The Cadillac Escalade can be purchased, new, right now, with a 3.0-liter Duramax diesel inline-six. If you get it in 2WD trim it gets a combined 23 MPG and a quite reasonable 27 MPG. Did you know this? Am I the only person who did not know this?
It’s probably part of my job to have some understanding of every car that’s for sale. It’s probably important for me to be able to tell you the difference between an Infiniti QX50 and QX70 even though I’m like 40% sure I made one of those up. I’ve even driven an Escalade quite recently and I’m sure it had the V8. I was pretty sure it only had the V8.
This comes up because our own Thomas Hundal was talking about the 2023 Alpina XB7 in our morning meeting and young Thomas mentioned that the best buys in the very-large-luxury-SUV category are probably the XB7 or the diesel Cadillac. Both Jason and I are pretty convinced this is just a thing in Canada or we’re being mocked in some way.
Ok, I’ve just checked my phone. There is, indeed, a photo of me driving an Escalade in April of 2021 to test out GM’s assisted driving system they call Super Cruise for an article I was writing (BTW, Super Cruise works really well). I put gas in it. I did not put diesel in it.
Let’s go to the build-and-price section of the Cadillac website for the Escalade to provide some answers. I’ll be damned. You can get a diesel on every trim of this thing other than the delightfully obscene Escalade V. I guess Thomas was right.
Wow, just 277 horsepower but a meaty 460 lb-ft of torque. I bet this thing is a peach. Has anyone driven this thing? I’m gonna reach out to someone I’m sure has driven it.
Yeah, he confirms it. This thing is a peach. Thomas says he was getting great MPG with this thing on the highway and my buddy says he regularly gets above 30 MPG on his Silverado equipped with the same motor. Damn. How’d I miss this? I’m just gonna build one real quick, let’s see what I come up with.
Wait, you can get this in green, too? They call it “Dark Emerald Metallic.” Fantastic. I built a 2WD version, no options other than a roof rack, for just $82,870. That’s a lot of diesel truck and it can tow 8,000 pounds. Damn. I think I need to drive one of these.