Cadillac will get hybrid Escalade

Thread Tools

Search this Thread

#81

12-14-2006, 04:30 PM

Delta Flyer

Banned

Join Date: Apr 2005

Location: Lewisville (Dallas), Texas

Posts: 3,155

Re: Cadillac will get hybrid Escalade

ag4ever,

Excellent post!

I like what someone at Prius Chat said about the hybrid Escalade...."kind of like getting stuffed on a deep crust pizza with all the toppings and washing it down with Diet Coke to cut on calories."

I've had an Insight for over six years. Ironically the first 2-3 years when I averaged 10-15mph over the limit was when I had the most problems with aggressive drivers. One out of eight drive trucks, unless it's Texas - it's one out of four. A disprotionate number of rude drivers were the huge pickups. One of them even had a vanity plate "**** 4"

.

Later on, I got a few people livid posting pictures of a common sight of some of these guys tooling around with a kind of gansta lean, "Rolex drape", etc...

Some of you might remember the early 1980's. Yes, they had boat cars and station wagons. Still, you can't take that and explain in pragmatic needs the explosion of SUV's and the balloning of pickups to 2006. There are simply a lot of people driving them that unlike ag4ever don't need them.

When you consider the alternatives for carrying as much payload or people to a jumbo SUV, what could be less utilitarian?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ag4ever

I too hate the fatc that everybody seems to want a truck now also. But I have a seperate reason for my hatred. I am in construction, and do need a truck for personal reasons. I drive my TCH when I am going to the office (I am a project manager, so I spend 80% of my time in the office) and drive the truck to the job site. The main reason I drive the truck to the job site is for clearance, since I am driving over broken concrete, thru rutts made by concrete trucks, and tru fields that are muddy. The TCH would just not be up to the tasks in those conditions. Now a HH or a escalade hybrid would work in those conditions I bet. I can't get the HH since I own a boat that weighs 5500 pounds on the trailer. Thee HH would end up spitting the electric motors on the pavements if I tried to pull it. So that leaves me with the option of the joke GM calls the BAS or a 2-mode escalade if that is what they are putting in there. Oh yea, Dodge is now selling the BAS in their trucks to select buyers, but I can't get that yet.

So, I have a 3/4 ton diesel truck to pull the boat around and go to the construction site.

Now back to my hatred of people overbuying the trucks. Since I am one of the people that actually has a legitamate need for a "truck type vehicle" I am penalized with super high prices by those that just want one. If people would not flock to the trucks so much, they would not be priced so unreasonably. That is my biggest gripe. To get a decent 4X4 3/4 ton diesel truck, you are spending over $45,000 and that is with cloth seats. That is rediculous, and the main reason I am still in my '02 Ford instead of a newer cleaner diesel.

#82

12-14-2006, 05:01 PM

martinjlm

Proud to be GM

Join Date: Sep 2005

Location: Detroit

Posts: 564

Re: Cadillac will get hybrid Escalade

Quote:

Originally Posted by ag4ever

You should come on down here to Texas and tell me that the average Joe is not buying 3/4 and 1 ton trucks.

Texas is Texas when it comes to trucks. But I'm still sure that even in Texas the casual truck buyer buys a 1500 series. Some may be into the 2500 series. You have to concede that you don't know how they use their trucks but for that brief slice of time when you share highway space with them. It would be simple for me to check vehicle registration data. Just not really worth the time right now to prove the point.

People who see me driving to or from my office all by my lonesome in my big Tahoe would have no way of knowing that I spend a lot of time with 4 people and a couple hundred pounds of music equipment in my vehicle several times in the course of the week.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ag4ever

I think a bunch of people started buying the deisel trucks for the novelty, and there is a nitch market segment that is buying them for their performance and upgradeability.

Either way the Tahoe 2-mode looks very interesting. Do you know if the ability to tow decent loads (around 9,000 pounds) will be affected by the hybrid system being implimented?

The performance and upgradability part I agree. I seriosly doubt people are lining up to pay $5 - 7,000 extra for the "novelty" of a diesel. Especially when that "novelty" includes a very distinct order when re-fueling.

Tahoe has fairly significant towing capability. I just cannot remember as I'm sitting at home if it is equivalent to the non-hybrid versions.

Peace,

Martin