Taking a tech-heavy Caddy for a spin

1 It is a rare occasion that I feel I'm the king of the road. My car's a relatively new econobox and my motorcycle is about 25 years old. So when I went cruising in a Cadillac Escalade ESV I ! was able to feel special.

This ain't your run-of-the-mill Caddy.

It is basically a GMC Suburban SUV done up by the folks at Cadillac. Its one of the biggest things on the road. It is definitely the most opulent SUV there is.

What interested me in this vehicle was not its size. its performance — quite spiffy considering its bulk — nor its extravagance. What this vehicle has is probably the most sophisticated automotive controls available in a commercially available vehicle.

Inner workings

There are two levels of sophistication that make up the Cadillac Escalade ESV: Stuff you see and can play with and -niff that works without you knowing. The latter grouping primarily consists of • He amazing Stab ilitrak stability nhancement system and the Ultrasonic Fear Parking Assist system. There are a .t of goodies in the engine that are :oyond this article and other stuff in the .ispension that has been around for ome time.

The Stabilitrak system keeps this huge stable all the time. giving the driver 1,-el of the road. Corners • . i H in my econobox ..711 ,...ithout. any

?ask* Assist system o en the back butr.pe.• : f -one is anything behind you when you 'e barking up. If there is you get a series .` diem. A very handy feature — espe-ail, Ow something this big,

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5330[311 E\N]

2003 Cadillac Escalade ESV 578,150 (base)

$84,765 (is tested) Central Motors

www.gmcanada.com

its OnStar system for a while. This system used to be available on Cadillacs exclusively but is now available on many cars in GM's fleet — including the lowly Cavalier. The OnStar system consists of three buttons, the White Dot Button (that's what it's really called in the info), the Blue OnStar Button and the Emergency Button. The White Dot Burton is basically your phone button. You use it to place, answer and end calls you make while driving. Your car is your hands-free voice-activated phone. Hit the button and say 'dial: say the number you want and you are through. You can save up to 20 numbers in memory. It works like a prepaid phone. where you ha..e ro buy unirs using your credit card. Ffrer's a trick though — if you keep your calls to under 35 seconds the calls don't get registered and you don't get charged. I expect this will be corrected soon.

The Blue OnStar button is what you press when you feel lonely or lost. There is always someone on the other line that will help you — or at least try to — whenever and wherever. Don't know where you are? Hit the button and ask. Advanced packages will give you routing information, hotel reservation services and even a concierge service that will get you tickets to shows, sporting events and the like. This service will unlock your door if you happened to lock your keys inside (worked like a charm) as well as provide roadside assistance and remote diagnostics. With the latter, if your engine light goes on you can hit the button and they will do a check up of your car's engine and tell you what is wrong with it and what you should do. If it is drivable you will go on your merry way, but if it is more serious they will send a tow truck or a mechanic to fix the car.

The emergency applications of this system are quite impressive, The Emergency Button should only be used for emergencies such as medical or mechanical. If you are involved in an accident and the airbags deploy the OnStar people are immediately contacted and they know where you are and can contact the proper authorities to offer aid. The system uses a GPS and cellbased system to receive and send information. This same system is what powem the Stolen-Vehicle Locator system. The Escalade also came with a very sophisticated DVD-based Navigation system. I've tried navigation systems before and was always disappointed. However, this one was great. After a bit of time spent getting used to it, I realized that it was not that much of a problem programming it. You punch in the route you want to take and it will tell you where to go. It only let me down once when I was waiting for it to tell me to take a certain exit and it did so a bit late. Because of this I ended up nearly crossing into the States, having to do an illegal U-turn just before the border and paid $3.25 in a toll for a bridge I did not use. But then again the Nay system did lead me right a few times, so I still think it is a great thing to have.

In the back there's an entertainment system, a DVD player with a 7 -inch screen. It supports two wireless headphones (good)- and has a video and stereo audio inputs so that you can connect your camcorder or game console there, The Cadillac Escalade ESV seemed to have everything — the only thing that was missing was a 110 volt plug. •

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