The Luxury SUV You Should Consider If You Want Serious Cargo Room

If you're looking for a luxury SUV on today's market, you are absolutely spoiled for options – with everything from car-like crossovers to EVs, to serious body-on-frame off-roaders competing for your attention. But what if serious cargo capacity is one of your main goals? Not just a spacious cargo area, but enough volume to handle serious hauling, or a pickup truck-like capacity when all the seats are folded down.

Well, there's really one choice that stands above the rest – or two choices – if you count the two luxury versions that are sold based on the same basic large SUV platform. We are talking about the Cadillac Escalade ESV and the GMC Yukon XL Denali, two of General Motors' flagship SUV models that have been on the market for over 25 years and continue to stand out from the pack in today's crowded SUV market.

In the Cadillac lineup, ESV stands for 'Escalade Stretch Vehicle,' and when it comes to cargo capacity, the Escalade (and Yukon XL) are really in a class of their own when it comes to volume, with nearly 145 cubic feet of cargo space available in certain configurations. 

Both the Escalade ESV and Yukon XL are based on the Chevrolet Suburban, which is, in turn, a longer wheelbase version of the Chevy Tahoe. Not surprisingly, then, both of these rank among the largest full-size SUVs on the market today.  Even in their normal forms, the Escalade and Yukon Denali are spacious, full-sized SUVs with three rows of seating. But the ESV and XL versions take that much further, providing both full-size cargo capacity even when the third-row seats are raised, or an absolutely monstrous amount of volume if the whole vehicle is configured for cargo carrying.

Though the Escalade ESV and Yukon Denali are essentially the same vehicle, there are some slight differences in their cargo capacities – Cadillac lists the ESV's volume as 41.5 cubic feet behind the third row, 94.1 cubic feet behind the second row, and a massive 142.2 cubic feet with all rows folded down. The GMC Yukon XL Denali Ultimate, meanwhile, shows 41.5, 93.6, and 144.5 cubic feet of cargo volume, respectively. This ranks both models near the top of the cargo volume rankings, not just for luxury models, but among all types of SUVs.

Naturally, you'll have to pay for all that plush, cargo-carrying space, though, with the Yukon XL Denali starting at over $86,000 after destination and the Escalade ESV starting at about $96,000 before you start adding options. 

We should mention that if you like the cargo carrying capabilities of the ESV and Denali XL but don't necessarily need the luxury branding or creature comforts, there are cheaper, non-Denali versions of the Yukon XL in the GMC lineup, or you can of course, go with the original Chevrolet Suburban as well, which can be had starting as low as $65,000 in its base trim.

Conversely, if you really want to go crazy, you can even get the long wheelbase ESV as part of Cadillac's Escalade V lineup, complete with the 682-horsepower 6.2-liter supercharged V8. As we found in our review, the Escalade V is one of the wildest performance SUVs out there, and getting the longer, ESV version just makes things that much crazier. Sure, it may cost almost $175,000 to start, but if you're gonna be hauling a lot of cargo, why not have some serious supercharged muscle to do it with?

At any rate, as long as you're ok with an extra-large SUV that uses plenty of fuel, no matter which version of these GM SUVs you choose, you'll be getting a mix of luxury options and raw cargo carrying capability that's unmatched on today's market.