Review18 Aug 20269 min read

Front seats in the back. Rear seats in the front.

Item: Front seats in the back. Rear seats in the front.
Rating: 4.5
Author: Ihab Ahmed

The Escalade gives its second row the chairs from the front, then gives the front all the toys. For once, the passenger might envy the person driving.

Ihab Ahmed

Dubai · Cars, and the bills that follow

One weekend, 300 kilometres, and one very large argument over who gets which seat.

4.5/5

Verdict: worth it

Huge, thirsty and slightly overcomplicated. Also comfortable, easy to drive and full of ideas. The back is excellent. But, I would still want the keys.

Good

Front-seat tech makes the driver feel like the main event. A tech fanboy's dream seat.
The second row gets first-class comfort and luxuries without the ceremony.
Air suspension makes a 5.38-metre SUV wonderfully wafty, with the power to pull it.
Automatic doors. Completely unnecessary. Completely wonderful. Every time.

Less good

23.8 L/100km during my measured run. Budget accordingly. It drinks like a beast.
CarPlay feels unfinished on this screen. The tech implementation could be better.
No rear sunshades in Dubai. This living room takes time to cool down.
The third row is difficult to get into and out of. This is a kids-only zone.

Before you drive the Escalade, it performs for you. Walk towards it and the badge glows and the vertical LED lights wake up as the mirrors swing out, the side steps drop and the driver's door opens. Once you are in, press the brake and the door closes behind you, a completely unnecessary little ceremony that happened every time and impressed me every time.

Then you start moving between the rows and the Escalade's more interesting trick becomes clear. In the back, Cadillac has fitted what are essentially full front seats, electrically adjustable, heated, ventilated and massaging, with tray tables, screens and their own climate controls. Move to the front and it has put the rear seats there too, keeping the same comfort but adding a 55-inch display, a head-up display, night vision and most of the buttons that make the car feel expensive. Cadillac UAE gave me the Sport Platinum for a weekend in early August, which I spent moving between those rows and trying to decide where I actually wanted to be. It was 47 degrees outside, the car arrived without tint and the answer changed more often than I expected.

The elephant outside the room

Let's get the obvious bit out of the way. This was the standard Escalade, not the longer ESV, and it is still 5.38 metres long, tall enough that I found myself looking over Nissan Patrols in traffic. That does not happen often. On Sheikh Zayed Road, the size feels magnificent and the road presence is peak; in a mall car park, it becomes a negotiation, and if you have to question a parking spot, you probably cannot fit. The cameras are excellent and the steering is light, but neither can shrink the car. You do not thread an Escalade through a gap. You commit to it.

Full side profile. 5.38 metres, and it looks it.

The front does most of the visual work, with a huge black grille, blacked-out exterior accents, vertical LED light stacks that are recognisable from a few cars away at night and 22-inch wheels that are the best I have seen on an Escalade. It looks muscular without trying to look angry, which is harder than it sounds, and Cadillac has had more than twenty-five years to make the name recognisable from a distance. This one manages it before the badge even lights up. Oh, if I have not mentioned it already, the badge lights up. Between that light show, the grille and the self-opening driver's door, even stopping for coffee feels like arriving somewhere important. It is ridiculous, right up until you notice yourself enjoying it.

R&D budget? Blown on a 55-incher

The curved display runs almost pillar to pillar, split between the driver's display, the centre screen and a passenger screen that the driver cannot see. This is where your passenger can watch YouTube or Netflix without distracting you, annoyingly, while the entire dashboard lights up at night and looks fantastic. The useful technology goes well beyond the headline number, with customisable ambient lighting, a sharp head-up display and night vision that I can imagine being genuinely helpful in countries where street lights are scarce. I tried to use it, but it was too bright everywhere I went.

The car has enough safety systems to keep you and your passengers safe, including an array of cameras and sensors constantly monitoring the world around you. You have lane-keep assist, a ton of automated braking systems and a slightly intrusive Safety Alert System.. The system works by vibrating the rear portion of your seat, right.. you know where. The first time it happened, I thought the seat had broken or that I had developed the world's weirdest itch; once I understood what it was doing, the idea made sense. The only issue was that sometimes my butt would vibrate and I still would not know why.

Cadillac Escalade cabin photographed from the passenger side, with the curved display stretching across the dashboard above the wood trim. — The display finally looks as expensive as the rest of the car.

Wrapped in semi-aniline leather, the front seats heat, cool and massage, the cameras give you the confidence to place something this wide and the 36-speaker AKG system with Dolby Atmos is properly loud and properly three-dimensional. This is a tech fanboy's dream seat. At high volume, something in the trim rattled along with the music, which reminded me that some things are just not perfect. The screen itself also sits too far away, and reaching the far side of Apple CarPlay feels as though design came before ergonomics. Try typing on a keyboard that is a stretch away. Speaking of typing, use Cadillac's Google built-in system and a keyboard pops up on the centre-console screen, which is brilliant; use CarPlay and you are back to reaching across the dashboard. Cadillac built a 55-inch display and somehow made Apple CarPlay feel like it was playing in a window.

Not every front-cabin idea lands quite as neatly. In normal mode, the rear-view mirror is small and the back of the car is a long way away; switch to the camera and the view is so zoomed that cars appear closer than they are. The glovebox opens through the touchscreen, which is a lot of effort for a packet of tissues. Most passengers will need to be told where to tap and it is quite unnecessary, while the slow, uncooled wireless charger heats the phone until it throttles. I have arrived places with the battery exactly as I placed it. There are USB-C ports within reach though, and in a Dubai summer the cable wins every time.

Cadillac built a 55-inch display and somehow made Apple CarPlay feel like it was playing in a window.

Front seats in the back

Calling the second-row chairs captain's seats undersells them, because they are front seats moved backwards, with full electric adjustment, heating, ventilation and massage. The centre console has its own climate screen, USB-C ports and tray tables that fold out for a laptop, while the rear screens accept HDMI. Sit there with the massage running and a laptop on the tray and the Escalade makes a convincing case for never touching the steering wheel again. There is also plenty of storage, space and connectivity for when the journey requires a PS5.

The Cadillac Escalade's second row viewed through the open rear door, showing two quilted white leather executive seats and the centre console. — Front seats in the back. That is the easy half of the argument.

Rear passengers can operate their doors from the rear command screen and get enough controls to feel properly looked after, but the second row is not flawless. There are no rear sunshades, which is difficult to explain in Dubai because this living room takes time to cool down, and the supplied Bluetooth headphones feel cheaper than everything around them. I also expected a little more width from the seats in something this large. The centre console takes up a lot of room for what it does, and some of that space could have made the chairs wider and even more comfortable.

The third row is where the size stops paying dividends. Getting in and out is difficult enough that it feels like a children-only area, and the powered seat can jam halfway if the second row is slid fully back. This is a kids-only zone.

Rear seats in the front

The driver's seat has the calm, comfort and isolation you would normally move to the back to find, except it also comes with a 6.2-litre V8. Its 420 horsepower arrives through a ten-speed gearbox that mostly disappears, so feed in the throttle and speed builds without drama; ask for more and it sounds like a proper American V8. Well... because it is! If you enjoy that sound, and I very much do, find a tunnel.

The ride is the best part, with air suspension and Magnetic Ride Control making speed bumps and broken tarmac feel much smaller than they are. The cabin stays quiet too; there is some wind noise, but look at the mirrors and the shape of the front and I expected more. The Escalade is big and wafty, exactly as it should be, with the power to pull it, although the extremely light steering tells you very little about the front wheels. The brakes need a proper push, which I did not enjoy, because at times it was hard to gauge how much pressure they really needed. It is not a great driver's car, but it is a very good car to drive. Those are different things. It never makes you hunt for a corner, but it makes a long distance feel very short and is much happier once you stop asking it to be smaller or sportier than it is.

Wide driver's view of the Cadillac Escalade showing the steering wheel, curved display, wood trim and climate panel. — Rear-seat calm in the front, with rather more to look at.

The person in the back gets more room. The person in the front gets more Escalade.

That is why the old answer, take the second row and let somebody else drive, felt too simple. On a long highway run I would happily drive, while in traffic the view out, the light controls and the technology make the size easier to manage. If we are going to Dubai Mall on a Friday evening, then yes, I suddenly have important emails to answer from the back. The second row is not better, it is simply better at being the second row; the front is still where Cadillac put most of the theatre.

Dubai summer keeps everyone honest

Remote start is not a party trick here; it is part of the ownership experience. My routine quickly became opening the myCadillac app, tapping start, waiting ten minutes and then walking out to something survivable. The air conditioning is powerful, but this is a huge cabin that had been sitting in direct sun at 47 degrees without tint, so it needed the time. The white interior helped, and almost every owner here will tint the glass, which makes my experience close to a worst-case test.

The myCadillac app open on a folding phone resting on the Escalade's white quilted leather, showing remote lock, unlock and engine controls beside a vehicle status panel. — Remote start lives here. Ten minutes before you walk out, and the car is survivable.

Then there is the fuel. I filled the tank, reset the trip and drove about 200 kilometres that day across highways, city streets and car parks, with the air conditioning working hard throughout. The measured part of that run was 176.6 kilometres, during which the trip computer showed 4.2 km/L, or 23.8 litres per 100 kilometres. It drinks like a beast. That is a lot, but it is not a surprise when a naturally aspirated 6.2-litre V8 is moving an enormous SUV through a Dubai August. A cooler month and a lighter right foot will help, although I would still rather give you my number than copy the brochure's.

And yet, the feature I miss most is still the automatic doors. All four can be operated from the centre screen and stop short if they sense a wall or a person, so you can open one for somebody approaching with their hands full. Only the driver's door closes automatically when you press the brake; everybody else uses the touchscreen inside to open or close theirs. Completely unnecessary. Completely wonderful. Every time. My first day with the Escalade was my most critical, but then I stopped looking for faults and started enjoying it. I liked it more each day I had it, and that does not happen with every press car.

Rear three-quarter view of the silver Cadillac Escalade parked beneath trees in a modern Dubai plaza. — Handing it back was harder than I expected. I was not finished with the driver's seat.

Would I have one? Absolutely, with heavy tints, cables for my phones and somebody else volunteering for the tight car parks. If I had a driver, I would switch seats more often than I'd admit. The Escalade has front seats in the back and rear-seat comfort in the front; the surprise is that the person being driven may be the jealous one. Which seat are you taking?

Disclosure: Cadillac UAE provided the vehicle for a weekend review.