Is the 2024 Cadillac Escalade a BETTER luxury sport SUV than a BMW X7？

Hey guys, what's up? It's Joe Ready from Ready's Rise. I'm back here at one of my favorite filming spot locations because guess what? We have one of the OG's when it comes to those big full-size luxury SUVs. It's this vehicle right here. What is it? It's a 2024 Cadillac Escalade Sport and this one has that extra premier luxury trim package to it. But before we get into this dark, dark blue. It's not black like you see so many other Escalades. Dark metallic blue Escalade Sport. Let's talk about what's going on here. I remember when I first started teaching back in the year 2001 and I would always, the first day of class, one way for me to get to know my students was I would ask them what their dream car was. I noticed that a lot of students were telling me Cadillac Escalades and I was blown away because I remember back when I was in high school SUVs were barely even a thing and I definitely wouldn't say that one of them would be a dream vehicle. Fast forward to model year 2024, Cadillac is still doing the business when it comes to that full-on full-size luxury SUV. Now what's fascinating is they are not the official OG. That trophy goes to the Lincoln Navigator but it's fascinating a response to the Navigator was this Cadillac Escalade and the first gen it was literally a GMC Yukon that was rebadged and had a different grill on it. Once they saw the sales then they were like okay we need to go all in and make a unique SUV. Now what's interesting is a lot of the other luxury brands especially the German Euro brands have jumped on board with this luxury SUV craze including large size vehicles. So what I want to do is I want to compare this Cadillac Escalade Sport to another sporty brand that's a luxurious BMW with their full-size X7. So let's go ahead let's dive into this particular Escalade Sport and find out is it better is it the better luxury SUV big full-size luxury SUV to buy. Comparing the two let's go ahead let's dive in and find out. Right off the bat for a large SUV I have to admit it looks good and I think with the darker colors it works even more so. At the front of the business you're going to notice very very small-ish size on the headlight housing and that's a good thing. Full LED headlights of course most of it is blacked out on the interior and then when you compare this to BMW, BMW does great headlights but I feel like Cadillac does great exterior lighting overall and you can clearly see it right here with our daytime running lamp turn signal love the way it's all blended in together nice and large super bright and crisp. You have some body color matching on the bottom portion and a little bit of this fake vent area which I am going to have to zonk. So I don't know why they would put this fake vent area all the way across not my favorite touch but the way that they did this indentation where you have the DRL I don't know there's just something about it that looks very bold without being fake. Now as we come across that massive grille this is a sport grille specific to this trim all blacked out including the perimeter edges you got that massive Cadillac badge you can wear that around your neck when you go into work forward facing camera and then working our way down like I said we have this fake vent area up top and also another fake vent on the bottom it has me scratching my head so I am going to have to double zonk it that's a twofer we call that the twofer zonk on the fake vents but from the styling definitely looks amazing and of course this whole top grille portion is fully functional. When you compare this to the BMW X7 I personally and I know looks you know beauty's in the eye or the eyes of the beholder I think that this looks better than the X7. I'm not really a big fan of contemporary BMW styling especially with their crazy grilles. Now as we rise up love the way the hood has a nice bold appearance to it you got your dips dips and dives and ridges looking nice and clean looking luxurious without being too transformer-esque and then as we come around the bend what I like about this sport trim is that you're going to get some sporty style wheels so what you're looking at is a 22 inch wheel love the polished aluminum all the way around multi-spoke design with the gunmetal metallic gray we do have the MagneRide suspension that has been fine-tuned for this particular vehicle give you a little bit of sport but also give you that nice luxurious feel and it's also an adaptive air ride suspension so comparing that to the BMW BMW X7 does have adaptive suspension but there's nothing like MagneRide if you think about it General Motors is the company the car company that came up with it they did all the work so much so that Ferrari bought the technology from them to use in their vehicles but I love the way there's no flat black no gloss black around the fender openings and of course that Cadillac badge so much history if you're wondering well Joe what's the size of the tire on this thing basically what you're looking at is 275 in the width 50 series sidewall you can get your Escalade rear-wheel drive or like ours all-wheel drive now coming down the side you'll notice we have color match and that's not black I promise it's metallic blue mirror caps LED turn signals 360 degree cameras from the side of the vehicle this is another thing where you really see this is this is full size and it's actually a little bit bigger than the X7 the crazy thing is if you want even bigger you could go ESV extended vehicle set up on this thing and it's even longer but you'll notice from this side we do have color match on the door handles you got LED lighting and these handles you don't actually pull you push the button behind them and the door opens you'll notice our automatic dropping running boards and it's cool because at night this thing looks like a UFO it looks like the USS Enterprise with all the LED lighting puddle lamps pool lamps a big huge you know utility lamp lighten up the whole ground and everything around it and then of course when you close the door those are just going to go right back up look at that right on cue couldn't have done that any better now coming towards the rear you do have some black trim but with the way they tint the windows it kind of looks almost like all like one massive piece you do have of course some tasteful extra Cadillac badges remember that brand's been around since the early 1900s up top because this is a sport trim you have gloss black on your roof rails you can get your crossbars don't worry even though this is sporty even though it's luxurious you can still get your crossbars get your cargo basket go camping with it do whatever the heck you want with it Cadillac says you can do it now as you work your way towards your rear I do like on the quarter window how they don't put trim no trim around it it makes it look nice and flush and then as we swing it out wide just like up front with the lighting I absolutely love the lighting on the rear of these Escalades full LED of course love the way they do all the different elements much nicer design to me over the BMW X7 and then now you know I'm really a camper no wiper so what you can do you can rest your head right here you can't do that on all SUVs because they put the wiper here no wiper it's nice and hidden under this long roof spoiler they even hide the third brake light really well and here's a little fun fact how long has the third brake light been around do you happen to know I don't even think Stephen knows maybe he does I don't know I can't worry about that right now this has been around since 1986 DOT required since 1986 here in the United States if you're looking for a button the button is actually the badge and I'm going to show you that you do a five finger slap that will open up the back one of the zonks I gotta I gotta just get this off my chest why why do we need this 600 badge if you're wondering what is 600 it's the newton meters pounds of torque like the foot pound of torque but in newton meters rounded up so that's where they get 600 don't even get me started think about how much money they could save with as many of these escalators as they build that you don't have to make these extra numbers that's just wasted money but of course we have the Escalade name not like you're gonna fool anybody Escalade name on the back and then working our way down I love the way they have the exhaust nice and integrated it isn't my favorite quad tip but the way that it's so clean and it's blacked out and they're functional that to me is a win win win win win situation this cover comes right off and you could actually tow with this yes you can you can do it but while we go ahead let's pop the hood so we can compare the BMW x7 to this mighty Escalade all right guys we got the massive hood open of course you have hood struts to keep hood open underneath the hood nothing but naturally aspirated v8 goodness so what do you got you got a 6.2 liter naturally aspirated v8 pumping out 420 horsepower 460 pound-feet of torque it is mated to a 10-speed automatic and if you weren't paying attention earlier like I said you could get real-world drive or like ours all-wheel drive 0 to 60 in about 5.7 seconds the vehicle weighs around 5700 pounds mpgs not going to definitely hypermile this vehicle 14 in the city and about 20 in the on the highway now comparing this to the bmw x7 remember the bmw is going to have more horsepower but it's a more complicated situation underneath the hood you got twin turbos they shove it in there to where you can't even get a pinky past the engine cover and where the firewall is in the engine compartment so it's kind of nice to just have the simplicity I like the simplicity of the naturally aspirated v8 plenty of torque and if you don't want the v8 believe it or not you could actually get the Duramax turbodiesel engine on your Escalade but while we go ahead let's fire this up and see it go all right guys we are inside this dark metallic blue it's not black do not adjust your screen it is not black it is dark metallic blue 2024 Cadillac Escalade Sport with those extra luxury packages on this thing I know you're seeing yourself with Joe how much is this how much is this full-size luxury SUV I'm looking at BMW I'm looking at Mercedes-Benz I'm even looking at the Lincoln Navigator the arch nemesis to the Cadillac Escalade how much is it the way that this one sits MSRP $112,000 let's see what you get for the money to the door panels overall I like what's going on I love the soft touch material up top the white contrast stitching the one thing that makes my stomach hurt that I have to zonk is first of all the brown wood finish and second of all the veneer over it to make it shiny why oh why oh why this has such a sporty exterior that kills it for me but the saving grace is as you work towards the door handle you have heated and ventilated seats which are wonderful you have a little bit of that carbon flash metallic it's actually not gloss black it's carbon flash metallic around the piping stitching and a super soft armrest door pocket is very generous you can easily get a 12-inch caviar sandwich in there with extra caviar and a bottle of kombucha to wash it down we have the AKG 36 speaker sound system starting with the door panel and then there's 35 other speakers in this thing going from the door panel to the dash more of that great leather style material the stitching the wood has got to go why couldn't they go with a black stain with no veneer that would really fit the overall personality of this vehicle but I do love the way they brought more that leather the stitching you do have a 12 volt down below in this area where you could put I think four pita sandwiches down there easily now when you come on in you're going to be greeted to something probably just as large as this Escalade 38 inches of OLED screen and I love the way they separated you see how they put the nice leather style material around the separate bezel compared to the infotainment system but of course full touchscreen capability easy very quick reacting you got a video recorder you got your Crayola crayon 64 color box of colors for your ambient lighting in here you could really switch it up make a unique experience you got your rear media which we got two 12.6 inch screens back there and of course all the cameras super clear resolution you can go wide you can go overhead the side there's our 22 inch 40 wheels love the way they have all those touches very simple to use and I go right back to navigation working our way down real toggle switches and they're metal for our dual climate control love the way it's got that LED technology with the way everything lights up that's your start stop button this is going to control your 10 speed automatic real volume knob and then if you don't want to touch the screen you actually have a direct drive control knob I'm going to open this up two cup holders here's our Cadillac key fob let me show you there it is with the Cadillac badge flip it around you do get remote start which is nice USB-C USB-A a place for four boxes of tic-tacs you got your two cup holders like I said close it up wireless charging you just drop your phone right in there and then look at the way they finish this off the stitching the open this up another USB-C a USB-A and you have an illuminated cool box so you can chill your Twinkies nothing like on a hot day biting into a golden fresh and when I say fresh they're usually about 10 years old they've been sitting on the shelves for that long a golden fresh Twinkie with a nice chilled cream especially if you're having your favorite caviar sandwich that just sounds like luxurious doesn't it what else is luxurious you're getting the upgraded style leather interior with speakers in the actual headrest you'll notice all the great stitching the piping very comfortable bolstering you have seats that can move 20 different ways from Sunday actually about 17 and both of them 17 way adjustable and both of them have massage seats so you can get a massage going down the road love the Alcantara style material and remember this isn't made by your neighbor down the street Mr. Alcantara the reason why they call it Alcantara is because the company that originated this material which is basically a microfiber suede material was called Alcantara it's like the q-tip q-tip is not what it really is it's a cotton swap did I just blow your mind you've been living a lie your whole freaking life haven't you we do have of course GM was the one that came up with that digital rearview mirror clear as day and then on top of that you do have your power shade for that massive panoramic roof and it is an opening sunroof as well so it's not just sealed glass you can open it up to let the wind just come through the whole interior and get rid of that caviar fishy smell but why don't you come over here to the business end I got a steering wheel with some super crews I want to show you coming over all right guys business time obviously just like I said for the passenger you got the heated seats ventilated seats massage seats two memory seat settings I like the Cadillac sill plate simple but yet gets the point across and it lights up at night all led there's your seat controls you push that little button right there to start the massage oh I feel it I'm six feet tall if you really need more room I don't know what to tell you get yourself a bus or something because there's plenty of room in here steering wheel the leather and if you see this on top of any GM steering wheel that means that we have super crews I gotta get rid of this wood I need it's really hurting me it's it may I feel offended by this brown wood so that's my big zonk but everything else the stitching the beautiful Cadillac badge love the flat black the real metal switch gear you do have paddles but they are plastic to go through the 10-speed automatic and you do have an electric power tilting and telescoping steering wheel I like the way they have your four by four controls right here to a high four high hill descent control you can lower it because we have the air ride suspension and then that beautiful digital gauge display clear as day love the way the speedometer is real nice and large you got your 80s on eight you can see what's playing and you have a head-up display Dire Straits man one of my favorite favorite groups and definitely you know what song is going to be one of my favorite songs I want my MTV that's what I want right about now but why don't we go ahead I don't watch MTV anymore they don't play any music they just play reality shows and BS but I'm gonna let that go because we have some work to finish up here let's go ahead let's get to the mid-row and the third row and see how your passenger is going to be living high on the hog in this escalator all right guys mid-road time and you know what we looked at the front end of the business with where the driver the passenger is going to sit and there's a lot of amazing things happening there just as much amazing things happening in the mid-row in the third row and this is really where the Escalade blows the X7 the BMW X7 right out of the water right out of the water of course like I told you we have rear seat entertainment wireless streaming you do get headsets which I'll show you that in a second but it's all touchscreen you can watch YouTube whatever you want Hulu whatever shows maybe you're watching Hell's Kitchen love that show right here and what's great is that you could actually tilt it and I feel like this is going to lash you know sometimes you feel like you move a screen or a switch or something you're like man that's gonna that's gonna get limp and break this feels really rock solid so I like that you could keep some DVDs in here it's not gonna do you any good because there's no DVD player but you can keep some DVDs in here probably about four or five DVD cases maybe just to have them as a memory I mean that's one of the things that I miss is actually going to Blockbuster Video picking up the first it was VHS and then DVD cases and flipping it over and reading the back and looking at the pictures now everything is is online great back at the command center they give you a nice hook up here you do have your heated seats three stages but I am gonna zonk no ventilated seats this is a over a hundred thousand dollar vehicle I want my ventilated seats right now you do have those nice metal switches for your AC climate control you do have HDMIs USB-C's and then voila two cup holders close that up I promised you headphones and I am gonna deliver oh look at this AKG on the case with the Cadillac badge I bet you this thing you could probably sell it on eBay for about 200 bucks just the case I'm gonna open it up now we're talking look at that bling bling Cadillac badges on the headset I gotta be careful not to break this what's going on here okay there there we go now now I'm working now it's working all right just had to figure that out yeah so obviously you won't have to listen to what they're watching hopefully you're paying attention to what they're watching so they're not watching stuff that's inappropriate even though they probably are still going to watch it anyways but I remember it just came like a flashback wanting to see Rambo and my parents were against it I was 10 years old they were against it it came out in the movie theater they were against it I was very upset for a very long time but now I get it but now today kids can watch whatever they want it's great progress look at the progress that we have on this seat the leather the same great material as up front and they give you a beefy armrest for your arm that kind of makes sense we do have seats that slide and they recline quite a bit and then what's wonderful is that with the amount of room in here I don't even have to actually get out to get into the third row I could just do one of these kids don't do this while the car is in motion and then what we're going to do now is oh look at that come on in Stephen look at all this room you have and this is why I say if you need more room you got to go full size this is way more room than an x7 will ever be even if you remove the seats you still won't have this much room in a bmw x7 I have my ac vents the alcantara material everywhere the led lighting usb c's nice soft place to put your arm and you have the same great seat material so then go cheap on the third row but why don't we go ahead let's go in the cargo area because I want to take you for a spin in this Cadillac Escalade hi guys cargo area time like I showed you earlier you're going to hit right here but I do also want to show you as well that you can just lift the glass so if you want that easy access Stephen is all about easy access you can reach in there and get whatever you need and then go about your business because I hope you're doing some business because of course the msrp for this but you do that five finger slap whoop nice electric assist I'm going to move out of the way and let Stephen show you how much room we have with the third row what are we working with we have believe it or not 25.5 cubic feet of space you fold down the third row that gives you 72.9 cubic feet of space you fold down the mid-row you have almost 110 cubic feet of space now let's talk about what's going on here I like the way they put these nice little aluminum guards here with the Escalade name stamped in because you know your kids are going to drag their junk and scratch the heck out of this so it's nice to have a little bit of aluminum to kind of protect the plastic from just going to hell part of that 36 speaker system we have our 8kg subwoofers on both sides and then underneath you do have of course your required snake storage area so you could actually put about I would say 15 snakes underneath here just don't go with the poisonous ones I know you want to show off your rattlesnake and all that maybe your water moccasin just keep the garden variety in here and you'll live a lot longer I promise now to help you live longer from not stressing your body parts and your muscles out we do have buttons and switches to lower the seats and of course we also have a home power source but all I'm going to do is I'm just going to hit that you got to hold it down that's a zonk I don't want to stand here and hold this button and it hit the seat I told Steven to move it but you know what I'll do it anyways I'm not beyond moving my own seat I know some people think I can't move my own seat I can there we go so we actually didn't break it by ramming it into the seat of course once again we have the consistency here on Rady's Rise that if we're going to hit a seat we're going to hit both seats not just one but two seats move that out of the way let's see how that works now Steven one two three yay look at how nice and flat that is like I said that's 72 cubic feet of space you could go to Costco and buy half the store and put it back here you'll notice in the third row like I was talking about you do have usb c's I like the way they give a little bit of a soft little elbow pad here and you'll notice the Alcantara goes all the way back that even the people in the third row get some Alcantara in their life mid-row folds down I could do it with the buttons but I'm going to hit this button close it up and it's about that time if you're ready I'm ready let's do some super cruising on throttle and go for a spin in this Escalade all right guys we are inside this 2024 Cadillac Escalade Sport with that extra luxury premier package trim that gets you the nicer leather the AKG 36 speaker sound system and all the other fixings right away when you get behind the wheel of one of these you just get it the sound deadening is amazing the great ride quality just really makes you rethink what a lot of these other brands are doing when it comes to how their vehicles drive it's with the with the MagnaRide and the air suspension it just feels so comfortable but it doesn't feel like you're driving a marshmallow I feel like I'm connected to the asphalt and I feel confident of course like I said you have that super cruise feature which remember they are adding more and more roads when it first started a lot of the roads around where I live were not added but you'll see when we get down the road some how I'll turn it on for us and showcase the features of of super cruise but getting to the infotainment well within reach I could use a direct drive control knob if I want or the other buttons we could bring up vehicle information very easily and then you go right back so the way they have this vehicle laid out is so well organized and I'm glad that everything is not in the screen I definitely like the infotainment system and the digital gauge cluster a lot more than the BMW X7 visibility is great out back you got the digital rear view mirror we have all of GM safety features to keep you safe so it makes it real simple so now I'm turning on super cruise it is green which means we are good to go so right now I have hands-free driving and as long as you're looking forward you're good to go you sit here you relax and you're able to go down the road having that semi-autonomous driving experience and of course what I could do is I can add more speed and what it's going to do is watch it's going to change lanes by itself so I have no feet touching the pedal whatsoever we're passing the slower vehicle and it's controlling everything that needs to be handled it's turning on the turn signal it's doing all that for me with that semi-autonomous driving super cruise is probably one of my favorite semi-autonomous actually it is my favorite semi-autonomous driving setup it's so easy to use it makes sense and once you get used to not being in control per se it it makes it extra comfortable just to cruise down the highway in your escalade with that feature but these are the things that General Motors specifically Cadillac has been working on to really highlight that driving experience and make it unique to their brand that's one of the great things about all this but of course you're going to have that three-row superiority now it's telling me I need to take control again which is fine and it does it very simplistically it's one of those systems where it's very easy to figure out how to use and I think that's the best part but I'm going to go ahead and shut it off and keep it off so that I can go ahead and do my own driving you do have the paddles behind the 10 speed behind the steering wheel for the 10 speed automatic I got the massage seats going right now it's just my big hang up on the interior all the boxes are checked for me except for this brown wood that's a big no-no please give me something else anything else except for brown veneer finish wood but I'm telling you right now the ride quality is going to blow your mind you got the AKG sound system that gives you such a nice clear sound remember it's not just about loud when it comes to sound systems it's about clarity and AKG is definitely known for their very clear audio with their sound system but these seats are so comfy even without the massage setting on still very comfortable the upgraded leather is fantastic I got the head-up display leading the way for me and just the way they do the screens it just it's classy it makes sense and it's not too over the top but what I want to do is I want to definitely show you an on throttle with this vehicle remember 0 to 60 in 5.7 seconds quite respectable for a vehicle this size and if you want faster you know what to do Escalade V is your SUV of choice you ready for this on throttle here we go nice you got that v8 rumble naturally aspirated power you're not waiting for turbos to spool up you're not waiting for any of that you just get on the loud pedal that torque comes in nice and low remember 460 pound-feet of torque and pulls throughout the whole rev range but getting back onto the highway is really where this vehicle excels because of how smooth it drives and when you go sport they do tune the suspension to be a little bit sportier but the great news is it's not going to beat you up and I think you're going to be very very happy about that but I'm hoping that this has been a good overall review of the 2024 Escalade we're going to get back to where it all started and wrap this one up so I'll see you in a split second all right guys another great day it's never going to be a bad day when you're behind the wheel of a Cadillac Escalade but I definitely got to thank everybody at Cadillac for allowing us access to this press wheel vehicle let me know what you think are you going with one of the OG's in that full-size luxury segment the Cadillac Escalade or you like to have some German Euro luxury and you're going to go BMW x7 let me know down in that comment section but if you're new to the channel and you're on your way out hit that subscribe button I promise you it's worthwhile come back for more if you are a subscriber thank you for being part of the Raiders Rides family of course we need to give it up Stephen Flood, Stephen Flood Photography he has actually been training for his next weight lifting competition so definitely wish him well and hopefully he won't overdo the steroids so thank you Stephen for all that you do take care of yourself and just like always guys I'll see you on the next ride