Cadillac’s base Luxury trim is steadily becoming a thing of the past. The refreshed 2025 Cadillac CT5 has already nixed the Luxury trim from its lineup, and the 2025 Cadillac XT4 then followed suit. It stands to reason, then, that the forthcoming 2025 Cadillac Escalade will do the same as the luxury marque continues to streamline its trim level offerings across its lineup.
Cadillac Society Executive Editor Alex Luft and the man called G recently sat down to discuss this possibility on the latest Cadillac Society podcast. Luft’s basic premise is that it wouldn’t be out of the question for the 2025 Escalade to drop Luxury as its base trim, making the Premium Luxury model the luxury SUV’s new entry-level option.
As a reminder, Cadillac employs its self-described Y-trim level strategy. Luxury serves as the base of the “Y,” which then branches off into Premium Luxury on the one hand, and Sport as well as V-Series models on the other.
Luft posits that either the Luxury trim is dropped for the 2025 Escalade, or Luxury replaces the Premium Luxury name with the Luxury name.
This strategy is already in place with the all-new 2025 Cadillac Optiq, which is offered only in Luxury and Sport trims; there is no Premium Luxury trim level. The same is true for the Lyriq, which is offered in Luxury 1, 2, or 3 trims, or Sport 1, 2 or 3. The Lyriq, however, is also offered in the base Tech trim.
However, the forthcoming CT4 and CT5 do offer Premium Luxury in the absence of the base Luxury trim – although this decision was probably made to avoid confusing buyers comparing the 2024 model year to 2025 model year.
Additionally, Luft says there’s really no need to offer a base Escalade, considering that the model consistently transacts at over $100,000. That indicates that buyers of the luxury SUV are opting for more well-equipped models, so there’s no point in even offering a base model that lacks such features. Instead, shoppers can turn to the Escalade’s corporate cousins, the Chevy Tahoe and Chevy Suburban High Country, GMC Yukon Denali, or Yukon Denali Ultimate for a comparable vehicle at a more approachable starting price point.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the pattern here,” Luft says. Check out the full podcast above, and be sure to tune in for future discussions on our YouTube channel or subscribe in your favorite podcatcher.
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2025 Cadillac Escalade Photos
Bill Howland
Brilliant! People are getting poorer and the only cheap GM u can buy now is a trax.