2005 Cadillac Escalade
This year drew an ordinary 62 complaints for a Cadillac Escalade — the model's median is 43. What they were about is the unusual part: 14.5% of them mention fuel, against 3.9% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 62 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 43 |
| Involving a crash | 4 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| EPA combined | 14 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- fuel — 14.5% of this year's complaints, against 3.9% across the model's other years (3.7×).
- gauge — 8.1% of this year's complaints, against 1.3% across the model's other years (6.3×). Owners wrote it as: gauge, complaining, leased, subsequently.
- seatbelt — 6.5% of this year's complaints, against 1% across the model's other years (6.4×). Owners wrote it as: seatbelt, belt, seat belt.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
The check air bag light stays on and will not go off. The light stays on with the seatbelt on or off.
THE AIR BAG LIGHT ILLUMINATED AND THE FUEL GAUGE FLUCTUATED SHOWING THE INCORRECT FUEL LEVEL. THE CONTACT MENTIONED THAT AN ABNORMAL NOISE EMITTED FROM THE WHEELS. THE FAILURE OCCURRED WITHOUT WARNING. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE DEALER. THE TECHNICIAN WAS UN…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 05V055000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 05V163000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 06E043000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 07E106000 WHEELS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Cadillac Escalade was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2005 Cadillac Escalade? What happened to yours?
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