2025 Cadillac Escalade Driven & Reviewed: Is It Worth $125,000?

Enter an oasis

During my time with the 2025 Cadillac Escalade Platinum, I never understood what made it unique until I drove it out on one of the worst rainy days North Jersey has seen in quite a while. 

I forgot an umbrella, but walking up to the Escalade on a dark, gloomy rainy day feels like walking up to salvation. Once you get within a few meters of the car, the LED lights that line the Cadillac badge and the big grille that surrounds it flicker on and call on you like an illuminated beacon of goodwill, recognizing that you, the person holding its key, are looking for that place of comfort—and what a place it is.

Not your granddad’s Caddy

The Cadillac Escalade has a rich history that dates back to 1998, when it was introduced as a more luxury-focused variant of the GMC Yukon Denali. Throughout its 25-year-plus history, it has become a VIP chariot for the stars and a symbol of excess on the screen, especially as the second and third generations of the car earned starring roles in everything from rap videos to cult TV shows like The Sopranos and Entourage.

Today, the Cadillac Escalade is a modern, large-and-in-charge machine whose presence is felt both on the inside and outside. For 2025, the Cadillac Escalade gets a smattering of upgrades, including revised styling that includes a bigger grille, newly revised LED headlights and taillights, and available 24-inch wheels, which this vehicle had. I found that many of these styling choices were made to mirror its electric sibling, the Escalade IQ, which I think added some futuristic touches to a sleek design that formerly leaned more conservative than striking.

Under the hood of virtually all the trim levels of the 2025 Cadillac Escalade (excluding the V-Series) is a 6.2-liter L87 V8 pumping out 420 horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque. The power comes through all four wheels through a responsive and smooth-shifting 10-speed automatic transmission. One caveat that I observed throughout my time was that the powertrain was quite thirsty; the EPA estimates the 4WD variant I drove at 14 miles per gallon in the city, 18 mpg in the highway and 16 mpg combined city and highway.

Though it is powerful and thirsty, the Escalade’s redeeming factors really come into play while I traversed the pothole-ridden, rough roads around North Jersey and New York City. The 2025 Escalade Platinum came with adaptive air suspension, as well as GM’s own Magnetic Ride Control, which absorbed bumps, cobblestones, and other road blemishes with ease; an impressive feat given that it rode on the optional 24-inch wheels. 

Like its mechanical cousins, the Chevy Suburban and GMC Yukon, it has an independent rear suspension. However, if I were to describe the handling of the Cadillac Escalade, I wouldn’t use words like swift, sporty, or any other buzzwords that indicate that it handles like anything within a breath of being a performance or track day car. To be completely straight to the point: it doesn’t, it doesn’t pretend to, and it doesn’t need to. 

King-sized comfort

Inside, the cabin of the Cadillac Escalade Platinum is a comfortable setting loaded with ornate details, soft and solid touches, and high-tech toys. Sitting in the driver’s seat of the Cadillac Escalade feels like you’re the complete opposite of what Lewis Hamilton does; it’s a place where driving can feel as relaxing as it can, even when you’re stuck in gridlock traffic. 

Up front, both the driver and front passenger sit on plush 16-way power-adjustable heated and ventilated front seats that feel more like leather La-Z-Boys than Recaros. The interior itself is a statement of luxury, as most seating surfaces are finished in semi-aniline leather seats, while the dashboard and select trim pieces lining the door cards and center console are finished in a parquet-looking wood trim. Additionally, a power panoramic sunroof adds a little bit of sun to an otherwise cavernous interior. Unlike the glass roof of a Tesla, it is a proper sunroof that tilts and slides out for a taste of outside air.

Though the Escalade feels great behind the wheel with its driver-oriented setup, this is the kind of car you’d much rather be driven in than drive. This 2025 Cadillac Escalade Platinum came with the Executive Second Row Seating package, and for the $7,500 it costs on the options list, it is worth absolutely every penny. 

This package replaces the 2nd row bench seat with two power-reclining, heated, ventilated, and massaging captain’s chairs that make car journeys, long drives, and road trips feel like traveling in first class. Between the two seats is a center console containing airline-esque stowable tray tables, a small touchscreen that acts as a rear command center, as well as dual wireless phone charging pads and speakers in the headrests.

The Escalade packs in a lot of tech between the front and the back seats. Up front, a 55-inch screen spans the entire dashboard. On first thought, the idea of a panoramic screen in front of the windshield sounds like overkill, but it oddly makes sense behind the wheel. The screen itself provides three functions: as a screen for the instrument cluster, infotainment system, and as a personal screen for the front seat passenger, which can be configured with downloadable apps like YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, as well as an internet browser. 

Included with the Executive Second Row Seating package are 12.6-inch personal screens behind the front seat headrests that act much like the personal screen in front of the front seat passenger. Altogether with the 40-speaker AKG speaker system and the 5G Wi-Fi hotspot, the backseats can doubly function as a properly comfortable place to get some work done. 

Final thoughts 

As tested, this 2025 Cadillac Escalade Platinum was $132,615, including destination. I admit that a large chunk of my experience behind the wheel was getting to grips with the extensive learning curve that comes with driving a big, heavy SUV like this. It was hard to get acquainted, but it was smooth sailing afterward. 

Despite its size, thirsty engine, and ubiquity compared to competing SUVs, the Escalade still does what it’s designed to do: transport you, your family, and all their stuff in absolute, blissful comfort. As I got more acquainted with how the Escalade behaved, I found that the driving experience was nothing but magnificent. The L87 V8 under the hood provides enough power to haul you and your passengers around, while its air suspension can make even the worst roads feel freshly paved.

There were a few rough edges to address. For instance, the heads-up display had patterns of working and not working. In an era of open-pore wood trim, the parquet-esque trimmings on the dashboard feel too much like the plastic it sits next to, and the power-assisted doors feel like escaping a vault when getting in and out.

But despite these relatively small, little gremlins, the Escalade is in a league of its own in a world where luxury SUVs are the new status symbols and certain automakers are like fashion brands. Despite this, there’s an innocent, coy, and keen quality, a kind of “unapologetic brashness” in its character that I don’t find from other similarly-priced SUVs from BMW, Mercedes, and Land Rover. In a world where other big luxury SUVs try to shed their “big car” image with sculpted styling and faux-sporty handling characteristics, the Escalade is characteristically uncanny, and that’s okay. It leaves a heartfelt gooey feeling for those who want to be different.

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