pet connection

The other day we received a note from a dedicated DogCar reader John, who was requesting a DogCar review of the Cadillac Escalade EXT, the pickup truck version of the Escalade sport utility vehicle.

John and his wife Tina, of Corning, California, report that their American Bulldogs love their EXT because it has plenty of room and all of the necessities that make it DogCar friendly. Here’s his review:

I had a GMC Sierra and it was not as dog friendly as the Cadillac Escalade EXT (Pickup version).

In the EXT that rear window comes out and gives your pet the ability to move in and out of the cab and sports several tie downs eliminating the ability for your pet to go over the edge either on purpose or accidentally and possibly hanging itself. With the Standard rear bed covers that can be removed individually in any arrangement: 1, 2, and 3 or 1 and 3 or just any one of them etc.

You can create a very comfortable set up for your pets along with protection etc. The Cadillac Escalade EXT pickup deserves better recognition and has been this way for a lot longer than any other manufacture, why such hype on the Honda? Is it because they took 8 years to copy the Cadillac and you somehow feel the need to reward them for that?

Anyway, why not at least look into the Escalade EXT and see for yourself why my family has been so satisfied with its “Dog/Pet friendly” environment. And why my youngest daughter would ask, “Where is all the hype for the Cadillac, that’s been doing it for like . . . ever”?

He pointed out that he uses his EXT to haul blueberries and olives to processing plants as well as for recreation. His dogs particularly enjoy the EXT’s flexibility to open the back of its cab to the truck bed.

I for one have been sold on this vehicle since we first got it.

While the leather seats would hold up to the vigorous pounding that our American Bulldogs could give them, They don’t have to. They fold down very easily, we leave the last cover and sometimes two covers on the bed so they can lay down out of the sun and wind and you should see the looks we get when our dogs will follow passing cars from the bed and into the cab and look out the windows in the cab because they think they are stuck in the rear bed.

It is quite funny. Our relatives give us a hard time, “only John and Tina would buy a Caddie for their dogs”

We responded by saying that perhaps General Motors has chosen to pour most of its marketing budget into the more stylish (and fuel friendly) Cadillac CTS and XLR models.

Then, that same day, comes the news that General Motors is drastically cutting back on its production of trucks and SUVs, selling off its Hummer division and putting most of its focus on the small car market. The Escalade and EXT will still be produced, but only at one GM factory in Arlington, Texas.

Here are the details about announced by General Motors about their cutback plans, as reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

General Motors is closing four pickup and SUV factories, announcing a new small car that could get 45 miles per gallon, and shedding 10,000 jobs.

GM is idling plants in Moraine, Ohio; Janesville, Wis.; Oshawa, Ontario; and Toluca, Mexico.

GM’s Arlington plant will be the company’s only remaining large-SUV factory. It will continue to produce pickups along with other plants.

The closures will reduce GM’s capacity to produce pickups and large SUVs by 35 percent and save the company $1 billion a year.

The closings will cut GM’s North American capacity by 700,000 for trucks and, with added shifts at car factories, by 500,000 overall.

GM will build a new small car starting in mid-2010 at the Lordstown, Ohio, factory that makes the Chevrolet Cobalt. It is scheduled to hit showrooms in the second half of 2010 and will be powered by a 1-liter to 1.4-liter, four-cylinder gasoline engine.

GM’s board approved production of the Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric car, which GM plans to bring to showrooms by the end of 2010.

GM said it might redesign its Hummer offerings or sell all or part of the division.

GM execs said they expected gas prices to stay near $4 a gallon for the foreseeable future.

Thanks for the Reader Review, John. Hopefully, we’ll be able to secure one of those EXTs to do a more detailed review in the near future.

Before they become EXTinct!