2014 Cadillac Xts Luxury on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2015 Cadillac Escalade

I have never liked traveling to Monterey, CA. The picturesque coastal city is about 300 miles from my home in Los Angeles, which means cramped and uncomfortable regional aircraft are part of the equation when the turnaround is only one night. Over the years, I have cursed the LA Basin's bumper-to-bumper traffic en route to the airport, argued with TSA personnel over carry-on baggage and waited countless hours for the fog to lift just for the anguish of being packed into a small regional jet for the flight. Of course, the process repeats on the trip home with equal misery.
Yet this time I am not suffering.
Cadillac has dropped its all-new 2015 Escalade in my driveway. Instead of battling city congestion, attempting to reason with misinformed government agents, snacking on a too-small bag of pretzels and physically rubbing shoulders with a dubious stranger for 90-plus minutes within the confines of a bumpy aircraft, I have chosen to forgo air travel and drive myself door-to-door in a fullsize luxury sport utility vehicle.

Cadillac shows 2015 Escalade interior

Following the reveal of the new GMC Yukon, Chevy Tahoe and Suburban, the next in line is Cadillac, which is set to unveil the new Escalade on October 7 in New York. And in the lead-up to the reveal, the company has released this third teaser image, giving us a good glimpse of the 'Slade's interior.
Or part of the interior, we should say, because while the image above clearly shows the new dashboard and center console, as well as parts of the front seats and interior door panels, the Escalade is most certainly not a two-seat coupe. The outgoing Escalade can accommodate up to eight in either standard or ESV form (but not in EXT pickup configuration), and the new model promises to deliver the same, and we're curious to see what Cadillac has in store for the rear passenger compartment.
Compared to its more accessible counterparts, the new Escalade clearly offers a more upscale environment than even the uplevel Yukon Denali, with softer-looking leather, richer wood veneer and a waterfall center infotainment console that's different from the more modular design in the Chevy and GMC. The steering wheel is also unique and the instrument cluster appears to meld more smoothly across the dashboard, but the door mirrors, wide center armrest, column shifter and A-pillar grab handle all look like they were carried over from the Escalade's platform mates.

2016 Cadillac ATS-V First Drive [w/video]

If you get hot and bothered for hot-rodded sedans and coupes, you probably know that Germans have long dominated that cutthroat scene. For years, the Audi RS/BMW M/Mercedes-AMG triumvirate has ruled the microcosm of grunty, mid-level luxury cars. But a funny thing happened when Cadillac's first V car hit the market in 2004. Since the CTS-V crashed the high horsepower party, German tuning houses started thinking less about the "Daddy's Caddy" stereotypes and more about the next imminent threat – in this case, the inevitable high-horsepower spinoff of the smaller, nimbler Cadillac ATS. The standard ATS' defense against the German triad hasn't been triumphant so far (GM's Michigan plant was idled for three weeks in 2014 due to excess inventory), but the souped-up 2016 Cadillac ATS-V presents a fresh bid to put the Teutonic competition on alert. The ATS-V's flared bodywork and quad exhaust pipes offer bits of visual shock and awe, but significant hardware upgrades back up the go-fast looks. Front and center is a twin-turbocharged, 3.6-liter V6 with reworked internals including a charge-air cooler, titanium connecting rods, and titanium-aluminide turbines. The new engine produces 464 horsepower and 445 pound-feet of torque, up a staggering 262 hp and 173 lb-ft compared to a base, four-cylinder ATS. Those output figures eclipse the BMW M3/M4 (425 hp, 406 lb-ft) and Audi RS5 (450 hp, 317 lb-ft), but lag slightly behind the V8-powered Mercedes-AMG C63 (476 hp, 479 lb-ft), and more so the C63 S (503 hp, 516 lb-ft). The chassis benefits from several structural braces, most notably a shear panel intended to boost front-end stiffness. Extra poundage from the add-ons are minimized through lighter-weight materials – in the case of the shear panel, stamped aluminum. Cadillac says though it intended to make the ATS the quickest car in its segment (stated 0-60 mph times between 3.8 and 3.9 second virtually match the BMW M4 and Mercedes-AMG C63 S' 3.9 figure), the development team says they also focused on subjective qualities like turn-in quickness and steering response. As such, toe links have been replaced with ball joints, mounts have been retuned, and reworked magnetic damping offer greater responsiveness. Six suspension bushings have been stiffened and ten have been completely redesigned, and the Performance Traction Management system that tames beasts like the Corvette Z06 and Camaro ZL1 also helps lay down power in the ATS-V.