2016 Cadillac Escalade
Photo: © General Motors
Cadillac has a lot of goals that it hopes to accomplish by 2020, and chief among those is changing the trajectory of its brand perception by positioning itself as being an entity completely autonomous from General Motors. This will inevitably result in the complete rebranding of its lineup, all but for one model: the Escalade.
It may seem somewhat strange to outsiders that while the ATS and CTS will disappear, the XTS will inevitably be replaced by the CT6, and the SRX will become replaced by the XT5 and a number of other new crossovers, the Escalade will stay pat despite its resonance with Cadillac’s past. As Automotive News points out in an article released on Monday, the reason can be summed up quite easily in dollar signs.
According to information sourced from General Motors and J.D. Power, the Cadillac Escalade carries and average transaction price of $81,251 and its ESV counterpart has an ATP of $85,028. This dwarfs the ATP of the next closest vehicle—the CTS at $52,075—as well as the ATP for the entire Cadillac brand ($53,309).
The Escalade is the one vehicle in the Cadillac lineup that could qualify as a legacy badge, and that status grands it seemingly limitless demand. It personifies Cadillac’s luxurious character, and it’s arguably the brand’s best bet for getting a $100,000 vehicle to market by 2020.
“The Escalade helps to put us in the mindset that people will come in and pay a lot of money for these vehicles,” said Scott Allen, dealer principal at a Cadillac dealership in California who recently sold a loaded Escalade at a six-figure price. “They’re expensive cars that aren’t going to be on a fire sale. That helps the brand cachet.”
While the Escalade will likely be revamped in the years to come, don’t expect that name to go anywhere.
News Source: Automotive News (subscription required)
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