October 1, 2013

Drew Dowdell

Managing Editor - CheersandGears.com

Photography provided by General Motors

Cadillac released some teaser pictures of the upcoming Escalade SUV due to be unveiled on October 7th in New York.

From what we can see, the interior has been brought in to the family look shared by the Cadillac ATS and Cadillac CTS sedans. The interior features a cut and sewn interior and attractive deep grain accents. We are somewhat disappointed to see that the Escalade maintains a column mounted shifter however.

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On the technology side, the Escalade gains a new TFT Gauge cluster, and Cadillac's CUE Infotainment system. Out front, a new multi-eye headlamp cluster is apparent along with vertical LED light piping that is quickly becoming a Cadillac signature design element.

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Stay tuned for more of the Cadillac Escalade reveal, including a live stream, on October 7th.

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Drew Dowdell is Managing Editor of Cheersandgears.com and can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter as @Cheersngears

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LOVE IT!!!! One of the best looking dashes I have seen in a long time.

Drew, I have to disagree with you on the shifter. They are in the way and take up valuable space being in the center stack. This is the right place to have it on a luxury SUV like this. Column all the Way.

I love the clean but nice flow of the dash design. Should go a long way to having things nicely at the top of this segment again.

Sweet.... I like the column shift, agreed that a console shifter is a waste of space...

Easily the best looking SUV interior.

I thought GM forgot were column shifters were. The interior is indeed nice.

I would prefer a push button or rotary dial shifter.

I could go for a rotory or Pushbutton shifter on the dash or on the edge of the center stack between chairs. That would continue to free up space for other items.

Shifters on the center stack like my trailblazer SS tend to take away space for a basic drink cup.

yeah, I was not suggesting a console shifter

I would prefer a push button or rotary dial shifter.

With paddles on the steering wheel for some manumatic action =

It may have a column shift, but at least its mechanical and not electric like what the GL uses, which is utterly pointless. I personally like console shifter but do see the appeal of freed up space. Its nice to see that it finally gets its own steering wheel, no longer sharing it with the Tahoe.

awesome interior but it does need to ditch the console shifter. i have a feeling this new model will be bring cool back to the full size SUV's.....

Great looking interior with a giant, column shifter-shaped wart attached the steering column.

What was GM thinking?! If Dodge and pretty much everyone else uses a dial or button setup, why can't Cadillac?

The column shifter is a tangible, reliable, familiar and simple solution v. these fiddly dials and unsure pushbuttons.

This is a truly luxurious, beautifully done cockpit.

Love it. As others have said, would love to see something different, like a pushbutton shift.

To me it doesn't look any nicer than an ATS and this thing will probably cost twice as much. All the Cadillac interiors look too alike to me. Brand continuity is important, but the Escalade should be wow, just as any flagship they do should be a wow interior. I guess the center console in the Mercedes GL is nothing fantastic either, but the diamond quilted leather they have is nice, and their arm rest looks better, the Escalade armrest looks out of a Silverado. As far as column shifter, again the Silverado uses one, and the previous Escalade had one too, it is just how GM does the full size trucks, and the GL, the S-class and E-class all use a column shifter and they are all #1 seller in their class, so people must not care.

To me it doesn't look any nicer than an ATS and this thing will probably cost twice as much. All the Cadillac interiors look too alike to me. Brand continuity is important, but the Escalade should be wow, just as any flagship they do should be a wow interior. I guess the center console in the Mercedes GL is nothing fantastic either, but the diamond quilted leather they have is nice, and their arm rest looks better, the Escalade armrest looks out of a Silverado. As far as column shifter, again the Silverado uses one, and the previous Escalade had one too, it is just how GM does the full size trucks, and the GL, the S-class and E-class all use a column shifter and they are all #1 seller in their class, so people must not care.

In Cadillac's/GM's defense, that's a CGI so it doesn't quite capture differences in textures from higher/lower grade materials. I'd expect a $80K SUV to have better materials than a $40K ATS.

In 4 days we get to see the whole thing and really judge what the Slade will be in terms of Standard of the World Lux SUV's.

Personally based on what I have seen and the focus GM is putting on growing and building Cadillac to be a top competitor in the Luxury space, I expect the new Escalade will eclispe anything BMW or MB has.

The CTS already has nicer materials than the ATS, so I expect the Escalade to be another step up.

How do those fancy dials and pushbuttons work after the battery goes flat?

If people are bitching only about placement or existence of a shifter in Cadillac interior, then the company has come a long way in interior development.

Agreed Z man, you are so right about that we find people nit picking about something like a shifter compared to the rest of it which we have not seen yet. I amexcited for monday based on the partial image I saw of the Escalade at the 2014 Fleet & Commercial show GM did in seattle back in July.