QOTD: Is It Time for a Cadillac Pickup?

This is the day of the expanding man… and of the expanding pickup truck trim level. I’ve speculated elsewhere about a truck-based luxury sedan from General Motors, but other possibilities exist for the current GM full-sized platform.

There’s just one problem with the idea of a Cadillac-badged pickup: it might force GM, and the automotive media, to come to grips with some unpleasant truths about what really sits on top of the Sloan Plan nowadays.

The idea of a Cadillac pickup truck isn’t new and it isn’t confined to the aftermarket conversion industry. The Escalade EXT made it through two generations before following its Chevrolet Avalanche sibling into the grave. One of my business partners bought a pearl white EXT a while back and had Cleveland’s Roman Chariot customizers liberally splash the thing with gold trim. It was truly horrifying to see on the road and for that reason I relished taking every possible opportunity to borrow it.

While the market has spoken fairly plainly about its lack of interest in the Avalanche idea, it has been far more coy about the idea of a six-figure upscale pickup. There are plenty of half-tons going out the door at $75k nowadays, with the Super Duty-class crew cabs often fetching another 10 grand on top of that. Cadillac could have an Escalade crew cab on the market in 12 months, no hassle whatsoever.

The issue here is that GM already has an upscale truck — the demographically desirable Denali sub-brand — and there is every chance that an Escalade truck would put the superior optics of the Denali brand front and center for the world to see. In other words: What if they built it and nobody came?

I think you have to make an ornament of that inconvenience. Price it at $100,000 for a single fully loaded trim level and announce that you’ll only build 5,000 of them a year. Cadillac’s own dealer body would account for several hundred every year — the owners have to pull their boats somehow. The rest would be sought-after rarities that would appear in rap videos and on red carpets. I wouldn’t buy one because I like my Silverado and I like the virtual immunity to traffic enforcement that accompanies it. But somebody will. Bet on it.

What do you say?