2005 Cadillac Escalade Test Drive

2005 Cadillac Escalade Vs. 2005 Lincoln Navigator

We compare two of Detroit's most successful upscale SUVs.

Driving enthusiasts have different kinds of favorite cars, and to be a devotee or repeat buyer of the Cadillac Escalade or Lincoln Navigator models is to have a specific kind of experience that sets you apart from other car aficionados.

Say you liked sports cars instead. The market will always contain a surplus of different kinds of them, foreign and domestic, from which to choose. The same is true for performance sedans, or high-revving Japanese pocket-rockets, or pickups, etc. But if you're a fan of full-size, American-built, premium trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) that command high sticker prices and lots of respect on the streets, you really have only two choices: General Motors' Escalade and Ford Motor's Navigator.

The Navigator SUV and the Escalade line of pickups and SUVs are two of the hottest nameplates Detroit produces, both in terms of their popularity and their profit margins. The Escalade is the best-selling luxury nameplate in its price bracket, and both vehicles are at or near the top of the list of the most profitable vehicles their parent companies make.

The reason for this is that both the Escalade and Navigator use the mechanical underpinnings of ordinary, non-luxury trucks. The Escalade EXT pickup, for example, is basically a fancy version of the Chevrolet Avalanche pickup, which costs $20,000 less than the EXT and is one of America's best-selling trucks.

Because the Escalade and Navigator cost only a bit more to make than typical trucks but command premium prices, they are loved by their parent companies for the revenue they generate. The American automakers are fighting two well-publicized battles in order to deflect increasingly tough foreign competition: to reduce their high costs and to build more exciting cars that will drive revenue.

In a recent interview, Merrill Lynch analyst John Casesa said that "the cost is a smaller part of the argument than it ever was. They're getting close on cost and missing big on revenues."

The Detroit automakers may miss big in several automotive segments (for example, they have a dearth of luxury sedans), but the Escalade and Navigator are big hits. They are success stories that probably only Detroit could have written: big, bad American vehicles that have only Nissan Motor's much-less popular Infiniti QX56 as competition.

Please see the slide show that follows for a more in-depth comparison of two of Detroit's most successful vehicles -- and ask yourself why the American automakers can't make more cars that are similarly exciting and popular. Remember that the comparative sales performance of the Escalade and Navigator is not a terribly fair fight, because the Navigator line contains only the SUV, whereas the Escalade line contains the regular Escalade SUV, the longer Escalade ESV sport-ute and the Escalade EXT pickup.