The Cadillac Escalade-V Is an Absurdly Luxurious, Fast, and Expensive SUV

The Cadillac Escalade is the brand’s best-selling model, despite being its largest and most expensive. That’s an unusual and enviable combination for an automaker.I am leaving aside the incredibly low-volume $340,000 Celestiq electric car, as fewer than 25 will be built this year. It is more of a side project than a true production car at the moment, and is not even included on quarterly sales reports. Nevertheless, the price is about to increase to $400,000.Escalades start at $93,695. Cadillac delivered 35,000 of them to customers through just the first nine months of 2025. That represents much more than $3 billion worth of product, but Escalade prices rise much higher.At the top of the list is the high-performance Escalade-V that starts at $170,595. Don’t expect to be picked up at the airport in one. Unless, perhaps, you are a whale disembarking from a first class flight in Las Vegas.The Escalade-V is powered by a 682 hp supercharged 6.2-liter V8 that can accelerate the three-ton truck to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds. Hitting the accelerator pedal is like putting a crop to an elephant that has been genetically combined with Usain Bolt.A 55-inch screen incorporating instruments and infotainment displays spans the dashboard. CadillacInstead of size 13 sneakers, the Escalade-V wears enormous 24-inch wheels with tires wide enough to make a steamroller feel inadequate. Press the button marked “V” on the steering wheel and the air suspension system lowers the vehicle and firms up the shock absorbers, so it doesn’t have to negotiate curves like it is on stilts.It doesn’t drive like a Cadillac Formula 1 car in this mode, but it would give a 1960s muscle car a run for its money on a race track, if you dared to take it there. I did that once. It was fun, but absurd. The exhaust volume is also turned up to 11, and it burbles and barks like a NASCAR car for your entertainment. Your neighbors may not be quite as amused.On the road, the power and poise allow the Escalade-V to glide around effortlessly. Leave it in the softer Tour mode and it feels like it is riding on air, which it is. Few vehicles combine speed and luxury better than this.The interior is more about the latter. It is trimmed in leather, carbon fiber, microfiber suede and can be equipped with a $7,500 Executive Seating package for the second row. This includes a pair of heated, ventilated, massaging, power-adjustable seats with fold-out tray tables, like in that first class airplane cabin. Each seat also has an entertainment screen in front of it that can play movies from streaming apps. Wireless headphones are included in case the other passengers would prefer listening to the 42-speaker AKG audio system. If you want to count them, you can start with the two in each of the front seat headrests.In front of them is a 55-inch-wide screen spanning the dashboard that incorporates the instrument cluster, central touchscreen and another entertainment screen for the front seat passenger, which is filtered so the driver can’t watch along while the vehicle is moving.The audio system has 42 speakers, including two in the headrests of each front seat. CadillacThey will need to keep their eyes on the road, even if they have engaged the Super Cruise highway driving feature. It allows the driver to take their hands off the wheel and their feet off the pedals as it steers the vehicle in the lane and passes slower cars on pre-mapped roads. There are more than 750,000 miles of them across North America. Super Cruise can also look for an opening and change lanes to pass slower traffic, and find its own way through certain highway interchanges along a route set in the navigation system. A facial scanner makes sure the driver is alert and paying attention. If not, Super Cruise will politely decline to work as your chauffeur.The Escalade-V has a front camera that displays in the instrument cluster to show what is in front of its tall hood, and an infrared night vision system that highlights pedestrians and animals on the screen. A Safety Alert Seat vibrates to warn of obstacles all around the vehicle, just in case all of the other notifications don’t grab the driver’s attention with their lights and beeps.It is easy to get noticed when the vehicle comes to a complete stop. Instead of buttons, the Escalade-V has a smaller touchscreen on the center console that is used for most functions, including the power doors. Not the cargo area door, the passenger doors. All four of them. Just swipe the screen to open or close them for a grand red carpet arrival.As over the top as the Escalade-V sounds, it has been so successful that it is now entering its fourth year of production. Cadillac doesn’t say how many are sold each year, but it is certainly much more than 25.

The Cadillac Escalade-V Is an Absurdly Luxurious, Fast, and Expensive SUV

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