escalade’s success. Why not turn the Escalade into somewhat of a halo vehicle for its crossover and SUV lineup? Take the nameplate into Range Rover territory, dress it up with additional features, exquisite interiors and reap the rewards from those who simply don’t care its cousin wears a gold bowtie.
After all, what’s in a name? Plenty.
Comments
The big question is why does GM repurpose an identical vehicle across three brands with trim and marketing being the only differential . Can’t they each have a unique design?
This is the one bad habit that never fails the big three. The profits must be fat.
I totally hear you.
Escalade is the epitome of status. It is easily on a level of recognition of any luxury vehicle from Mercedes to Bentley. Cadillac has hit a home run with it. That being said, they should not change a winning formula. Leave it truck based with a big V8 under the hood. Could they expand Escalade into a brand like Range Rover? Yes, but I worry about the execution of such a plan. Cadillac has something great with Escalade and I don’t want to see that brand image hurt with a poor expansion plan.
The Escalade is an attractive vehicle for status-seekers who don’t realize they’re spending an extra $30k for a body-on-frame vehicle.
Were it to be truly, six-figure special, it’d be more than a highly-contended, repurposed GMC or Chevy.
But there are enough characters out there who desire to drive Tony Soprano’s ride, so have at it, climbers.
The probably do know that it is a body on frame vehicle and just do not care. It is a status thing and body on frame is not a factor nor is driving dynamics.
I think Cadillac should treat the Escalade like the MB G-Wagen . Exploit it for every penny they can. Make special models like a V-Sport and an ultra-premium Bentayga seeking versions and let the Escalade do it’s thing.
I hope they don’t cock it up trying to make it fit into the brand ideals.
Cadillac should be thankful that the Escalade rakes in the big bucks for GM. But at the same time they shouldn’t neglect the other models in its lineup either. It wouldn’t hurt to put more effort into promoting the vehicles, plain and simple.
This car is over price.
It’s a luxury product. It’s not overpriced. It’s just out of reach.
Why do you say this car is overpriced?
Something is overpriced only if no one is willing to pay the price you are asking for it. Since the Escalade is able to command over $80000 per copy and selling the most in the segment then it priced just right. In fact Cadillac should extend the Escalade reach with different versions and rake in more profits.
Hey, who knows when the gloss is going to wear off of big thirsty trucks. Strike while the iron is hot.
Not anytime soon, the Saudi’s don’t want the Iranians to get rich when they start selling oil with the sanctions off so the Saudi’s are going to flood the market, which means cheap gas for the rest of us. And if it does go up all the frackers will start up again.
The low gas price party has to end sometime. Electrification is the way of the future.
There are 80-90 million vehicles sold worldwide each year. That will be to much to sustain solely on fossil fuels moving forward.
I think that question is about to get answered. This is why I believe the upcoming three-row CUV is actually a proper RWD midsize CUV, and Ellinghaus is considering a new fullsize CUV to slot between the three-row and the Escalade.
So the initial product onslaught looked like:
Subcompact CUV
Compact CUV
XT5
Three-row CUV (Fullsize or midsize?)
Escalade
Now it’s looking like:
Subcompact CUV
Compact CUV
XT5
Midsize three-row CUV
(Under consideration) Fullsize CUV
Escalade
My intuition says that Cadillac is going to approve the considered full-sized Omega based CUV to go where the Escalade can’t in performance, luxury, technology, and price.
Cadillac needs to tread carefully and not mess up the allure of the Escalade. With some minor tweaks as an IRS, this vehicle can bury the competition.
Sean, not really sure the article claims the average age of the typical buyer of an Escalade is in the 20s to 30s Believe that was a quote of one of the dealers. The article does mention the average age for the ESV is 55.
What is even more interesting are the ATPs in November for all the Cadillac models in today’s version of the article: ATS $36,945; SRX $39,935; XTS $48,788, and CTS $52,075. For reference here are the starting prices for the cheapest models with either RWD, or FWD: ATS $32,700; SRX $36,600; XTS $44,290 and CTS $45,080 (all prices less current incentives). Looks like there are some real cheapo ATSs and SRXs going out the door. Probably not many loaded XTSs and CTSs either since $4,500-$7,000 doesn’t allow a lot of move up on the model chain nor many options. Let the slings and arrows fly!
I totally agree that the buyers of the Escalade don’t care its a body on frame truck . And why be embarrased that its a halo vehicle . You’ve got a winner , leave it be . With the rumored 3-row cuv coming im MY’18 Cadillac could move the Escalade further up market . Bentley and other German manufacturers are getting in the game of high end SUV’s and since the Escalade already has a great image / reputation making it a Tier 1 product just seems to make sense .
What could do it harm is to start building other SUV’s and putting an Escalade name on them ,( Escalade 1, or 2 etc.)
We need to wait and see how sales of the new XT5 are . Build the new SUV’s off of that as far as content and design .
Cadillac needs to get into the sub mid-class sector . Take some of that 12 Billion dollars and work the engineers overtime if you have too . But don’t come out with a rebadge of the Chevy Trax . That would be a disaster .
Instead of worrying that the Escalade is not fitting the brand image Cadillac should take the Escalade further up market.
They should definitely do a V-Sport model. Drop in a lightly modified version of the CTS-V powertrain (600hp/650lb.ft. torque) with the required tire/suspension and chassis upgrades. That model would do battle with the larger luxury SUV’s out there.
Also a higher trim level than the Platinum which is not exclusive enough. Even Ford has a ‘Platinum’ edition.
Maybe call this top end trim level the Platinum D’Elegance edition. I should have a restyled interior with all the best trim, column shifter should be moved to the centre console and changed to the new electronic shifter seen in the XT5, the 2nd row seats should offer the same features as in the CT6 plus a little more and the exterior should exude luxury and elegance. This model should also be available with the V-Sport powertrain. So that would make it an Escalade Platinum D’Elegance V-Sport (lol). Maybe names are not my thing but the point is Cadillac should take the Escalade up market. It is it’s natural progression.
Those models would easily allow the Escalade to crest the $100000 plateau.
Like it or not the Escalade is currently the halo model. Instead of resisting that Cadillac brass should be embrace and run with it.