Cadillac designers call it Seven Layers of Chrome, from the roof rack, window sills, door handles, badges, door moldings, wheels, and running boards (or something like that). Interestingly, during the press launch, the term “bling” was seldom uttered, aside from the tongue-in-cheek use by engineers describing new aluminum suspension components. Call it whatever you like – chrome, bling, shiny truck stuff – when someone asks you if you can see yourself in an Escalade, you can say, “Yes, yes, I can. All the way down to that disgusting pimple on my nose.”

Like the Chevy Tahoe on which it’s based, the 2007 Cadillac Escalade features clean new body lines, subtle wheel flares, lower door panels that hide the rocker panels, and a front end that resembles the midsize SRX SUV with its large chrome grille and thin vertical headlights. That sparking mug is more than a design cue, it also allows for plenty of air to cool the engine when pulling 7,400 pounds over mountain passes. Behind the scenes, the front end has been designed to impact passenger cars lower and safer, and the frame has been stiffened by nearly 50 percent. With all of the changes, the 2007 Escalade offers a drag coefficient of 0.363, which doesn’t mean much to most buyers unless one considers that’s about the same figure reported for a 1995 Corvette and the current Nissan Murano.

Though the exterior of the 2007 Escalade can be considered an update, the interior is brand-spankin’ new. The dash, with its calf skin cap, has been moved about four inches forward and down for more room and better visibility. Quality leather covers the seating surfaces and door panels, an upscale mesh material is used on the headliner and upper pillar covers, and real wood is used to accent the leather-wrapped steering wheel. Aluminum trim decorates the center dash, while rubberized plastics are fitted to all of the points where the driver and passengers commonly touch. Hard plastics are reserved for the lower door and dash panels. GM designers have also covered all of the lower seat frames in plastic, so none of that unsightly hardware is visible when the second-row buckets are tumbled forward.