LIKES
- Gorgeous interior
- Lots of torque regardless of engine
- Smooth ride
- An adult-sized third row
- Super Cruise for relaxing highway driving
DISLIKES
- It’s massive
- Styling’s subtly changed at the rear
- Turbodiesel’s a miss on value
- Where’s the hybrid?
BUYING TIP
The 2022 Cadillac Escalade rolls like a luxury fortress.
What kind of vehicle is the 2022 Cadillac Escalade? What does it compare to?
With the Escalade, Cadillac mounts a luxurious challenge to other full-size, three-row SUVs ranging from the related Chevrolet Tahoe/Suburban and GMC Yukon to the Lincoln Navigator, BMW X7, and Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class.
Is the 2022 Cadillac Escalade a good SUV?
It’s powerful in both its appeal and its performance. With demerits for fuel economy and some crash tests, we give the Escalade a TCC Rating of 7.2 out of 10.
What's new for the 2022 Cadillac Escalade?
New last year, the 2022 Escalade gets only a few minor tweaks in feature availability this year. It hardly needed to change: attractively brutish, with big shoulders and a wide grille, the well-tailored Escalade has a cabin that positively glows, thanks to a wide band of digital displays that augments reality for the driver, entertains the passengers, and nestles in among wood and leather trim to look genuinely luxurious.
The biggest Cadillac SUVs seats up to eight people, and the third row’s useful for adults this time. But who would sit back there when the front two rows have heated seats and personal entertainment screens? The payoff comes in cargo space; even the shorter Escalade has about a hundred cubic feet of space behind the front seats. It’s a taskmaster and a chore hound, leather-wrapped cabin and all.
Every Escalade comes with automatic emergency braking, parking sensors, active lane control, and a surround-view camera system. Most versions add blind-spot monitors, adaptive cruise control, automatic park assist, and night vision.
How much does the 2022 Cadillac Escalade cost?
With 2022 prices yet to come, the base Escalade should cost less than $80,000, including its standard power front seats, synthetic leather upholstery, wireless smartphone charging, 19-speaker AKG audio, and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. We’d select the Escalade Sport for about $90,000, with its leather upholstery, magnetic dampers, adaptive cruise control, and automatic park assist.
Where is the 2022 Cadillac Escalade made?
In Arlington, Texas.
Styling
Luxury, meet brawn.
Is the Cadillac Escalade a good-looking car?
Angular and brawny, the Escalade commands attention with its toned body and coddles passengers with a tony interior. We give it a couple of extra points for the exterior and one for the cabin, for an 8.
Starting with the Cadillac badge pressed into its shiny black or chrome grille, the Escalade is bluff from its tall front end to its vertical taillights and has an imposing stance. Subtle fender flares break up the vast expanses of squared-off panels, and the Escalade tapers only slightly before it cuts off the styling discussion with those tall taillights.
Performance
Strong and smooth with its V-8, the Escalade handles its power well.
The Escalade now offers a turbodiesel option, but stick with us here: look no further than its muscly V-8. It’s the one of the best of a dying breed, and charges the Escalade with all the power it needs to make the most of its enjoyable ride and handling. With a point extra each for its drivetrain and its suspension tuning, the Escalade gets a 7 here.
Is the Cadillac Escalade 4WD?
Rear-wheel-drive Escalades can be fitted with four-wheel drive with a 2-speed transfer case and a limited-slip rear differential (mechanical or electronic, depending on the model).
How fast is the Cadillac Escalade?
The new engine on the block, a 277-hp 3.0-liter turbodiesel-6, arrived late in the 2021 model year. It’s capable enough, but slow in comparison with the usual Escalade drivetrain. On top of that, it takes years at current fuel prices to make the diesel pay back its extra cost—and it tows less.
The only real choice here is GM’s effortlessly strong and smooth 420-hp 6.2-liter V-8. Teamed with a 10-speed automatic, it hustles off the line and whispers through gearshifts on its way to 60 mph in about six seconds flat. It’s a superb combination, one that can tow up to 8,200 lb with an available tow package.
In its latest redesign, the Escalade adopted a new independent rear suspension, which does wonders for its ride and handling. Without any further add-ons, the Escalade delivers poised road manners, great road isolation, and quick steering responses. Cadillac offers adaptive magnetic dampers and an air suspension, which can lower or raise the Escalade by up to four inches; the combination offers a fast-reacting suspension that flattens out what would otherwise be a cumbersome ride, lowers the vehicle for better fuel economy, raises it for better ground clearance, and grants it a deft and maneuverable feel that finally puts it on par with Lincoln’s Navigator. It’s still difficult to park—the big SUV feels even bigger when trying to slip into a slimmer space—but with nicely weighted steering and a more controlled ride, the Escalade puts good road manners in its win column.
Comfort & Quality
The Escalade has space and swagger.
With its vast interior and swanky fitments, the Escalade SUV earns a perfect 10 for comfort and utility, whether it’s an ESV or not.
Even base Escalades have front seats that adjust a dozen ways, with heating and options for cooling and massaging and scads of space in all directions; a good driving position’s just a few toggles away for most drivers. Synthetic leather upholstery morphs into real hides on most trim levels. Wood trim panels the dash, and though Cadillac uses cheaper plastics on knee-level trim, it’s almost invisible amid the wash of digital displays and soft upholstery. At long last, the Escalade’s interior is sensational, though still more low key than that of the Navigator.
Row two can seat three across when it’s a no-cost bench seat, but most Escalades have captain’s chairs there, with tall doors that ease access for tall passengers. A pair of 12.6-inch entertainment screens keep those passengers distracted.
Safety
Cadillac offers lots of safety features, but the Escalade has no crash tests.
How safe is the Cadillac Escalade?
The IIHS hasn’t put the Escalade through its tougher regimen of crash tests, but the NHTSA says it earns a four-star overall rating—a disappointing score for a new vehicle, especially since it incorporates a three-star rollover resistance rating.
The Escalade has standard automatic emergency braking, active lane control, front and rear parking sensors, and a surround-view camera system. Higher trim levels add on standard blind-spot monitors, adaptive cruise control, and automatic park assist. Night vision is optional, as is Super Cruise, the driver-assist function that permits hands-free driving on a network of more than 130,000 miles of U.S. roads.
Features
The Escalade's big sticker matches its big equipment list.
The Escalade positively swims in standard features and options, and it has excellent infotainment. The 4-year/50,000-mile warranty comes with the first maintenance visit for free—very close to earning another point. We give it an 8 here.
Prices haven’t been released for 2022, but the base Escalade with rear-wheel drive costs about $78,000, or roughly $2,000 more for the longer ESV. Standard features include synthetic leather upholstery, 12-way power front seats, heated first- and second-row seats, wireless smartphone charging, remote start, a hands-free tailgate, 22-inch wheels, and a 19-speaker AKG sound system.
Escalade infotainment has an OLED curved screen, fast responses, and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
For about $90,000, the Escalade Sport gains leather upholstery, a panoramic sunroof, magnetic dampers, an electronically controlled limited-slip rear differential, and a trailering package, as well as adaptive cruise control and automatic park assist.
How much is a fully loaded Cadillac Escalade?
For more than $100,000, the Platinum Luxury and Sport Luxury Escalades pile on semi-aniline leather upholstery, 16-way massaging front seats, 36-speaker AKG audio, and a mode-controlled air suspension.
Fuel Economy
The Escalade’s Achilles heel is gas mileage.
Is the Cadillac Escalade good on gas?
It’s not. With EPA ratings of 14 mpg city, 19 highway, 16 combined, it earns a 3 here. With the turbodiesel and four-wheel drive, it’s pegged at 20/26/22 mpg—better, but by no means stellar.
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