2015 Cadillac Escalade: First Impressions

2015 Cadillac Escalade⁶

For the past 10 years, I have not paid any mind to the Cadillac Escalade. Why, because for the past 14 years the Cadillac Escalade was just a rebadged GMC Yukon Denali and Chevy Tahoe. Don't believe me? Go on Google Images and look at the interior shots of all three vehicles in the same model year and you will see the similarities. Now of course the materials and colors will be different and there will be subtle layout differences, but look at the overall design. You will see that the steering wheels are identical, the center consoles are the same, and even the dashboards are similar. Pop the hood and you'll even see the same LS V8 mated to the same transmission in all the three vehicles. The main problem about rebadged cars is all of the problems found in the lower tier vehicle will be found in the more expensive vehicles. So in 2011 when the Chevy Yukon was recalled for steering and rear suspension problems, the 2011 GMC Denali and Cadillac Escalade suffered through those same recalls^1,2,3. And when the Chevy Yukon was recalled for brakes, steering, and transmission problems in 2012, the 2012 GMC Denali and Cadillac Escalade had to be recalled too^4,5. What happened to brand separation? Ford had this same problem with Mercury and Lincoln and look where that have gotten them; Mercury is dead and Lincoln had to overhaul their entire company to stay afloat. GM really needs to pay attention and do a better job at establishing brand separation. Even though some Audis use the same chassis as Volkswagen and some Lexus’s are based off Toyota’s platform, you cannot distinguish the lower tiered vehicles from its more expensive counterpart. Although GM rebadges a handful of their vehicles and all of those vehicles are currently North American exclusives, Cadillac cannot afford to mess up with any of their vehicles. They only have 5 main models in their lineup and they cannot assume that the ATS and the CTS (their most popular vehicles) will keep them out of trouble.

Thankfully, Cadillac is beginning to pay more attention to their brand image and is moving in the right direction despite GM’s dwindling stock numbers. The new 2015 Cadillac Escalade is beginning to redefine its image and move away from its Chevy and Yukon brothers. They are all based off the same platform, which is ok, but the Escalade offers a different exterior, interior, powertrain, and features than its younger brothers. That is a huge step in the right direction.  Let’s take a first look at the new Escalade, the SUV that reintroduce Cadillac into the luxury market back in 1999.

Design

Bold, advanced, and luxurious are the 3 words that came to mind when I first saw the new 2015 Cadillac Escalade. If you ask Cadillac what they think of the design, they would say art and science. Art and science is the new design inspiration that Cadillac is starting to use in their recent models. Whether you can see this art and science inspiration in the new Cadillac’s is based on a viewer’s perception but the inspiration is there.

Beautiful LED headlights and accent lights that extend down the bumper⁶

The headlights are the most noticeable design feature that holds the art and science DNA. These headlights are made up of LED lights instead of the traditional bulbs and projector beam units that we are used too. Because LED are lighter, brighter and last 20 times longer than traditional light sources, designers can go crazy when designing light units and consumers don’t have to buy and replace their bulbs anymore. When I look at the Cadillac’s headlights, it’s basically a vertical version of Acura’s Jewel headlights seen in their new vehicles. These LED ice cubes are then neighbored by a long LED accent light that runs all the way down to the bumper. Remember those accent lights; just like how you can recognize an Audi from afar just by its LED accent light, you will recognize current and future Cadillac’s with these long vertical accent lights day or night. The same concept is seen in the taillights, all LED lights (not new) formatted in very long and narrow tail lights (very new). The automotive internet world has shared some negative views and criticism about these tail lights. But I personally don’t believe people hate them because they are ugly, I believe people don’t like them because they different, new, and nothing else is like it one the market. People are natural conservatives; we don’t like change or new things. Just wait till 2015 and popularity increases, people will begin to like this tail light design. Overall exterior designs extremely well when you get the ESV model.

The current controversial tail lights⁶

The interior is just as luxurious and revolutionary as the exterior. I am pleased to see that the interior looks nothing like the GMC Yukon and Chevy Tahoe. It’s a beautiful montage of premium leather, woods, and technology. The very noticeable center stack retains the waterfall or V-like effect that is seen on the grill in the exterior. I pray that the QUE infotaiment system is improved in this Escalade because the current generation in the Cadillac ETS, ATS, and CTS is slow, hard to use while driving, and unresponsive. The QUE system is not all bad, its a good idea and may revolutionize the infotainment industry when it's fixed. But as of now, you will miss simple knobs and buttons to adjust climate control, control volume, and perform other simple actions. The no button theme also continues on the steering wheel, which will be interesting to try out for myself. For those who don’t know what I mean by no button theme; Cadillac’s new center console uses a black touch screen like plate instead of traditional physical buttons. The Que system will also collaborate with the all new 12” reconfigurable gauge cluster to display pages upon pages of driver information⁶.

All new interior including new steering wheel and virtual guage cluster .
That twotone color design is sexy.⁶

Luxury is maintained all the way to the back seats.
Looks better in the Kona brown color option⁶

There are 3 trim levels offered for the Escalade; Standard, Luxury, and Premium. The Luxury trim offers 22" rims, driver awareness packages (only warnings, not active), a head up display, and IntelliBeam headlamps6. One of the driver awareness features is the Rear Cross-Traffic Alert from the ETS. This feature is amazing! Everyone who drives full size SUVs know how nerve wrecking it can be when they back out into traffic in the city or close quarter environments. The IntelliBeam headlamps continuously scans for vehicles ahead and when they sense an oncoming vehicle, the headlight will dim to prevent you from blinding those vehicles. The Premium trim includes everything from the Luxury package but changes all of the driver awareness features from warnings to full automatic, and adds a 9" rear sear entertainment system6.

Cadillac has down a good job integrating the lines from the
power dome with the grill⁶

Powertrain

                The 2015 Cadillac Escalade’s powertrain is also all new and exclusive. The new Escalade will be equipped with a 6.2L V8 engine with direct injection, variable valve timing, and active fuel management producing a whopping 420 hp and 460 lb-ft of torque⁶. That’s a 17 hp and 43 lb-ft bump over the current Escalade’s 6.2L Vortec V8⁷. Does this new engine sound familiar? Does it sounds allot like the 6.2L V8 used in the new Corvette Stingray? Before you get too excited let me inform you that they are not the same engine. Despite occupying the same volume and using the same technology, this V8 is an all new engine available in the new Escalade and GMC Denali. Thanks to the active fuel management technology (disables 4 of the cylinders for maximum fuel economy) in the new V8, we should expect better fuel economy than the current generation (14 MPG city/18 MPG highway) despite producing more power⁷. Interesting fact; despite producing more power in the new engine, Cadillac actually lowered its trailering max from 8300 lbs to 8200 lbs^6,7. I wonder why that is. I know most don’t associate an Escalade as a vehicle to tow a yacht but I have seen it personally so there is a market niche.

Side profile of the new 2015 Cadillac Escalade⁶

                Carried over from the current model and found throughout GM vehicles, the new Escalade will include the Magnetic Ride Control. This suspension system is a GM savior. I knew it was something special when I saw that GM sold its usage to Ferrari. Magnetic Ride Control monitors the road about 1000 times a second and continuously makes adjustments to road conditions to produce the smoothest ride and best handling.

Competition

                The competitors for the Cadillac Escalade are the Land Rover, Infiniti QX56, Lexus GX, Lincoln Navigator, and maybe the Mercedes-Benz GL. Even though current and past Escalades was able to keep up with the large luxury SUV market, it was always towards the bottom of the list. Why? I believe past Escalades was able to sell mainly because of its image and statement it stood for rather than its quality, durability, and luxury. It's like the Hummer, people brought the Hummer because it was a Hummer. Buyers wanted that manly war-toughened vehicle and wanted to be seen in one, not because the Hummer was a good reliable car (it wasn’t) and could trek across the mountains like a military vehicle (not even close to be able to do that). The Escalade has a statement and image associated with it, and previous buyers brought the Escalade because of that image. Cadillac cannot continue to produce average vehicles and run their marketing strategy on this “buy a Cadillac because it’s a Cadillac” statement. They need to step up their game if they intend to dwell in this market place and charge a whopping $65,000 – $85,000 for an Escalade. America does not want an $80,000 version of a Chevy Tahoe, we want a luxury vehicle that offers performance, durability, technology that makes consumers question other companies like Lexus, and Infinity.

The ESV's proportions fits the Escalade's design well⁶

                In the past, I never paid the Cadillac Escalade any mind because it was an example of rebadging at its finest. I was serious when I said that America does not need an $80,000 Chevy Tahoe; that’s what the GMC Yukon Denali is for. America needs a Cadillac, a luxury vehicle that uses its art and science philosophy to produce vehicles that are unique and competitive in today’s market. Cadillac is beginning to branch into the right direction but based on my first look, they are not there yet. Yes Cadillac produced a new vehicle unique from its GM cousins, but I am not convinced they produced a vehicle that is seriously competitive against other luxury SUVs. Don’t get me wrong, people will purchase the new Escalade in large numbers mainly because it’s an Escalade. But Cadillac will struggle to attract enough new customers to move it up the top large luxury SUV list.

Work Cited

1.       MotorTrend. "2011 Cadillac Escalade Recalls." Motor Trend Magazine. MotorTrend.com, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. <http://www.motortrend.com/cars/2011/cadillac/escalade/recalls/>.

2.       MotorTrend. "2011 Chevrolet Tahoe Recalls." Motor Trend Magazine. MotorTrend.com, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. <http://www.motortrend.com/cars/2011/chevrolet/tahoe/recalls/>.

3.       MotorTrend. "2011 GMC Yukon Recalls." Motor Trend Magazine. MotorTrend.com, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. <http://www.motortrend.com/cars/2011/gmc/yukon/recalls/>.

4.       MotorTrend. "Chevrolet Tahoe Recalls." Motor Trend Magazine. MotorTrend.com, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. <http://www.motortrend.com/new_cars/08/chevrolet/tahoe/recalls/>.

5.       MotorTrend. "GMC Yukon Recalls." Motor Trend Magazine. MotorTrend.com, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. <http://www.motortrend.com/new_cars/08/gmc/yukon/recalls/>.

6.       Cadillac. "2015 Escalade Luxury SUV | Cadillac." Cadillac.com. Cadillac.com, n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2013. <http://www.cadillac.com/future-cars/2015-escalade.html>.

7.       Cadillac. "STANDARD & OPTIONAL EQUIPMENT." Cadillac.com. Cadillac.com, n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2013. <http://www.cadillac.com/escalade-suv/features-specs/standard-optional-equipment.html>.

Read More

2014 Nissan GT-R Review

The Nissan GT-R is probably the most well known and most talked about sports car in the automotive world over the last decade. In all of its reviews, reporters reflect the GT-R as some type of super car god that has no flaws. The truth is that there are a lot of flaws, and I am prepared to expose them all. Currently the 2013 GT-R comes in 3 versions excluding the Midnight Opal Special edition, the standard Premium edition ($99,590), the attractive Black edition ($109,330), and the raw Track edition ($115,710)⁵.  The Black edition comes with a dry carbon-fiber rear spoiler as oppose to colored, an attractive set of 20” black Rays® wheels, and a black and red Recaro® front seats. The Track Edition comes with everything the Black edition has plus additional brake cooling, a track-tuned suspension, and makes your interior blue and grey while robbing you of your back seats⁷. I will be talking about the premium edition since it the version that most buyers will be purchasing.

Design

Design? The Nissan GT-R does not truly have a design. The overall dimension and look is designed to be entirely functional. Every curve, vent, duct, lines, and angle are there increase downforce, improve aerodynamics, and reduce drag; not to when a beauty contest. Not much else to say about it. The Nissan GT-R is a lot larger in person than you may expect. Despite being coupe, the big brawny stature makes it as large as most midsize sedans being 15.3 feet long and 6.2 feet wide. The large space also carries itself inside. The cabin is pretty roomy for a sports car, offering good visibility outside and plenty of elbow room. The GT-R is classified as a 2+2 coupe but those backseats are useless unless you chop your legs off or pile girls on top of one another, either way it’s cramped.

Despite the GT-R’s bland exterior, the interior thankfully have some styling to it starting with the leather everywhere. The seats, door trim, and dashboard is all lined with smooth leather littered with suede inserts and carbon fiber trim. The cabin’s interior is average; it’s not super luxurious like the Audi R8’s or tech savvy like the Porsche’s. Here’s the main problem, interior only comes in black. Why would Nissan only offer one standard interior color? Where’s the variety, imagination, and customizing possibilities. It’s probably to push buyers into purchasing the $4,000 premium interior package that offers a very attractive red/amber and black interior on the Premium version of the GT-R the standard ⁷. In terms of parts of the interior that the driver interacts with, the dashboard is clean and well laid out. There is a large firm leather wrapped steering, perfectly sized paddle shifters mounted on the steering column (like it’s suppose to be), and center stack with perfectly placed buttons. The interior is just simple. And for the first time, simple is better. I know everyone knows about that famous 7 inch LCD touch screen build in collaboration by Sony and other companies no one cares about. Everyone knows about the 8 or so default screens and 4 customizable screens that display 18 different parameters of information. It’s honestly really cool for the first couple months, you will not stop looking at it and changing displays but eventually it’ll get old and you will forget about it. That screen also comes with Nissan’s hard drive navigation system and a backup camera⁵. The navigation system does the job well but unless your concern about data usage, I would just you my phone. Good news is that the screen and all of its features, except Sirius’ NavTraffic and NavWeather, are standard. Good job Nissan.

Powertrain

The 2014 Nissan GT-R still comes with that brutal 3.8 liter twin turbo V6 engine that produces 545hp and 463lb-ft of torque. Every engine is hand-assembled by a single technician (like AMG) in a temperature controlled clean room (not like AMG). Thanks to its independent intake system for each cylinder bank, the GT-R’s engine feels lively as it revs to 7,000 rpm without much turbo lag⁶. The 463lb-ft of twisting forces is sent through a 6-speed sequential dual clutch automated manual transmission and laid down to the grown via its ATTESA E-TS® all wheel drive. In case you don’t know, ATTESA E-TS® stands for Advanced Total Traction Engineering System for All-Terrain and its been with the Nissan family since 1989⁶. With the legendary launch control, the GT-R can blast from 0 to 60mph in a hypercar level 2.7 seconds. After all, it’s that launch control that gave the Nissan GT-R its world famous reputation. I will be explaining how the Nissan GT-R performs its launch control in mind blending speeds sometime next week so stay tune for that post. The world class Bilstein® DampTronic® suspension system is another one of the GT-R’s trump cards that continuously adjusts the shock absorber damping based on vehicle speed, lateral acceleration, torque, engine rpm, and braking behavior to provide the best suspension damping for the situation. Honestly, I believe that this DampTronic® system is one of the most advance suspension systems currently on the market. It’s mainly because of this suspension system that the GT-R is so superior on the track and drivable on the road.

Associated with the trio of toggle switches on the dash, the GT-R has few personalities that you can choose from at any time. The first toggle closest to the driver influences the transmission to choose between Snow, normal, and R-Mode. Snow mode, which Nissan themselves call it Save, is for gentle torque delivery for long distance and bad weather driving. R-Mode of course offers the fastest shifts times (0.15 sec) by preselecting and priming the next gear before you click the paddle shifter⁶. The GT-R’s intelligent brain is even able to prep and prime a lower gear by monitoring whether you are braking, so downshifts are just as immediate and fast as upshifts. The middle toggle controls the suspension between automatic, comfort, and R-mode. The last toggle furthest from the driver controls the traction control or Vehicle Dynamic Control (VDC). My advice to you is “Unless you are activating Launch control, DO NOT TOUCH THAT TOGGLE BECAUSE YOU MAY VOID YOUR WARRANTY”!! I will also be discussing about this warranty problem in my next post, you don't want to miss it.

Driving a GT-R is full of emotion, both good and bad. The good emotions come from the torque, the speed, and more torque. Flooring the GT-R on a straight will never get old, ever. No matter how many times you do it or what mood you're in, downshifting a few times and pressing the accelerator will always make you laugh and smile. Launch control is just brutal, ripping your face off and exceeding the speed limit before you even realize what happened. Other than the GT-R’s launch, you will probably never accelerate that fast ever again. Just don’t do it repeatedly, launch control puts a lot of stress on the vehicle and something is bound to fail if you do it back to back. The last of the good emotions comes from the price. For just over a $100,000, you will not get that much performance for that price anytime soon. The launch control’s 0-60mph acceleration, the unmatched ability to hold the road, the confidence it gives the drivers, and lap times that are in league with supercars makes the GT-R a steal. It’s just hard not to resist the GT-R.

The bad emotions mainly exist in the city. The GT-R’s suspension is pretty stiff even in comfort mode. I personally don’t think it’s too bad, but I can easily see consumers complain about it. Rough city roads can beat you up and give you a headache, but only in the city. Driving on the highway or country road feels like driving any other sports car. The Audi R8, who directly competes with this car, does have a much better ride than the GT-R. On the flip side a better ride on the road equals body roll on the track so you can’t blame Nissan. Also the 6-speed double clutch transmission is extremely clunky at slow speeds. Now all DCTs are jerky at slow speeds; some are better than others but that’s just part of owning a double clutch manual. The GT-R’s double clutch transmission is one of the worse, nothing that should deter people from buying one but it’s really annoying in traffic. The last disappointment comes from those quad exhaust pipes. Those pipes look stunning and super aggressive; I can fit my entire fist in just one of those tips. But after hearing what comes out from those pipes from the outside and within the cabin, I realize that those pipes produce an ugly noise. They just produce a moan-like roar that gets louder as RPM rises. The old GT-Rs, I mean the ones from the late 80’s and early 90’s makes an auditory orgasmic sound. I miss that sound and I wish the current GT-R sounded a little bit better.

Options:

                This section is going to be really short because sadly Nissan only offers 3 package options. The first is the Premium Interior package ($3,000) that I mentioned before⁷. It offers a red, amber, and black interior that, depending on your exterior color, will be an attractive addition to your GT-R. The next package is the $3,000 Super Silver Special Metallic Paint option⁷. Wonder how many suckers they convinced to choose that option. The last option is one that everyone should pay attention too. The standard GT-R comes with a set of Dunlop® SP Sport MAXX GT 600 CTT high-performance run-flat tires filled with nitrogen (what a mouth full)⁶. Those tires are awesome in terms of providing maximum grip to both perform face numbing launches and support insane lateral Gs around corners. Unfortunately, the world is not one big Formula 1 race track with constant sunny skies. When the heavens open up and the roads become slippery, those Dunlop® sport MAXXs are unbelievably scary to be driving on. You are probably wondering; “but the GT-R has all wheel drive.” But I would respond to you by saying; “Yes but even in snow mode, you are only as good as your tires.” You can have the world’s greatest stability control and 4 wheel drive system in your vehicle, they can’t help you once your car has gained momentum and your tires can not offer the grip to turn or stop. Nissan knows this, that’s why their 3^rd option, the Cold Weather package, is offered for FREE⁷!!! This package offers Dunlop® SP Sport 7010 all-season run-flat tires and 50/50 coolant⁷. If you plan on driving this on a regular basis or you live in the deciduous climate zone, this package is a must buy. Because these are all-season tires, your 0-60 mph times maybe be about 2 hundreds of a second slower. I would definitely sacrifice 2 hundreds of a second for an improvement in overall drivability, who is going to notice that I accelerate a blink of an eye slower. If you are really determined to maintain that 2.7 second acceleration, than just buy those sport MAXXs al la carte from your local dealer. Those are Nissan’s 3 packages for the GT-R; one is completely pointless, one is a total up sale tool, and one is extremely important. Also keep an eye out for the Midnight Opal Special edition, or what I like to call “the Need for Speed Underground edition”. It has the purple and brown dynamic reflective pain that changes as your angle changes. They are only making 100 of these editions, 50 is for the USA and 50 for the rest of the world.  Furthermore, especially keep an eye out for the ultimate GT-R coming out in 2015 called the GT-R Nismo.

Since their debut in 2008 the Nissan GT-R has been a hot topic in car magazine, blogs, and YouTube comments. Most of those comments and reviews have been extremely bias, shining a god-like light upon the GT-R as it eats supercars alive. Here is the most popular GT-R comment: “The Nissan GT-R is a budget supercar.” After experiencing the GT-R, I say it’s more along the lines as a really good sports car than a budget supercar. Supercars have a charisma and a presence to them that no other cars have. People who don’t even know anything about cars knows what a Ferrari or a Lamborghini is and is excited to see one. The world will stop to take a picture of a supercar. The Nissan GT-R does not have that level of presence or charisma; it does not form crowds, or makes random people’s day, or start conversations like a supercar does. But whatever you call it, the GT-R is a monster of a vehicle. The Nissan GT-R has 4 key features that places it in the legendary list of sports cars; the launch control’s 0-60mph acceleration, the unmatched ability to hold the road, the confidence it gives drivers, and lap times that are in league with supercars. All of the other features are mediocre if not surpassed by its competitors, but all that gets negated after a quick launch or brisk drive on a canyon road. I wouldn’t say the Nissan GT-R is the best car in the world, but it is definitely up there on the list.

Resources

1.       Nissan GTR Wallpaper 2013 Wallpaper." Radiope.com RSS. Radiope.com, n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://www.radiope.com/nissan-gtr-wallpaper-2013.html>.

2.       Nissan. "2014 Nissan GT-R Colors & Photos." Nissan USA. Nissan USA, n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://www.nissanusa.com/sportscars/gt-r/colors-photos#_exterior>.

3.       Geiger, Jennifer. "2015 Nissan GT-R NISMO Photo Gallery." - KickingTires. Cars.com, 19 Nov. 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2013/11/2015-nissan-gt-r-nismo-photo-gallery.html>.

4.       Hqwide. "Cars Nissan Gtr Wallpaper." HQ Widescreen Wallpapers. Hqwide, n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://hqwide.com/cars-nissan-gtr-wallpaper-40101/>.

5.       Nissan. "2014 Nissan GT-R Specs." Nissan USA. Nissan, 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://www.nissanusa.com/sportscars/gt-r/versions-specs>.

6.       Nissan. "Performance Feature." Nissan USA. Nissan USA, 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://www.nissanusa.com/sportscars/gt-r/features>.

7.       Nissan. "Nissan GT-R Build." Build Your Nissan GT-R. Nissan USA, 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://www.nissanusa.com/buildyournissan/modelLine/build/2014/GTR>.

Read More