Hi everyone,
Little background.. A few years ago we bought a Mazda CX-9 as a "family car", but since then it's ended up being my wife's primary car, and she has a 110mi/day commute, and ~20mpg with that commute gets old, plus it's just her in a fairly large SUV. We have been talking for some time about getting her a small commuter vehicle (I drive a Ford Fiesta ST, for my 80mi/day commute), which is all well and good, except that both of our families are ~500 mile drives away, and we need a fair amount of space to travel with our 2 year old (and probable additional children in the future), 60lb dog and related gear; plus her parents live in Pennsylvania, and we've had a few times on a trip back where we were in some heavy snow, so a 4x4 would be nice for those trips.
So we've been looking at options for an inexpensive, spacious 4x4 SUV that we'd buy in addition to an economy car to be used primarily for those long trips, or occasional weather needs. We've also considered a camping trailer, and I'm an SCCA racer, currently have an F-250 for towing but it's a standard cab, so car-towing means family goes in a different car.
I've always been a fan of the GM full size SUVs, and know (generally) that the GM V8's are pretty reliable and should be easier to work on than the Ford/Lincoln 5.4 etc, though there's a lot of things the Expedition/Navigator have going for them, it's hard to beat a GM 350/5.3/6.0.
Anyway, my wife stumbled upon a 2000 Cadillac Escalade with 91,000 miles (which is less miles now than her 2011 CX-9 has). We're going to look at it this weekend, but from the pictures on the website it looks like it's in excellent condition, no visible interior wear etc. To me 91k is very low miles, and since this would only be an occasional driver (2-3k/year maybe??) it seems like a good way to go. Some of the Cadillac luxuries for our long trips, with Chevrolet truck simplicity. The one we found is asking $6,900 which seems reasonable given the low miles and apparent excellent condition.
So I read
http://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/thre...g-a-91-99-obs-tahoe-suburban-look-here.61712/
And the only thing that sounds scary are the intake manifold gasket, and x-fer case issues. What's the likelihood of either of those being a major issue on a 91k vehicle that appears to have been well maintained?
Overall any reason a GMT400 Escalade wouldn't be a good fit for this type of use?
Also I'm trying to determine a few things..
I saw on Wikipedia they claimed the Yukon Denali came as standard with Bilstein shocks and locking rear differential... Is that true, and if so, does that apply to the Escalade (I assume it would). Is this the same as Z71, or a separate package?
Were there any factory options available? From what I found they pretty much came only one way, but curious.
Anything unique to the Escalade that makes it extra-problematic other than the standard Auto-Trak?
Little background.. A few years ago we bought a Mazda CX-9 as a "family car", but since then it's ended up being my wife's primary car, and she has a 110mi/day commute, and ~20mpg with that commute gets old, plus it's just her in a fairly large SUV. We have been talking for some time about getting her a small commuter vehicle (I drive a Ford Fiesta ST, for my 80mi/day commute), which is all well and good, except that both of our families are ~500 mile drives away, and we need a fair amount of space to travel with our 2 year old (and probable additional children in the future), 60lb dog and related gear; plus her parents live in Pennsylvania, and we've had a few times on a trip back where we were in some heavy snow, so a 4x4 would be nice for those trips.
So we've been looking at options for an inexpensive, spacious 4x4 SUV that we'd buy in addition to an economy car to be used primarily for those long trips, or occasional weather needs. We've also considered a camping trailer, and I'm an SCCA racer, currently have an F-250 for towing but it's a standard cab, so car-towing means family goes in a different car.
I've always been a fan of the GM full size SUVs, and know (generally) that the GM V8's are pretty reliable and should be easier to work on than the Ford/Lincoln 5.4 etc, though there's a lot of things the Expedition/Navigator have going for them, it's hard to beat a GM 350/5.3/6.0.
Anyway, my wife stumbled upon a 2000 Cadillac Escalade with 91,000 miles (which is less miles now than her 2011 CX-9 has). We're going to look at it this weekend, but from the pictures on the website it looks like it's in excellent condition, no visible interior wear etc. To me 91k is very low miles, and since this would only be an occasional driver (2-3k/year maybe??) it seems like a good way to go. Some of the Cadillac luxuries for our long trips, with Chevrolet truck simplicity. The one we found is asking $6,900 which seems reasonable given the low miles and apparent excellent condition.
So I read
http://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/thre...g-a-91-99-obs-tahoe-suburban-look-here.61712/
And the only thing that sounds scary are the intake manifold gasket, and x-fer case issues. What's the likelihood of either of those being a major issue on a 91k vehicle that appears to have been well maintained?
Overall any reason a GMT400 Escalade wouldn't be a good fit for this type of use?
Also I'm trying to determine a few things..
I saw on Wikipedia they claimed the Yukon Denali came as standard with Bilstein shocks and locking rear differential... Is that true, and if so, does that apply to the Escalade (I assume it would). Is this the same as Z71, or a separate package?
Were there any factory options available? From what I found they pretty much came only one way, but curious.
Anything unique to the Escalade that makes it extra-problematic other than the standard Auto-Trak?
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