Category Archives: Escalade

@Cadillac Escalade ESV Platinum at Scarborough Faire @crestcars @gmtexas

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The story so far: I picked up a 2010 Cadillac Escalade ESV Platinum from Crest Cadillac in Plano to test drive this weekend.  Saturday was Tennis a Escalade, and Night Life.

Sunday Morning the Cadillac Escalade ESV Platinum and I headed to church.  One of the things I really enjoy about Cadillacs is that they are more formal cars, and feel perfectly suited for more formal occasions.  No problem navigating in close quarters in the parking lot, and the ESV continues to quietly, competently deliver huge interior space without a compromise in maneuverability.

After church I cruised down to Waxahachie, Texas for a visit to Scarborough Faire with my family.  This is a ~50 mile drive and gave me a good chance to get a feel for the Escalade ESV Platinum on the highway.  The navigation system is extremely simple to use, and I just put in “Waxahachie, Texas” for this purpose and off we went.  No problems in traffic, and out on the highway the Escalade cruises easily and smoothly at speed.  The navigation uses split screen views very effectively, showing on a portion of the navigation screen a diagram of the traffic flow in intersections, for example where the highway splits and showing the path we need to continue on.

I really enjoyed the blind spot alert system.  This system uses a small icon on the outside rear view mirror to alert you if a vehicle is currently in your ‘blind spot’, or in those spaces just over your left shoulder or right shoulder that are difficult to see from the Driver’s seat.  The Escalade has excellent outside rear-view mirrors, and I keep the outside mirrors adjusted to a fairly wide setting to minimize these ‘blind spots’, but nonetheless found this system helpful and useful.  My Wife declared it an obvious and mandatory safety feature after seeing it in action.

A special feature of the Escalade ESV Platinum are heated and cooled cup holders, which I enjoyed with a canned soft drink.  Obviously insulated drink cups will work less well with this type of cooler, but a canned drink or bottled drink are a good match.

No problems with all terrain in the Escalade

I always forget that the lanes inside the event grounds are all gravel, and the parking is all grass.  This makes me grimace a bit in the CTS, but of course is no issue with the rugged Escalade.

Scarborough Faire is a renaissance festival that is held in Waxahachie, Texas (south of Dallas) annually since 1981. From their website info:

Once inside the park, guests find themselves in the midst of a renaissance country faire replete with strolling characters, 22 stages of entertainment, 200 charming shoppes filled with handmade crafts, food purveyors, renaissance games and rides and the Tournament Field where bold knights joust thrice daily. Performers from around the country provide continuous entertainment on the stages and often invite audience participation.

We met up with some friends, and had a good time.  We try to go every year, and Scarborough Faire offers a fun mix of entertainment and period costume and other unique shopping opportunities.  My Wife selected, purchased, and donned a period costume, and fit in at the event much better than I.

Because I arrived later in the morning, the Escalade ESV was parked in the far, far parking area from the Gate.  I fetched it while my Wife waited at the Gate, but she returned the favor by grabbing a photo of the Escalade ESV with the Scarborough Faire main gate as a backdrop.

Escalade at Scarborough Faire main gate

We enjoyed a lovely drive back to Plano.  The Escalade ESV makes for a nice road trip vehicle, since it is quiet for conversation on the highway.   It is very comfortable on the road.  This one is White Diamond, which is not my Wife’s favorite color (Red), but after I assured her that it was in fact available in other shades she gave it a cautious approval.

 

Other Shades of Escalade:

Celestial Blue

Black Raven

Stealth Gray

Gold Mist

Black Ice

Infrared Tintcoat

Galaxy Gray

Silver Lining

I will be adding a number of articles about the Cadillac Escalade ESV Platinum over the weekend, so stay tuned!

My Host for this test drive is Crest Cadillac of Plano, Texas.  They are located at 2701 North Central Expressway, Plano, Texas.  You can contact them by phone Toll-free at 1-866-697-9144 or locally at (972)578-7511, or on Twitter or Facebook

 

Escalade ESV LED Headlight Night Life

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The story so far: I picked up a 2010 Cadillac Escalade ESV Platinum from Crest Cadillac in Plano to test drive this weekend.  Saturday was Tennis a Escalade.

This is the Cadillac Escalade ESV LED light array shot at night.  The Escalade’s lights are off; in the photo the light we see is a reflection of the camera’s flash.

Cadillac Escalade ESV LED Headlight at Night

Nice detail that the Cadillac wreath & crest are included in the light display.

The Cadillac Escalade Platinum was the first sports utility vehicle (SUV) in the world to be fitted with LED headlights as standard.  LEDs perform all the functions in the headlights supplied by Hella – low beam, high-beam, daytime running light, position lights and side marker lights.  Other vehicles have used LED headlamps, but the Escalade is the first to use fully functional LEDs for all functions.

The LED headlights emit a more precise light pattern, use much less power, and last longer than traditional halogen bulbs.

I will be adding a number of articles about the Escalade ESV Platinum over the weekend, so stay tuned!

My Host for this test drive is Crest Cadillac of Plano, Texas.  They are located at 2701 North Central Expressway, Plano, Texas.  You can contact them by phone Toll-free at 1-866-697-9144 or locally at (972)578-7511, or on Twitter or Facebook

Saturday Tennis a @Cadillac Escalade

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The story so far: I picked up a 2010 Cadillac Escalade ESV Platinum from Crest Cadillac in Plano to test drive this weekend.

Saturday is often the day for my weekly trip to the large container store for excessive amounts of fresh beverages and other supplies.

2010 Escalade ESV storage

Man does not live on bread alone.  It takes a lot of diet coke and granola bars.  The joy of this ESV version of the Escalade is 3 rows of seats and room behind the 3rd row of seats.  The rear door opens and closes electrically, so after you press the button in the exterior handle it glides open, and a simple press of a button on the open door causes it to glide shut.  No muscles required, and a very user friendly setup once you are familiar with it.

The entertainment system offers this split view of the current music channel and navigation information, so one can have their cake and eat it too.

Later in the day my Son and I went out to practice tennis.   He is taking tennis at Richland Collegiate High School, so we headed over there for some games.  My tennis is, um, old school at best, but we had fun.  We enjoyed the Escalade’s cooled seats on the way.  The Escalade ESV has heated or cooled seats.  I feel cooled seats are an acquired taste, but I am interested to see how I like them after I spend more time with them.

Escalade makes a great tennis partner

After tennis we stopped by Sonic to support the Plano East football team, who were manning the Sonic today.

The Escalade ESV Platinum Mirrors fold in electrically

The Escalade ESV Platinum has cooled and heated cup holders, so no problem at all keeping our drinks cold.  A single button near the cup holder allows one to select from cooled or heated or off, and Son2 reports that by examination from sticking his hand in that yes, the cupholder gets to the appropriate temperature.

I was concerned that the Escalade ESV would seem big in traffic, but it has been just fine in my routine trips, and with all the luxury features it is fun to drive.  The L94 6.2L V8 engine has plenty of power to move the Escalade, and the ESV drives very well.  It smoothly shifts from V8 to V4 mode for fuel economy in a way that is perfectly seamless — an ideal economy solution.  One of the information settings allows one to monitor the instant MPG and the engine mode, which switches from V8 to V4; otherwise I would not know when it switched exactly.

I will be adding a number of articles about the Escalade ESV Platinum over the weekend, so stay tuned!

My Host for this test drive is Crest Cadillac of Plano, Texas.  They are located at 2701 North Central Expressway, Plano, Texas.  You can contact them by phone Toll-free at 1-866-697-9144 or locally at (972)578-7511, or on Twitter or Facebook