2007 Cadillac Escalade

Cadillac’s Super Bowl television advertising featured a chrome-on-black 2007 Escalade, glittering center stage on a haute couture runway. It was hardly subtle in its appeal to the bling set: The fashionistas in this “Chrome Couture” ad represent precisely the image-conscious rappers, rockers, athletes, film stars, jet-setters and gangstas the Escalade has attracted since its debut in 1998.

However, as much as the Escalade shines in this spotlight, Cadillac says the rich and famous make up a mere 2 percent of Escalade owners; its bread-and-butter buyers haul kids and groceries, pull trailers and pile on highway miles. They are ordinary folk.

“We love the Hollywood and athlete crowd, but we can’t sell the Escalade as a vehicle just for them,” says Escalade product manager David Schiavone. The Escalade has to be a truck first and an homage to image somewhere further down the priority scale.

It does succeed. In our unscientific yet thoroughly real-world test, this third-generation ’Sclade stands out no matter where it traverses: grocery getting, nights out under bright city lights, cross-state highway runs and slogs through foot-deep mud. We did it all to prove this truck is a truck, even though it wears 22-inch chrome wheels and has plush leather seats and a rear-seat entertainment system.