What do you call a man who takes a luxury vehicle, chops it and makes it into a pickup truck? Answer: An idiot!
What do you call a man who takes a pickup truck and transforms it into a luxury vehicle? Answer: A genius!
You see, some ideas work, and others, well...they just don't!
Fortunately for GM's Cadillac division, they've managed to employ the genius rather than the other guy. Now I'm not suggesting that they don't have one or two flaky people lurking on the payroll somewhere. In fact, from what I've seen of the car business, just about every manufacturer has one or two of those.
In fact, not knowing the full story, I would hazard a guess that the person who originally came up with the idea for the EXT might have been branded a fool initially. After all, a few years back, this whole idea might have sounded slightly absurd, to say the least.
You see, "creativity" can take many forms. It often takes idiots and turns them into geniuses, and then some times, it does the exact opposite. What about the man who came up with the Cadillac Cimarron in the 80's? Turn a Chevy Cavalier into a Cadillac, yeah! That idea went down like a house on fire, didn't it!
Now think about that for a moment. In today's platform sharing world, this kind of thing is happening all the time, so maybe that idea wasn't actually crazy, just slightly ahead of its time.
Of course, all this long-winded rambling of mine is just my way of explaining that the 2007 Cadillac Escalade EXT is based on the trusty GM pickup platform and therefore, a product from precisely that line of thinking. So, let's take a closer look at it.
From the exterior, I think that Cadillac achieves exactly what it set out to. The Escalade EXT certainly demands attention wherever it goes as it just oozes with "bling" effect. The large Caddy grille makes it instantly recognizable from a distance, and together with the other numerous chrome highlights, it's hard not to look upon it as a "money vehicle".
My test vehicle was painted black, typically not the best of colors for a pickup truck, but then again, I doubt if many owners would use this vehicle as an out and out work truck. It is perhaps better suited for those who wish to haul toys like ATV's and dirt bikes. In fact, the bed, although shorter compared to some pickups, is capable of hauling a full-size ATV with the tailgate down, and has a purpose made bed-liner designed for this. If you need more space, a clever system allows for access to the cabin area, which creates an 8' pickup bed.
Of course, a luxury pickup needs a luxury interior to pull the whole idea together, and on opening the door, Cadillac appears to have handled that rather nicely. The large comfortable leather seating throughout and the entire dash layout looks as if it was borrowed from some mega-expensive European luxury sedan.
I have to say that, on the whole, I was extremely impressed with the interior, although there were one or two minor things which somewhat let it down. First was the fact that it did not have telescopic steering. Also, the tilt-steering that it did have was the old-fashioned manual type, as opposed to the modern electronic versions that are now commonplace, even on vehicles half this price. I also found that the stylish clock which was mounted to the dash was angled in such a position as to make it about as useful as rubber hammer.
What do you call a man who takes a pickup truck and transforms it into a luxury vehicle? Answer: A genius!
You see, some ideas work, and others, well...they just don't!
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| The Escalade EXT demands attention. |
In fact, not knowing the full story, I would hazard a guess that the person who originally came up with the idea for the EXT might have been branded a fool initially. After all, a few years back, this whole idea might have sounded slightly absurd, to say the least.
You see, "creativity" can take many forms. It often takes idiots and turns them into geniuses, and then some times, it does the exact opposite. What about the man who came up with the Cadillac Cimarron in the 80's? Turn a Chevy Cavalier into a Cadillac, yeah! That idea went down like a house on fire, didn't it!
Now think about that for a moment. In today's platform sharing world, this kind of thing is happening all the time, so maybe that idea wasn't actually crazy, just slightly ahead of its time.
 |
| The EXT is based on a pickup platform. |
From the exterior, I think that Cadillac achieves exactly what it set out to. The Escalade EXT certainly demands attention wherever it goes as it just oozes with "bling" effect. The large Caddy grille makes it instantly recognizable from a distance, and together with the other numerous chrome highlights, it's hard not to look upon it as a "money vehicle".
My test vehicle was painted black, typically not the best of colors for a pickup truck, but then again, I doubt if many owners would use this vehicle as an out and out work truck. It is perhaps better suited for those who wish to haul toys like ATV's and dirt bikes. In fact, the bed, although shorter compared to some pickups, is capable of hauling a full-size ATV with the tailgate down, and has a purpose made bed-liner designed for this. If you need more space, a clever system allows for access to the cabin area, which creates an 8' pickup bed.
 |
| The luxurious cabin of the Escalade. |
I have to say that, on the whole, I was extremely impressed with the interior, although there were one or two minor things which somewhat let it down. First was the fact that it did not have telescopic steering. Also, the tilt-steering that it did have was the old-fashioned manual type, as opposed to the modern electronic versions that are now commonplace, even on vehicles half this price. I also found that the stylish clock which was mounted to the dash was angled in such a position as to make it about as useful as rubber hammer.