Cadillac Escalade Review - Not Worth the Money

Years ago my husband owned a Toyota pick up truck. It was way too small. He would always complain that he wanted something bigger. We had researched bigger pick up trucks but they weren't roomy enough and very expensive. We were driving one Sunday afternoon and passed the local Cadillac dealership. I suggested we go in and take a look at their trucks. As soon as we walked into the showroom my husband's eyes lit up. I couldn't figure out what he was looking at. Then I saw it. The Cadillac Escalade. What a beautiful looking truck. This is not a pick up truck, it's an SUV. It was huge. Plenty of room for a growing family. So we started talking to the salesman about pricing and options.

At the time they were offering a special deal called a "Smart Buy" not a lease. To this day I still don't understand the difference between the two. Anyway, we had to put $5000 and our monthly payments for the next four years were $600. That is more than I paid in rent when I lived in a studio apartment! My husband said he would be able to make the payments through our business (we own our own manufacturing business). So of course I said he should get the truck. I could never tell him no, he was so excited. The dealership offered us an insulting $1400 for out Toyota pick up which was only a few years old and in mint condition. We ended up selling the pick up on our own for $5000. What a difference from what the dealership offered us. You should always do your homework before walking into a car dealership. They are very good at talking you into things. But if you are prepared, that won't happen.

After we met with the salesman and picked the colors we wanted he then directed us to the "extras" guy. Now this is the guy you want to be careful with. They are trained to sweet talk you into paying for things that you don't necessarily need. He tried talking us into tinted windows on the drivers and passengers side. Why in the world would we need that for? Anyway, be careful what you sign up for it adds up quickly. Once we were done with all of the paperwork they told us when to come back and pick up the truck. It was fairly quick. We didn't have to wait too long because all of the trucks were already on the lot.

I remember the day we went to pick it up, what an ordeal. Long story short we finally drove away with out very expensive brand new truck. My husband was ecstatic with this new purchase. Well, at least until things started to go wrong. Let me explain. One a very rainy and cold morning my husband went to leave for work and he noticed he had a flat tire. Have you ever seen these tires? They are huge. He went to change the tire and get the spare when he soon realized he needed some sort of key to unlock the spare. He tried every key that the dealership had given us but none of them seemed to work. After about an hour of trying to unlock the spare he gave up. He rigged something and was able to put some in air in the tire until he got to a mechanic. We had tried calling their "help desk" but there were so many legalities they wouldn't come and fix the tire. Something about the truck being in the driveway and not the street, I don't know. Well we finally got the tire fixed....how many dollars later. Those tires are so expensive to replace. He ended up having to get four new tires, what an expense we were not prepared for on a brand new truck. The back door is supposed to go down on it's own when you give it a little tug. Wrong again, this too was broken.

The next problem is the front end. I don't k now the exact wording for it other than an extremely loud noise coming from the front end. We took it back to the dealership and they said it would cost $2000 to fix it. That wasn't going to happen. We took it to a local mechanic and he said the same thing, $2000 to fix. Needless to say the truck is still making noise. We haven't gotten it fixed yet. Who could afford that after paying so much for the truck to begin with!

I am not a huge fan of this truck. It does have a lot of room in it which is great but in order to get utilize all of this space we had to take out the third row seating. Unlike the Volvo XC90 and the Acura MDX, these seats do not fold down. You have to physically remove them from the truck. They have been sitting in our basement going on 2 years. They are also really heavy I can't lift them.

The customer service department is also flawed. They were so nasty to my husband when he dropped it off for a routine oil change. They were also nasty to the other customers waiting. One customer asked for a loaner car and they said they could give him one but it won't be another Cadillac. For the price you pay for this car you would t hink they can give you a Cadillac loaner car. Nope. Some piece of junk they give. Not nice if you ask me. Volvo gives you a Volvo loaner car, how great is that!

Oh don't let me forget the navigational system, horrible! Every time I plug in an address it gets me lost. One time I needed to get to a friend's house which was all the way North from where I live. Well, I ended up all the way South about 40 minutes away. One time we tried to find a local Friendly's Restaurant. Nice try. it had us going around in circles and when we thought we finally find it until we realized it directed us to an empty lot. How frustrating when you are starving. It doesn't help the gas when you are driving in circles. It takes about $75-$100 to fill the tank with these gas prices lately. Then the horrible gas mileage can be anywhere from 11 mpg to 13 mpg. Terrible.

Overall I would not recommend this truck for this money. If you were able to get a great deal on it then maybe but I can't wait to turn it in and get what my husband originally wanted... back to a big pick up truck. Hopefully we have better luck with that.