Revisionist History - The Cadillac LYRIQ: Malcolm Gladwell meets an Electric Icon – Part One

Episode Date: November 22, 2022

Not long ago, we got a call at Pushkin Headquarters from Cadillac. They knew that Malcolm takes cars very seriously… so they asked if he’d heard of the all-electric Cadillac LYRIQ and if he’d like to borrow one for a few days to put it to the test. Yes, yes he did. What resulted was a series of road tests, blindfolded experiments, and head-to-head comparisons. Part one of two.    This episode is sponsored by Cadillac. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pushkin. The only thing I'm going to say in preparation is, well, I'm not even going to say anything. I just want your reaction. I want to know whether you want one of these. You ready? I'm walking down the streets of a small town in upstate New York with a five-year-old boy who has all the typical five-year-old boy's enthusiasm for things with wheels. He's wearing a blindfold. We stop. I turn him around to face the street.

In front of a shiny, elegant, sleek SUV. What you're gonna see is something that almost no one in America has seen. This is brand new. Okay, take my arm. Lift off your blindfold. Let me just say he was a little bit shy and a little overwhelmed. He's blindfolded by some random guy who's friends with his parents.

So he looks up and there's a pause as he contemplates the apparition in front of his eyes. What do you think? I like it. The look on his face did not just say, I like it. It said, holy Toledo. No, no, holy Detroit. What is this? Now, I know what you're thinking.

What's going on here? Well, to answer that, we need to go back in time. Not long ago, we got a call at Pushkin Headquarters from Cadillac. They knew that we take cars very seriously here. In fact, I think they knew that the car I drive to work every morning is a Cadillac. I checked out 2021 Cadillac CT5V. A monster. So they say, have you heard of the all-electric Cadillac Lyric?

Oh, I had. My friend Dan, the most serious gearhead I know, had driven one in Detroit and texted me immediately. This thing is the best car Cadillac ever made. My friend Eddie, second most serious gearhead I know, spotted one in his neighbor's driveway and said, it looks like the Barcelona chair of cars. I have no idea what that

means. Anyway, Cadillac says, would you like to borrow a Lyric for a few days? We gave their request a great deal of thought, held a dozen meetings to discuss, made a spreadsheet to evaluate the pros and cons. No, are you kidding me? We said, bring it now. I'm Malcolm Gladwell, and you're listening to the first of two very special episodes for Revisionist History listeners. Come along on an all-electric road trip with me and a few friends. So the lyric shows up at Pushkin HQ, and let's just say we have plans for the next few days. Road tests, but not boring road tests, my kind of road tests. The things that matter to me.

How much can I fit in this thing? Is it fast enough? Is it better than what I have in the garage already? And first and foremost, will it impress my friends? We started with the five-year-old down the street. Then we parked and waited for the general public to weigh in. Which they did. Like flies on honey. First up,

a dude in an Escalade literally stops in the middle of the street. Oh, yeah, that's sharp. Yeah. Look at that. Right out from the factory. Look at that thing. Man. I guess I'm having to look into it now. I'm going to work about it a little bit, but that's beautiful. All right. All right. Enough. We realized we had to drive it for ourselves. We piled in.

First thoughts? It is SUV presence, but drives like a car. An electric car. Which means that insanely smooth, uninterrupted, instantaneous acceleration. And all in a kind of hushed splendor. Powered by GM's brand new Ultium battery system. We called our contact back at Cadillac, Melissa Grady, Cadillac's chief marketing officer, put her on speaker. Wait, we're going to drive down the block because I want you to explain this sound. This thing is so insanely quiet. So there's like this

kind of quiet hum. Yes. I'm referring to this sound. What am I... Yes. Tell me about what I'm hearing. The future. You were trained to say that. Oh, yes, she was. It's actually the sound the sun emits

as recorded by NASA. I'm not making that up so what that noise is is you know with an ev there really isn't a lot of of audible sound and so um we put that sound in so that pedestrians and others can hear that the vehicle is approaching. Yeah. It's like the noise machine I use for my baby. It's like this calming... Next, I got fixated on the dash. So just so to describe for... So I'm looking at this.

We've got this console, this screen that stretches from the driver's side all the way almost to the edge of the passenger it's like a long how long is this it's like a do you know how long the screen looks like it's like over two feet long it is 33 inches 33 inches so everything as i'm driving everything is in front of me um and then i have oh we just opened the map function. Oh my God, that's fantastic. And then we've got the rear view mirror is a continuous HD camera. So in case you're keeping count, test number one, the five-year-old boy test, passed. Test number two, the eyeball first impression test, passed.

But now for the hardest test of all, we return to Pushkin HQ and pick up my friend Michael, who for the past three and a half years has been the devoted owner of an electric vehicle made by a company whose name will not pass our lips. Michael!

What am I getting myself into? We're coming for you. You need to come downstairs and then we're going to put a blindfold on you and go for a little ride. The same blindfold we used for the kid. Is this going to end our 35 year friendship? It is absolutely not. This is going to be an educational and enjoyable experience for you. Michael is a skeptical, perceptive, hard-bitten professional journalist. A man of the world.

And he loves his current EV. He's an evangelist for the brand. And we told him nothing. Except that we've got something very new parked out front that he's never been in before. We put him in the passenger seat. Let me remind you, he's blindfolded. We want him to hear and feel the lyric without his judgmental vision getting in the way. He starts running his hands over the dash, the door, everything around him. How does that seat feel, Michael? It's very luxurious.

I hate to... This can't be a... Now, we weren't trying to rag on the competition. I mean, I've driven in Michael's car. It's a fine bit of engineering, lots of great software, pioneer in the field, blah, blah, blah, but it's an appliance. And now his sense is heightened. Michael sits and touches and feels and realizes, Dorothy, you're not in an appliance anymore. Okay, now, Michael, I want you to remove your blindfold. Really? Yeah, and I want you to observe the interior.

Wow, sleek. Yeah. Yeah, this is very nice. It's very different than mine. My concern is that you're gonna go back, you're gonna get in your car, see what I mean. And just drive into a lake? Just be so despondent

that I'm going to be like I'm going to be like I can't do it, I can't go back you can't go back Michael don't do it, don't go back next time on our special series made in collaboration with Cadillac more road tests

Comparo with a German classic and with Cadillacs of yore. A little bit of a road race and babies. No crying, Speedy. Speedy! I just like new people. 2023 Lyric orders are full.

Go to Cadillac.com and complete a pre-order from Model Year 24 to be among the first to order a Model Year 24 when available. This episode was produced by Jacob Smith and Joey Fishground. Our editor is Julia Barton. Engineering by Nina Lawrence and mastering by Sarah Bouguere. Special thanks to Melissa Grady at Cadillac and Carly Megliore. I'm Malcolm Glapo.