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Not surprisingly, given its 6,000-pound-plus weight, an Escalade is clumsy. (http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzrevi6033710feb13,0,5842888.column)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Escalade_Hybrid.JPGTom Incantalupo - News Day (http://www.newsday.com) - Feb. 13, 2009

Tell it like it is, Tom. We need this thing about as much as another hole in the head. -- Ed.

What General Motors calls the "world's first large luxury hybrid SUV" is a case of too much too late: a hulk that's only a little less out of step with the times than the conventional Escalade.

With a $73,000 price tag -- $3,600 more than a conventional comparably equipped Escalade -- and qualifying for a $2,200 federal tax credit, the hybrid offers fuel economy that, under the right conditions, can be a lot better than a standard Escalade in city driving but is only a little better on the highway.

There are no Environmental Protection Agency mileage estimates for the all-wheel-drive hybrid Escalade, but GM says economy is about the same as that of the rear-drive Escalade hybrid: 20 mpg city, 21 highway, compared with 12 mpg city and 19 mpg highway for an all-wheel-drive non-hybrid Escalade.

I averaged about 17 mpg in seven days of highway and suburban driving, according to.… http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzrevi6033710feb13,0,5842888.column

"Gee daddy, can you drop me off BEHIND the school, where the other dump trucks pull in, so I don't get mocked for coming to school in your new Blunderbuss? All the other kids parents drive responsible hybrids and stuff"

(To borrow from the Saturn ad --- Saturn, the brand that GM wants to dump)

"Gee daddy, can you drop me off BEHIND the school, where the other dump trucks pull in, so I don't get mocked for coming to school in your new Blunderbuss? All the other kids parents drive responsible hybrids and stuff"



Reminds me of the days when I drove a authentic beater, an old Ford with rust holes, that had been rear-ended by a school bus while parked in front of my house.

"Dad, drop us off here." "But we're still two blocks from school." :confused:
"That's okay, Dad, drop us off HERE!" :cool:

Or the time I looked in the rear view mirror and the kids were gone. They were crouched down low, hiding because they spotted someone they knew on the sidewalk. Oh the joys of driving a real beater... :o

Harry

I wonder what kind of mileage one of us could get in a suburban/esclade hybrid. My friends dad worked for GM and they would give him a different brand new GM vehicle to drive every month. He had the Hybrid Suburban one month but I never got a chance to drive it.

Hi Justin:

___This might help...

CleanMPG previews the 2008 GMC Yukon 2-Mode Hybrid (cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7448)

___Where FE is concerned, it can really beat a lot of vehicles out there but it takes a CleanMPG mentality to make it work to a level that is not embarrassing.

___Here is another reason I loathe testing the FSP’s. When the General Automobile press receives a vehicle, it arrives full of fuel and the journalist goes for a drive. It is picked up with half a tank or whatever is left and that is that. When I do a review, I top it off when it arrives, drive it and top it off again for the fuel economy numbers before the company picks it back up. This is a lot more expensive as you can well imagine.

___We could have had the Two-Mode for a week long review but the cost to fuel one over 500 or so miles even at 30 + mpg told me to forget about it!

___Good Luck

___Wayne

One of the Tahoe hybrids went by me on 128 yesterday. I guess
they're selling 2-modes around the Boston area as well as out west (http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/pix/hf08/east/)
where I'd spotted my first Yukon hybrid in the wild.
.
I hadn't actually read that review before; sounds like they did a
better job on the overall class of 2-modes than I thought. I still
sorta question the presence of *four* clutches and *three*
planetaries, which seems overly complex, but I guess they had
to "not be a big Prius".
.
_H*

OK - I guess it gets decent FE compared to some things I saw at the Chicago Auto Show.

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/maxxpro.JPG

Yes it would, but you won't see people cruising to Walmart or the show in that truck Chuck. There were many job built trucks that were at the show. I see many of them in industry. Road Warrior pipe fitters have uber trucks but they travel from outage to outage and have their pipeline welders and much related gear built into storage areas causing the look of a behemoth. Often times, they will have sleepers built in or be set up to pull a fifth wheel camper. At the campground in Madison last year where I stayed, I saw a GMC Bison with a large enclosed compartment behind the cab. One morning I heard a strange whine and saw the guy standing by his truck operating a control. The behemoth was "giving birth" to a platform that held a Harley Davidson via an electro-hydraulic mechanism.


OK - I guess it gets decent FE compared to some things I saw at the Chicago Auto Show.