America’s

T

ime is a flat circle.

Many folks will recall that line

uttered by Matthew McConaughey

in the climax of True Detective, but it

was 19th century philosopher Frie-

drich Nietzsche who first wrote those

words, with the implication being “every-

thing we have done, or will do, we will do

over and over and over again—forever.”

Nietzsche’s doctrine of eternal recur-

rence rang through my head as I admired

the four hulking luxury three-row SUVs

from BMW, Cadillac, Lincoln, and

Mercedes-Benz as they sat in the cool

morning marine layer of Los Angeles’

ritzy Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Five years earlier, just across the

peninsula in the Port of Los Angeles, we

conducted almost the exact same test

where we crowned the then-new Cadillac

Escalade the winner over the Mercedes

GL, Lexus LX, Land Rover Range Rover,

Lincoln Navigator, and Infiniti QX80.

Time has stood still for the Lexus,

Range Rover, and Infiniti. However,

Cadillac, Lincoln, and Mercedes have all

moved forward into the 2020s with new

luxury three-row SUVs. Meanwhile, BMW

joins this existentialist circle of life with

its own entry into the segment.

Are we doomed to repeat these compar-

ison tests ad infinitum? Well, not entirely.

Nietzche’s predecessor Arthur Schopen-

hauer wrote pessimistically of the indi-

vidual’s inability to satiate unquenchable

desires. But in this case, these four auto-

makers gallantly endeavor to overturn

centuries of dismal dialectic.

Rather than deny our desires, as

Schopenhauer would have us do, let us

meet the 2021 Cadillac Escalade ESV

4WD, 2020 Lincoln Navigator 4x4 Black

Label, 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLS 580

4Matic, and 2020 BMW X7 xDrive40i.

44 MOTORTREND.COM APRIL 2021

COMPARISON TEST BMW X7 vs. Cadillac Escalade vs.

Lincoln Navigator vs. Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class