When the 2021 Cadillac Escalade Platinum was delivered to my home, my first reaction was ‘Oh, boy. This is one big vehicle.’ And soon followed by asking if this is really a luxury vehicle. Nothing this big, I thought, could be a luxury vehicle.

Well, let’s get one thing straight right away. This fifth-generation Cadillac Escalade is a straight-up luxury vehicle, and it takes luxury to a whole new level. If one’s memory goes back to the late 1990s when the first Cadillac Escalade was introduced, this 2021 Cadillac Escalade sibling is heads-and-shoulders above its distant 90s brethren.

While the exterior has what some may call a distinctive truck look, a closer inspection finds that Cadillac has refined the lines to smooth them out. The LED vertical front and rear lights seem to be ‘organically’ part of the vehicle, and enhances the overall smart design. The front grille and lights gave a solid presence without being aggressive or overwhelming. And the 22-inch 10-spoke alloy wheels did not seem out of place, perfectly matched to the both the size and look of this Escalade, and visually firmly plant the vehicle to the ground.

It is obvious the designers put a lot of thought to how the 2021 Cadillac Escalade Platinum wants to present itself. There is no mistaking this vehicle for anything else, for example, the 2021 GMC Yukon that is what most would wish to compare it against.

The real ‘ wow’ factor, however, comes when you open the door and sit down. Here Cadillac outdoes itself, as it takes interior luxury up several notches. It is quite obvious the interior design team wanted to send a message and that this Escalade is the equal to any luxury car brand out there. The one I drove came with full-leather front bucket seats with semi-aniline leather surfaces and with 18-way seat adjustment for both the driver and passenger. Included was heating and a massage function for both.

Behind these seats were two captain’s chairs and then a more traditional third-row 60/40-split seating. There was plenty of legroom throughout the whole vehicle so there should be no complaints from anyone about feeling cramped or boxed in. Cadillac claims this Escalade has 41 per cent more legroom than the previous version, and I believe it. The rear seats and the captain’s chairs can be dropped and stowed away with a press of a button located in the trunk area, and deployed again the same way.

Another nice touch is the climate control. It is a tri-zone system that offers individual climate settings for the driver, passenger and those sitting in the back, including rear air vents.

Because today phones are now coming equipped with wireless charging capabilities, Cadillac has included a wireless charger located in the console just in front of the bin lid. As well, this Escalade comes with wireless smartphone linking, so when you step into the vehicle, your phone will automatically link to the infotainment system.

So now, let’s talk for a moment about the infotainment system. What one gets is what Cadillac claims is the first curved 16.9-inch OLED 4K infotainment screen to be placed in a vehicle, one built right into the dashboard so that it seamlessly connects to a 14.2-inch digital instrument cluster and to ta 7.2-inch side touch screen for access to such functions as the heads-up display, augmented reality with an active route display that connects to the navigation system and night vision display. The central gauge view displays critical vehicle information without it ever seeming to be crowded or in too small a manner as to make it difficult to read.

While the sharpness of the infotainment screen was something to behold, I was glad to find that I could access functions with the large control knob located on the central console below the shifter. A quick turn of the knob or toggle allowed me to bring up Apple CarPlay, Android Auto or SiriusXM, for example. Do keep one thing in mind tough. If you are going to access such features by touch, fingerprints are going to show up. So you should probably keep a screen cleaning cloth handy.

An added bonus is the AKG Studio Reference audio system with 36 speakers. Does it sound amazing? Yes it does . . . and Schoenberg’s Moses Und Aron never sounded so good in a vehicle.

Passengers in the two captains chairs get access to their own infotainment screens. Included USB and HDMI ports will let them watch movies and listen to them through Bluetooth supported headphones. Be warned though, the screens gives one the ability to use the navigation function. My son was overjoyed that he could find where the nearest Starbucks was located on our road trip and from his screen send me a request to navigate to the location. It pops up on the infotainment system and you can accept or decline. The first couple of times it was fun . . . after the 10^th request, not so much.

The tester I had came with a 6.2-litre V8 engine with Dynamic Fuel Management and Direct Injection and can put out a solid 420 hp with 460 lb-ft of torque. It proved more than capable of supplying all the power I needed, especially on the highway where I found the acceleration to be there when I put my foot down. Because of the size of the vehicle, don’t expect to be flying out of the stocks when you hit the gas when the light turns green, however, but I can assure you that you will get up to speed quick enough when driving the in the city. But be warned, the size and weight of this 2021 Cadillac Escalade means you are going through quite a bit of gas, especially in the city with stop-and-go traffic. But one the highway, I was able to get near the rated 12.4 l/100 km.

Like all vehicles today, you get a full-range of driver assistance and safety features, such as parking assist, blind-spot warnings, rear cross traffic and pedestrian alert and such. The adaptive cruise control worked like a charm. I was impressed that even as traffic began to get heavy the adaptive cruise control easily maintained safe driving distances and speeds, even as drivers turned into my lane. Over time, I grew confident enough to just let the system do its job without always wanting to put my foot on the brake each time I saw brake lights come on from others in front of me.

Simply, Cadillac has bought forward an impressive luxury vehicle that can now stand next to the best the competition has to offer, and worth every penny you will spend to acquire it.

The vehicle was provided to the writer by the automaker. Content and vehicle evaluations were not subject to approval.

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Walking up to the 2021 Toyota Avalon for the first time, I couldn’t help but wonder how much – if any – it had advanced past the point of it being a stretched and comfier Camry. This is how I had always thought of the Avalon from way back. One my Grandpa would like. Or Grandma, if either of them needed to ferry other adults to the golf course, with a back seat and trunk that could accommodate a foursome and their clubs.

In reality, I’m fairly sure both my grandparents never saw a single golf course or even a golf club in person, back on the tiny island on which they were born and never left. And these days, the latest Avalon is actually a lower and more aggressively styled sedan than the Camry. Plus the Avalon Limited is now up to date with Android Auto (finally) as well as Apply CarPlay, and becomes the only Avalon to offer all-wheel drive for 2021.

It thus takes on the more conservative luxury jacket, with its standard four-cylinder engine and AWD, versus the sportier Avalon XSE’s more powerful V6 with actual shift paddles – yes, shift paddles! In an Avalon!

Upon entering this Ruby Flare pearl-coloured Avalon Limited AWD, it was clear this was no mere full-size comfort machine: umm, why is my head brushing this headliner? Is this powered seat all the way up? Being a full inch shy of six feet tall, this is not what you’d expect when you hop into a full-size sedan. There’s also a steeply raked windshield and relatively shallow windows, for a tight window greenhouse that’s not Camaro-tight, but surprisingly so for a car like this.

It felt like it had less headroom than the new Nissan Sentra I was in just prior to it. And when I checked the Avalon’s official numbers, it did have less front headroom than that Sentra. And also less than the Camry that shares a platform with the Avalon, thanks to a 10 mm lower roof.

In fact, unlike Toyota’s marketing materials, the Avalon is still listed by the Canadian government as a mid-size model, just like the Camry, despite the Avalon’s body that’s roughly 10 cm longer and a centimetre wider (and roughly equal in size to the Lexus ES 350). This extra width and length adds up to extra stretch out legroom in the rear seats and more passenger space overall, plus a roomier cargo bay of 456 litres.

But that lower roof height goes against the taller, crossover-friendly trend these days, which not only means this Avalon may not be the car for taller folk, but it’s also just a little tougher to climb in and out of for those less mobile. We’re not saying it needs a Lamborghini limbo; just something to keep in mind if, say, you’re planning lots of hard leg days…

It’s a very nicely finished interior, with a large sunroof, quilted leather, ventilated and heated seats up front, heated rear seats and a heated steering wheel to warm away winter chills. The tan-coloured accents on the steering wheel, centre console and cabin-wide leather on the dash helped give the interior an upmarket feel, with a nice handy place to stash your phone while driving where you won’t see it, or have it slide around.

Unfortunately, this handy little phone cavern doesn’t wirelessly charge your phone, which like the late availability of Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, suggests that having the latest conveniences are still not a top Toyota priority, even on the top Toyota sedan. To charge you’ll have to use a cable in the centre console, but it does have newer USB-C and older USB type as well. But it’s that conservatism with technology that helps Toyotas maintain their high reliability scores correct? Likely true, but no brand is infallible.

On this tester, the infotainment center screen froze on me once, just after hopping into the driver’s seat. The screen adjusted, but all stations and modes muted, even after turning the stereo off and on, and calls wouldn’t go through. Upon restarting, the radio and Bluetooth came back, including satellite radio.

From a driver’s perspective, the 2.5-litre four-cylinder that powers all Limited versions of the Avalon is relatively smooth, but especially once dipping your foot into the power, perhaps not as quiet or as powerful as one may fairly expect for a $50,906 luxury-oriented Toyota. Its 205 hp and 185 lb-ft of torque power outputs are sufficient but somewhat middling for a vehicle this size, but under most conditions, it combines well with the standard eight-speed automatic to provide a largely refined and unobtrusive overall driving personality.

The standard all-wheel drive system is largely a slip and grip type system, saving fuel by engaging the rear wheels predominantly when it detects any slippage of the tires up front, sending up to half the power rearward. The power though flows strictly front to back, so no performance-oriented torque-vectoring side-to-side here.

Did I miss the more responsive 301 hp V6 in the sportier Avalon XSE? Yes. Did I occasionally wish for that car’s steering wheel shift paddles, which would help at least drum up whatever power is available from the four a mite quicker? Yes.

Will most potential Avalon owners appreciate the extra security of all-wheel drive more than generous helpings of power? Likely yes. Will the fuel efficiency savings of the four-cylinder Avalon Limited AWD (8.4 L/100 km combined city/highway average) over the sportier Avalon XSE (9.5 average) be worthwhile from a cost perspective? Perhaps eventually, but likely not. Natural Resources Canada numbers estimates an annual fuel cost savings for the Avalon AWD of $275 dollars per year compared to the regular Avalon V6 ($2,100 versus $2,375), though of course, YMMV.

Of course, for folks looking for the smoothest and quietest vehicles with a roughly $50k new car budget, which is where traditionally the Avalon fared well on the lower edge of Lexus territory, there are now various battery electric vehicle options, none with such a roomy rear seat especially.

Considering the Avalon Limited AWD’s roughly $5,700 higher starting price than the Avalon XSE, if it came down to those two, I’d opt for the more powerful and involving XSE, and use the money saved to invest in some good winter rubber, which we should all be doing regardless of drivetrain. But for drivers less concerned on driver engagement, ones that aren’t crossover fans and want a good-looking yet roomy traditional sedan, the 2021 Toyota Avalon is certainly worth a test drive.

The vehicle was provided to the writer by the automaker. Content and vehicle evaluations were not subject to approval.

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