If you want the ultimate in American luxury, you have to buy an Escalade, and the 2025 Cadillac Escalade has been updated with 55 inches of wall-to-wall dashboard screen space, available 24-inch wheels, and an optional executive rear seating package. However, you will have to pay dearly for the privilege of driving the latest Escalade because the new one starts at $5,700 more than before. Ouch.
So, what do you get for the extra $5,700? Well, other than a whopping 55 inches of screen stretching from A-pillar to A-pillar and Super Cruise hands-free highway driving assistance, not a whole lot. You still get a 19-speaker AKG sound system, 22-inch alloy wheels, a 6.2-liter V8 engine, 12-way power front seats, and plenty of brightwork, but with just two major features added over the outgoing base model, a starting price of $89,590 for the 2025 Cadillac Escalade Luxury seems a bit dear. Four-wheel-drive costs an extra $3,000 on top of that, meaning that if you’re in the snow belt and want the cheapest 4WD Escalade, you’re looking at a price tag of $92,590. It almost makes you want to go back to a GMC Yukon Denali, right?
Step up to the Premium Luxury trim to get ventilated front seats and a panoramic moonroof, and pricing jumps to $98,790 for the rear-wheel-drive model and $101,790 for the four-wheel-drive model. Considering last year’s model stickered for $95,190 in rear-wheel-drive Premium Luxury trim, that’s a $3,600 price increase for an SUV with one less actual feature, since the head up display from last year seems to no longer be included.
If you’re looking at the Sport trim, which is basically a murdered-out Premium Luxury trim, pricing for 2025 actually seems fairly reasonable. While the 2024 model started at $98,190 for the rear-wheel-drive model, the 2025 model sees a price increase of $1,200. Hey, if you’re into big screens, that’s probably a price worth paying.
However, if you think things get cheaper the further up the range you go, the buck stops here. The Premium Luxury Platinum trim costs a whopping $5,700 more for 2025 than for 2024, the same price increase as on the base model. Granted, you do now get night vision as standard, along with new power-operated doors, but that’s a significant price increase. Oh, and it goes harder than that. If you want essentially the same thing but with blacked-out trim, the Sport Platinum now costs $6,200 more than it did in 2024, for a starting price of $118,890 on that trim.
Lastly, there’s the ballistic 682-horsepower supercharged Escalade V, which now costs $7,700 more than the 2024 model for a grand total of $161,990 including freight. That’s a significant price increase, but if you ever have a change to experience this hilarious rampaging robotic rhinoceros, you’d probably agree that it’s still fully worth it. It feels like taking the Empire State Building down the quarter-mile, just a leather-line monument to excess and hubris in the best possible way. The Escalade V might just be the single best three-row SUV for any money, which is a bold statement considering you can now get a three-row big body Range Rover.
So yeah, the 2025 Cadillac Escalade is a lot more expensive than it probably should be, judging by what last year’s model retailed for. However, it’s likely still the king of the American luxury SUVs, and icons of luxury are rarely inexpensive. If you can live without the Escalade image, a diesel GMC Yukon Denali is likely a smarter buy as the frugal oil-burner continues for 2025 across the showroom floor. However, if you want an Escalade, you’ve got it. Make my hypothetical top-dog Caddy SUV a V.
(Photo credits: Cadillac)
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I know I’m not the target audience for this, but man I think my house has a better coefficient of drag than this monstrosity.
Difficult to imagine an uglier front end. Oh yeah, Lexus.
Honestly, for the crowd this car appeals to, the high price tag is a feature not a bug. I’m surprised GM doesn’t raise it even more.
Wait, so you’re telling me almost $90K doesn’t even get you ventilated seats?
What in the absolute fuck?
Cadillac could save a little bit of manufacturing costs and only sell these in black. Heck, make it a factory option to black out the windows too! Can’t say I’ve ever seen one in another color.
It’s a lot of money to look like a livery-service driver.
Everyone knows the real ballers ride in lower-badged versions – the horsey set in GMC Yukon Denalis (after swearing off Range Rovers) and people who get armored VIP transport as a work perk in Chevy Suburbans.