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If your driving life demands plenty of room for people plus cargo, along with luxury amenities and a brash aura, the Escalade could be your breed of SUV. Though not quite as glitzy in this iteration as the last, the audacious Escalade continues to get you noticed.
A power rear liftgate heads the list of standard features in the amply-equipped Escalade. Compatibility brackets, built into the front frame, could reduce damage to other vehicles in a collision. Side-curtain airbags include tethers for enhanced rollover protection. Front seatbelt pretensioners activate in rear impacts•said to be an "industry-exclusive" feature. GM's StabiliTrak system incorporates rollover mitigation technology. Audiophiles can enjoy Bose 5.1 Digital Surround Sound, while everyone benefits from Cadillac's Auto Ride suspension. Integrated tow hooks are standard. A tap-up/tap-down manual mode for the transmission works easily and promptly, using buttons on the column-mounted gearshift lever.
Besides concentrating on proportions and execution, designers strove toward such detail refinements as reduced body gaps. All major components and sheet metal are new, according to Cadillac, including fully-wrapped front and rear fascias, triple-stack HID headlamps, and a unique D-pillar treatment. Noteworthy doors, inspired by Cadillac's Sixteen concept car, wrap over the rocker panels. Ventiports adorn the front fenders, and the windshield is steeper. Track width has grown by three inches up front, and a coil-over-shock suspension replaces the prior torsion bars. The boxed frame promises 49-percent greater torsional stiffness.
Cadillac has enlarged its V8 engine from 6.0 to 6.2 liters, and given it a substantial boost beyond the previous 345 horsepower. With its two overdrive ratios and wide gear-ratio spread, the new Hydra-Matic 6L80 six-speed automatic transmission is said to be nearly equivalent to a seven-speed. Manual-shift mode uses column-lever buttons.