The Luxury Gap

Did you mind the gap in the late 90's?

Fuck the Cadillac Escalade. Yeah, I said it. But I also love the Escalade. See, the Escalade is the continuation of excellence in American luxury motoring (Arlington, Texas by the way, not anywhere near Detroit) in an era where past demons of badge-engineering gutted the soul out of many nameplates. Which is ironic thinking of the platform and its roots. But the Escalade ESV Premium Luxury Platinum represents the pinnacle of the segment just as something like a Fleetwood Talisman did in its day.

Speaking of the era of the Fleetwood, the era of large body-on-frame sedans with big displacement V8s, Americans who had money bought large American cars. No I’m not saying David Ruffin didn’t have a Rolls-Royce, but I am saying he also kept a Lincoln Continental too. Today if you travel through the higher end suburbs of America you’ll find yourself seeing a behemoth Expedition or Wagoneer in the same driveways that you’d see a Lincoln Town Car in 50 years ago. 

Why though? Let’s look back. There wasn’t a shift overnight, the GM B-Body customer and the GMT400 Tahoe customer had a lot in common but they still wouldn’t consider the other vehicle. That was until the second generation of our friend the Escalade came out for the 2002 model year. I don’t really count the first generation nearly-identical to the Yukon Denali Escalade as an Escalade. It wasn’t different enough, it wasn’t expensive enough, and it didn’t have the bling factor. The second generation however was it, I mean that was when the Escalade finally meant something and went from also ran into the main thing parked in front of 310 Motoring. 

So there was a luxury gap in between these eras where the best America had to offer on luxury was still no match for the introduction of US-only Japanese luxury brands. The American luxury gap was real and Japanese economy became very strong at just the right time to match up with the gap in our market. 

The SUV as we know it has existed for a long time, there have been wagon bodies on truck frames since the 1930’s so obviously it's taken a bit of time to catch on with the Everyman though. Right before the period where even the most basic of them began to catch on here in the US, the truly luxurious among them didn’t come from America.   

It made me think though, if the Japanese luxury cars didn’t fill the luxury gap, would the SUVs that created the shift in the hearts of American luxury buyers (Lexus RX, Acura MDX, Mercedes ML) have caught on? I don’t doubt the Explorer or Pathfinder nameplates would still be around but I mean the sexy body-on-frame stuff like our friend Escalade. Would we be buying $80,000 Suburbans and $100,000 Escalades right now and if not what the fuck would these people drive? 

I thought a lot about this and well let me paint what the landscape would look like. I’ll start with the fact that the Koreans would've been in the luxury car space much sooner than they have. We would've been driving GV80s in 2010. I think something like the Escalade and Navigator would've still been an inevitability but for a much more exclusive set of people who required the utility but could afford the luxury. Their popularity would never reach the levels they've been at for over a decade now. I know what you're thinking then, what would the Japanese manufacturers be doing instead? Well for one we'd definitely have seen high-trimmed high technology Nissans and Toyotas and such sold in the US. Imagine 2010 Camrys with fake suede headliners, quilted leather seats, and radar cruise control. Why? Cause the market would've told them so even if they didn't start their own brands. I mean look at the “premium” trims and offerings from the US OEMs, you’ve probably seen a Ford with a Platinum badge or a Buick trimmed Avenir rolling down the streets at some point.

But alas, I’m just an armchair analyst and I might have missed something about the luxury gap. Maybe I made it all up in my head and the status quo just shifted under my feet and I was asleep. What say you reader? Let me know in the comments below.

Also for those who don’t know it, Buick isn't a luxury brand. If it was a luxury brand, the Escalade would’ve been a Buick.