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7/12/2025, 12:49:53 AM
>>28510122
The Navigator was hugely popular at first, outselling total Cadillac sales even (yeah, before they could rush to badge engineer the Escalade). I think the big thing, at the time at least, was the unveiling of the 2nd gen Escalade in 2002. As the first "art & science" car from Cadillac, it was seen as even gaudier than a 2026 Escalade is now. The grille was way bigger than the Lincoln's, headlights were bigger, that middle brake light was gargantuan, and the entire car had a more chiseled, sharper look compared to the smoothed Navigator and it's Town Car/LS-like 'waterfall grille'.
IMO it had to be the styling, since after that point the Navigator has never been able to keep pace. As far as pop culture goes, the Navigator was in, what, Are We There Yet with Ice Cube? NFSUG2? Meanwhile the Escalade was on the cover of multiple video games and in numerous others, it was all over MTV, Tony Soprano had one, the dudes from Entourage rode around in one, those white dreadlock dudes from the 2nd Matrix movie drove one.
Pop culture references can only go so far with cachet, so I think yet another thing were drivetrains. Since 2002, the Escalade has always offered more power with larger motors than the equivalent Navigator. Even in 2014, the last year of the V8 Navigator, it still produced less power than a 6.0L, 2002 Escalade. Even after the "upgrade" to the 3.5L Ecoboost that gave it 380hp, that was still less than the Escalade that had 403hp since 2007.
The Navigator was hugely popular at first, outselling total Cadillac sales even (yeah, before they could rush to badge engineer the Escalade). I think the big thing, at the time at least, was the unveiling of the 2nd gen Escalade in 2002. As the first "art & science" car from Cadillac, it was seen as even gaudier than a 2026 Escalade is now. The grille was way bigger than the Lincoln's, headlights were bigger, that middle brake light was gargantuan, and the entire car had a more chiseled, sharper look compared to the smoothed Navigator and it's Town Car/LS-like 'waterfall grille'.
IMO it had to be the styling, since after that point the Navigator has never been able to keep pace. As far as pop culture goes, the Navigator was in, what, Are We There Yet with Ice Cube? NFSUG2? Meanwhile the Escalade was on the cover of multiple video games and in numerous others, it was all over MTV, Tony Soprano had one, the dudes from Entourage rode around in one, those white dreadlock dudes from the 2nd Matrix movie drove one.
Pop culture references can only go so far with cachet, so I think yet another thing were drivetrains. Since 2002, the Escalade has always offered more power with larger motors than the equivalent Navigator. Even in 2014, the last year of the V8 Navigator, it still produced less power than a 6.0L, 2002 Escalade. Even after the "upgrade" to the 3.5L Ecoboost that gave it 380hp, that was still less than the Escalade that had 403hp since 2007.
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