Future Escalade

[Dif]

Originally Posted by mdadgar

How many people do you think are REALLY towing with their Escalades?

GM has a pretty good idea of what that number is, thanks to all the market research they do, and I'm willing to bet it's very, very small.

- Mark

I'm not being argumentative.
You're right, ...
not everyone buys one to tow with but it's not just about towing.
It's also about how 4-6 people and luggage can add up to 1,000 lbs or more.
No, it's doesn't compare to towing a car or boat but it still makes a difference in a vehicles performance and comfort.

It just sucks for some who need or want more, that GM is not going to build a Lambda to do what the current Escalade can do with "ease".

Will GM build a complete piece of crap Lambda Escalade?
No .. it will be nice, and people will like it.

Just smaller with less power in the hope to sell more to the majority of people that want something really cool, but don't care about having a big "do all" vehicle.

[airhammer]

I drove an enclave this past weekend, shopping for a new car for my wife. It had the most comfortable ride of all the SUV's we drove that day, fairly close to my EXT. Since it has rear independent suspension and unibody architecture the Caddy engineers should be able to tune in a better ride and handling than the current escallade. It's about 800 pounds lighter so I think they could get comparable performance out of it with a 5.3L V8. It felt almost as big in the cabin. The 1/2 ton weight loss is going to add 2-4 mpg which is what GM is after to improve its fleet average. We drove the SRX also which I think will disappear once the CTS wagon starts production.

Fuel efficiency is killing the large SUV market. Just look at the car ads. Most of them are bragging about their MPGs where they can. I think the trend is going to be less GMT900 SUV variants and more lambda variants with Cadillac moving to the front of the fuel efficient SUV parade. Anyone really needing the GMT900 can buy a Tahoe/Yukon.

If they move the escallade to lambda then I guess they'll drop the EXT and move more of the Caddy features over to the avalanche. Personally I'd rather see GM drop the SRX for the lambda and keep the GMT900 lade, especially the EXT but I doubt I count for much in GM's market analysis. They know I'll just move to the avalanche, especially if chevy picks up the AC seats. If they do drop the EXT though, I'll keep mine on the road. Instant classic.

[fear1]

Originally Posted by mdadgar

How many people do you think are REALLY towing with their Escalades?

GM has a pretty good idea of what that number is, thanks to all the market research they do, and I'm willing to bet it's very, very small.

- Mark

Not many small vehicles can tow a tandem axle flat bed with a car on it. My Escalade does. If I couldn't tow with it, I would have kept my 07 Avalanche.

[mdadgar]

Originally Posted by fear1

Not many small vehicles can tow a tandem axle flat bed with a car on it. My Escalade does. If I couldn't tow with it, I would have kept my 07 Avalanche.

Errr, no offense but that's a relatively light load. Any of the Lambda SUVs can easily manage it.

- Mark

[jbling173]

Originally Posted by airhammer

If they do drop the EXT though, I'll keep mine on the road. Instant classic.

Yes, I agree with you. If you keep the Escalade you own, it will be an instant classic cause that will be the last big Escalade on the road. Also don't forget it will be a collectible one cause it's also the last Full size SUV with 403HP!! I think I'll keep mine until I die!!

[fear1]

Originally Posted by mdadgar

Errr, no offense but that's a relatively light load. Any of the Lambda SUVs can easily manage it.

- Mark

None taken, but I still would not want to tow 5600 lbs with a smaller vehicle, gets way too much tail-wag for me. Plus it doesn't pull the Arkansas hills nearly as well as the EXT does.

[mdadgar]

Originally Posted by fear1

None taken, but I still would not want to tow 5600 lbs with a smaller vehicle, gets way too much tail-wag for me. Plus it doesn't pull the Arkansas hills nearly as well as the EXT does.

The hill part I agree with.

Sway controls (and equalizing hitches) do an amazing job of managing loads, in my experience.

At the end of the day, though, it's all about comfort level and it never hurts to have "too much truck" for your load.

- Mark

[fear1]

[and it never hurts to have "too much truck" for your load.

- Mark[/quote]

Come on Mark, there is no such thing as "too much truck".

[mdadgar]

Come on Mark, there is no such thing as "too much truck".

LOL. My bad.

- Mark

[SWRidin]

Originally Posted by fear1

[and it never hurts to have "too much truck" for your load.

- Mark

Come on Mark, there is no such thing as "too much truck". [/quote]

Check out the Ford F650. Yes 650. Now thats too much truck.

[mdadgar]

Originally Posted by SWRidin

Come on Mark, there is no such thing as "too much truck".

Check out the Ford F650. Yes 650. Now thats too much truck.[/quote]

I dunno, I would love to have something like that or a Topkick to tow my race car!

http://www.sporttruck.com/roadtests/...kup/index.html

- Mark

[fear1]

http://www.sporttruck.com/roadtests/...kup/index.html

- Mark[/quote]

Now that's a real mans truck!!!

Larry

[Baragon-EXT]

As I said in another post, I keep vehicles for a long time. So, keeping a vehicle probably won't be the issue. The real issue is finding places to store all the 'classic' cars that I keep. The other one in the garage is an '84 Z-28, along with the '04 300M which is the other daily driver.

I dunno about the Avalanche, I was looking at them but I liked the EXT styling better. I think it was the cladding that I've seen on a lot of the Avs around here that made them unappealing to me.

Of course, when I was at Best Buy last week, some guy parked his black '08 Avalanche right next to me. From the back, they looked a lot alike at first glance....

Kennedy