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2021 Cadillac Escalade Interior Review | Tech-forward fortress

Of all the interiors that are vital to Cadillac’s success, the new 2021 EscaladeÂ’s is arguably the most important. ItÂ’s supposed to be the best GM can muster, and the previous generation was a distant second to the classically elegant Lincoln Navigator. Cadillac didnÂ’t try to copy LincolnÂ’s success with its redesigned full-sizer, instead opting to follow a more generic theme of tech-forward luxury. When we say tech-forward, though, we mean it. The 38 inches of curved OLED screens we covered in our Escalade infotainment review absolutely dominate the dash in a brazen display of opulence. There isnÂ’t much room for anything else to take center stage, but whatÂ’s there is extremely nice. Large swaths of wood trim stretch across the dash and also adorn a substantial part of the center console. ItÂ’s harder to find something that doesnÂ’t feel like soft-touch leather, wood or metal trim than it is to find cost-cutting materials. There are certainly some areas with the usual black plastic for buttons, but every car company that isnÂ’t Rolls-Royce resorts to plastic at some level. The seating position and ergonomics of the Escalade are a big step up from past models. There was a feeling of claustrophobia in previous Escalades with the whole interior being built up around the driver in an unfriendly manner. This Escalade tones that down with lower and flatter surfaces, along with just being bigger in general. That feeling of expansiveness is great for decompressing and relaxing in the available heated, cooled and massaging seats. Riding in the back is almost as lovely. Switching to an independent rear suspension and making the vehicle longer means more passenger and cargo space (10.3 cu-ft more than before with the third row up). The majority of this is realized in the third row (10.4 inches more than before), where even large adults can sit comfortably with a laid-back seating position. Before, if your knees weren't in your face, it's probably because you gave up and hitched a ride with someone else. A BMW X7 or Mercedes-Benz GLS will still outclass it for materials and third-row features, but the Escalade wins on sheer bigness. Getting back there is a breeze with a huge walkway, though putting the seat back into place is borderline annoying, requiring much more physical effort than a powered second row would. As big as the third row is, sitting in the second row is even better thanks to the massive dual screens mounted to the front headrests.

Al Capone’s bulletproof 1928 Cadillac Town Sedan is back on the market

It turns out that infamous mob boss Al Capone played an early role in the development of the modern armored executive car, and now there’s another chance to own his bulletproof 1928 Cadillac Town Sedan, which is being offered by Celebrity Cars of Las Vegas for a cool $1 million. It was last seen netting $341,000 at auction by RM SothebyÂ’s in 2012 and does not appear to have undergone significant restoration since then, raising the question of why its value has jumped nearly threefold. Painted green with a black roof, fenders and bumpers, the car is said to be the earliest surviving bulletproof vehicle, with nearly inch-thick glass and once lined (but no longer; read on) with nearly 3,000 pounds of asbestos-wrapped steel armor plating. It features a rear window rigged to drop quickly, so the tough guys in the rear seats could fire on any pursuers. Heavy spring lifts operated the side windows, which were also rigged to raise higher than usual to reveal a circular cutout big enough for the muzzle of a machine gun. In this case, the factory specs may be the least interesting part of the car, though it is undeniably a looker. It features a Series 341-A, 90-bhp, 341 cubic-inch L-head V8 engine mated to a three-speed manual, with a beam front axle and full-floating rear axle with semi-elliptical leaf springs and four-wheel mechanical drum brakes. It has only 1,111 miles on the odometer, having spent much of its history in museums or on display at carnivals and amusement parks. ItÂ’s believed to have flown under the fedsÂ’ radar in a Chicago garage owned by Emil Denemark, a known mafia associate and South Side Cadillac dealer who was related to Capone by marriage, when the mob boss began his slide into legal troubles leading up to his eventual felony conviction and jail time. In 2008, an elderly man named Richard “Cappy” Capstran told a friend that he had once helped his father install armor plating on a Cadillac owned by Al Capone. His father, Ernest Capstran, had repaired another of CaponeÂ’s vehicles and earned the mobsterÂ’s business fortifying the brand-new Cadillac. “My dad said, ‘We donÂ’t do that kind of work here.Â’ And they (CaponeÂ’s men) said, ‘You do now,’” Richard Capstran recalled in a recorded interview, per SothebyÂ’s. CaponeÂ’s associates reportedly also backed the car into the shop so no one could see what kind of work was being done to it.

Junkyard Gem: 1983 Cadillac Cimarron

Ah, the Cadillac Cimarron. Conceived during a time when oil prices were zooming upward and smallish luxury imports such as the Datsun 810 and BMW 320i were stealing Detroit's customers, the idea of a fuel-efficient compact Cadillac made sense. Unfortunately for GM, the Cimarron was an image-tarnishing disaster. Here's a fairly well-preserved '83 that I spotted in a Phoenix self-service wrecking yard. In the words of Pulitzer-winning Dan Neil in his 50 Worst Cars of All Time: "Everything that was wrong, venal, lazy and mendacious about GM in the 1980s was crystallized in this flagrant insult to the good name and fine customers of Cadillac." The Cimarron was a Chevrolet Cavalier with a bit of added bling and a fatter price tag. The Chevrolet Nova-based Cadillac Seville had sold pretty well during the late 1970s, so there was precedent for a small, Chevy-based Cadillac. The hood latch mechanism was broken (of course), so I couldn't shoot any photos of this car's 2.0-liter pushrod four-cylinder engine, rated at 86 horsepower. Here's a GM-produced documentary touting the futuristic design of the '83 Cimarron. The Cimarron Dream. Featured Gallery Junked 1983 Cadillac Cimarron View 12 Photos Auto News Cadillac Economy Cars Classics Sedan