Cadillac Escalade

Which Cadillac Escalade years should you avoid?

Going by 1,730 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Cadillac Escalade years to avoid are 2007, 2004 and 2023.

• 2007230 complaints, 3.2× a typical Escalade year, most often about the airbags.
• 20042.4× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (6 fires, 10 crashes).
• 2023143 complaints, 2.0× a typical Escalade year, most often about the engine.

Better bets: among years old enough for a low count to mean something, the 2019, 2011 and 2017 drew the fewest complaints without an unusual share of serious ones.

Too new to judge: 2025, 2026 and 2027. Complaints take a few years to arrive, so a new model year looks better than it is.

How this is worked out: each year is compared with a typical year of the same model, which takes most of the difference in sales out of it, and its share of serious failures is compared with every other car of the same model year, because older cars were complained about differently. A year needs 25 complaints to be judged at all. Complaints are unverified owner reports. Full method →