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What welcome to movies garage, the dumbest automotive channel in all of youtube, and i am standing next to an underappreciated piece of cultural history. This is a 2005 cadillac escalade and i can't think of any other vehicle in any other period of time that had broader base appeal. Pretty much. Every segment of america wanted a cadillac escalade from my grandfather to rappers flexing on mtv cribs too.

Just about everybody in between wanted a cadillac escalade, not to mention the number one stolen vehicle in america for several years. This escalade right here so criminals, love them as well, but nowadays they're just used cars that are getting used up and slowly disappearing from american roadways. There are very few nice examples like this left and i feel like they are very underappreciated vehicles that will one day be extremely collectible and i happen to find the holy grail of this generation of cadillac escalade see the color. It's it's green.

It's actually riptide blue. A little bit of background on the escalade, while this one is probably the most identifiable and iconic as the escalade and probably the best-selling generation of them all, it wasn't the first. There was actually the first one in the cadillac escalade under the previous body. The gmt-400, like the chevy, suburban, that i have, and it really wasn't much more than a re-badged special still.

It introduced a luxury suv to the market to match the lincoln navigator that had come out a few years prior and it was extremely popular along with the denali when it came time to make this generation of escalade on the gmt 800 chassis. They spent a lot more time, making it well a lot more special. You had a mostly completely different body on this car, except the doors. Well, there's some cladding and such along with the standard 6 liter vortec v8, one of the greatest engines of all time until they actually went back and started, offering with five point.

Threes and two wheel drives later to make them cheaper and the interiors were way better. Appointed than a stock suburban, so with this generation they had a massive hit on their hands. Everybody wanted one of these escalades. I remember my grandfather buying one in cardinal red because he was a usc fan and he loved it.

Of course, i'm watching mtv cribs as well and in just about every single driveway tour is an escalade with 20s or 22s and big stereos, and it seems like cadillac, took notice of this customization culture and towards the end of this gmt 800 run of the escalade. They came out with their own blingy version, which is this: the platinum with the platinum. You had a special grill treatment, chrome grills, the first escalade to come with 20 inch wheels and a lot of other touches on the inside to make the platinum even more special. So this was the ultimate escalade and to make it even better, it is the best color they ever put on.

One of these rip tied blue, which is kind of a chameleon color that phases from blue to green lots of metallic. It is absolutely gorgeous with the platinum edition, though, came a pretty hefty price tag back in 2005. The sticker on this thing was 70 thousand dollars, so it was a lot of money for an escalade, but the next generation was actually even more expensive. The base price on it was sixty thousand dollars and with options it got to seventy thousand pretty quickly and then later the platinums will they got even more nowadays.
An escalade is a hundred thousand dollar proposition for something well equipped, which is absolutely crazy. But back when i was working at a chevrolet, cadillac, bmw dealership, these were barely used and the new escalades from 2007 had just come out and actually trading in. One of these was a brutal proposition. I remember specifically one that was bought new for seventy thousand dollars coming in for trade only two years old and we offered 35 000, so they lost half the value immediately.

Just driving this thing two years and barely putting any miles on it because it was the old body style, but in my opinion this was way way better than the escalade that replaced it and the several escalades to come. For many reasons, which i shall show you now in a tour of this incredible riptide, blue escalade, now to me, even though cadillac's known as a brand of luxury cars, i feel like the escalade was most on brand for what cadillac used to be when it comes To american luxury, their sedans had kind of turned into chasing the european competition they're, trying to make sports sedans out of cadillac's, which people didn't want. They'd buy bmws for that. They wouldn't buy cadillac, so cts as neat as it was with the angles and all that stuff didn't look or ride the same like it.

Should you could argue that the deville, the dts was certainly more on brand for cadillac, but they had sort of ruined their reputation with the northstar v8 engine that people were pretty turned off by the time that generation rolled around as nice as those cars were. But this escalade very very similar to say the old fleetwood with the lt1 that people absolutely loved a big giant cadillac that was rear-wheel drive based or i guess, full-time all-wheel drive in this case and despite being called a sport utility, there is nothing sporty about this Thing nowadays we make fun of cars for their big grills, but back in 2002, when this came out, this seemed like a really huge obnoxious. Grill seems kind of subdued. Now, at this point, even the platinum one that had extra special chrome and this one.

Even it's a one-owner escalade and he must have been a repeat customer because they gave him the cadillac heritage of ownership badge to put on his car. Those were like a hundred dollars back in the day, but this color - it's not really popping right now, because we're inside in the sun, it's absolutely beautiful, especially on the platinum and, of course, the 20 inch chrome wheels. Look very appropriate on the escalade 20-inch wheels were considered huge back in the day, mostly for the aftermarket, but nowadays a 20-inch wheel is considered small. This looks kind of small in today's marketplace, especially with all the rubber.
This thing has which actually helps with the ride. You have fixed running boards that riptide blue paint is just so pretty, and around back is a massive massive cadillac badge in the trunk of this thing, no mistaking it for a suburban, especially as the platinum badge, escalade esv, which meant long wheelbase and initially i wanted To buy a project escalade, one that popped up that was neglected like so many of them. Well, nearly all of them are at this point for a thousand two thousand dollars, but when i found this basically the holy grail of second generation escalades, i had to buy it one owner car, only 97 000 miles a platinum esv hand in riptide, blue, but the Interior, well, it's just equally nice as the outside. Now back when i was a salesman at the cadillac store, it was very easy to sell these used off-lease escalades, because well they depreciated a lot.

So you could get this for about forty thousand dollars three years old versus seventy thousand dollars for a comparably equipped new escalade, and they had a lot of benefits over the new one. The number one thing, the seat, comfort, there's a lot more cushion to the seat than say the newer escalades that came after it and well the current ones that have vibrators in the seat. To tell you, when you're about to hit something something you don't eat or want. What you do want is a lot of cushion like this, and it is fantastic.

The platinum had a lot of other extra little touches like this special stitching in the door. Panel chrome wrap around on the bow, stereo special wood and extra perforation in the leather seats because they were heated and air conditioned in the front and the rear, even cooler. The cup holders are heated and cooled to keep your drink hot and cold. This is in 2005., so pretty cutting edge stuff.

The instrument cluster was also special to the platinum, extra chrome, a different font, and you have the fancy name brand clock here in the center console. I think this was in all escalades but still looks really cool. The back seats you have two captains chairs and the third road bench: dual dvds, there's a dvd player screen back there, which is standard on the escalade platinum and, as you can see, it's my new kit hauler. This is probably my new daily driver and it will make a very reliable daily driver because under the hood is the mighty 6 liter vortec, oh yeah there.

It is pretty much an unbreakable engine. Unfortunately, the engines that replaced it the later six liters and the six twos have cylinder deactivation. They have a lot of issues as they get older, coming up, oil passages and the engines just failing. This is a very simple engine, but with all the modern fuel, rail injection and all the modern conveniences that you would want abs, traction control, full-time all-wheel drive, but in an incredibly reliable package.
The only thing that really goes wrong common on these things is uh. Well, the fuel pumps they'll go out just like on my old, suburban and the replacements. Well, they don't last all that long but other than that this generation of escalade holds up so well, and it's why you see so many still on the road that are beat to hell, but still going. It is very rare to find a nice one like this, especially a platinum in riptide, blue and when you drive one of these things, if you haven't driven a nice in a long time, you really feel what you're missing out on in modern luxury, cars and suvs.

It is just so good, let's take it for a drive before we drive off. I actually need to pull in the lambos, but while we're outside you can see this color in the sun, it is just so beautiful. This riptide blue phasing from blue to green. Like a chameleon, color and tons of metallic, it is just absolutely gorgeous, and one thing i forgot to do on the tour is show you the original owner's manual, since this is a one owner.

It still has everything in here, including the instructional cds, maybe worth a listen. Let's see here eat it. Hopefully that works. Oh yeah, that sounds pretty good, congratulations and welcome to your new cadillac escalade, the world's most powerful line of sports utility vehicles.

Hi, i'm claire hi claire, i'm steve hi steve navigate in your glove goodbye, which provides complete operating instructions. I already know how all this works. So, let's roll all right, let's go for a cruise with my new friends clarence to even this escalade platinum and the seats are just so so good. I'm coming from my current daily driver, my gmt 400 suburban, that does have very comfortable seats and a very comfortable ride, even though it's not designed to be a comfortable luxury car.

It's just the characteristics of the suspension and the escalade takes that refines it even more and just makes everything feel more better because these seats so much cushion but also luxury cushion that are ventilated. It's blowing cool air through my butt cheeks right now, and it's just so very nice, but the thing this escalade has that my old, suburban, doesn't is the air assist springs in the rear, which makes the ride even better. These things are gon na have a great ride with this big high sprung suspension, that's just made for comfort uh, but also the tires having extra rubber on them. You don't realize how much shock absorption goes into tires.

So when you put 20s or 22s on small wheel wells, you give up a lot of that ride, comfort, but this escalade definitely still has it and this 6 liter vortec well, not as fast as a modern, v8 there's a plenty of power, i think, is a Little over 300 horsepower, which is more than enough and an engine that isn't stressed that isn't designed to be more efficient with cylinder, deactivation and a bunch of other gobbledygook that just breaks and it doesn't work all the fuel economy. Savings that engineers are putting into these engines to get you those extra few miles per gallon. It just fails you in the long term, when it comes to repairs the more complicated they make these engines to make them more efficient, the worse they are, and consumers end up spending more money, but that's just kind of the future. I guess until we switch entirely to electric vehicles, it's not uncommon, to see.
One of these escalades come up at a dealer, wholesale auction, with over 300 000 miles on it. It happens. Well, all the time, at least back when i was a dealer in lima all ran and drove well, they were destroyed by children. They had rust issues if they were from farther in the north and generally beat and neglected, but they still worked.

It's rare to come across one that is still nice like this, and even though i set out to buy a project to be the first person to restore an escalade because they deserve to be saved every last one of them that you can. When this one popped up with the platinum package - esv riptide blue - i just had to have it - it's not the most exciting to buy something, that's not a complete piece of junk, but man, i am not regretting it at all. At the moment i mean this youtube channel does cater primarily to my automotive masochistic tendencies to buy absolute hoopties, but man i'm not regretting this purchase at all it is. It is so nice, oh yes, i turned on the cooled cup holders just for giggles a little while ago to see if it's, oh, it still works, it's cold, it's very cold.

That works quite well. Actually. Now i'm cruising 65 miles an hour down the highway right. Now, but you wouldn't know it because this thing just feels so smooth and whisper quiet when it comes to the wind noise.

Even though it's a giant brick and the ride is just so nice that it doesn't feel like you're going fast, and i think that dna is what made cadillac cadillac back in the day, the ultimate luxury experience where you feel just like. You're relaxing in your living room, driving down the road and the escalade this generation certainly delivers that. I think this is why these sold so well and really. This is probably what saved cadillac as a brand, because without the escalade they really had nothing in the bankruptcy they probably would have asked cadillac before pontiac or saturn, or something if it wasn't for the escalade after this generation.

I feel like escalades and a lot of other luxury suvs that were supposed to be big and cushy, like this went downhill to pander to automotive journalists that want to talk about how amazing drivers they are when reviewing an escalade and saying oh, this thing is greatly Improved in the corners in the slalom course on the track, which, why would you care about that in a cadillac escalade that can halt seven people and seven thousand eight thousand pounds towing capacity? You want this soft cushy luxury experience, not something that can take a turn. It doesn't make sense to me, but that's how luxury suvs have evolved with their exotic, magnetic suspension, active suspensions and then, of course, the the wheels the 22 inch wheels with the little itty bitty tires that sacrifice ride for handling. You lose a lot. You lose what this escalade has, which is old school luxury.
It's it's so good! You may laugh at me when i say this is going to be a huge collectible vehicle someday in the future. I don't know how far in the future, you laugh but there's plenty of examples for context. The jeep grand wagoneer is a great example of something that was very common. That became quite scarce and shot up in value dramatically, and i feel like the grand magne has a much narrower appeal than say an escalade that everybody wanted in the mid 2000s.

This was the ultimate aspirational vehicle, while the wagoneer was certainly a weird niche luxury suv that uh well either love the wood which i do or you don't. I know there's a lot of people that don't look back on the first decade of the new millennium. Two fondly say like the radwood era of the 80s and 90s, where those cars are getting very collectible, but i do think the escalade and a few others will have its day, especially as you see less and less of these on the roadways they are disappearing fast. Oh, it's just so good, especially in the sun gandering at this riptide blue.

Now i don't think this will be a million dollar car someday, but it will certainly be collectible for many many reasons. The gmt 800 chassis, as a truck in general, is probably the best generation of general motors trucks ever and this platinum edition of the escalade was the most expensive best equipped version of it. I'm just absolutely thrilled that i was able to find one in this color still in really nice shape, and i imagine i'll be keeping it for quite a long time, but i said the same thing about the 94 suburban that was the baby hauler. Now this is and uh same thing with the g55 uh, but that sold so many others, but i really really mean it this time.

This thing's, this thing's amazing, i swear, i don't have a problem. Thank you. Thank you for watching.

By Hoovie

13 thoughts on “The early cadillac escalade is a pop-culture icon, and i bought the best example ever.”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Owen Rutledge says:

    Ive had my 2nd gen escalade mother pear diamond white for about 9 months now and I’m absolutely in love with it. I wouldn’t trade it for any other escalade. Seeing a public figure driving around in the same rig as my broke college kid ass and talking so good about it feels good, and confirms that I have made a good purchase. The lq9 vortec is a powerhouse and can reliably run 800hp on stock internals!

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars J.H. Hahnes says:

    Escalade = rapper SUV
    Tahoe, in some cases also Suburban = police SUV
    in some cases an Escalade = fancy police SUV/rapper cop SUV
    in some cases a Tahoe/Suburban/Yukon= proto Escalade/proto rapper SUV

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Channel 69 WSNO - Snow Leopard Television says:

    i like how the cts-v is like a late chevy malibu sedan sleeper with a 454 big block would have been in the late '60s. the escalade is definitely the suv take on a fleetwood brougham! love it and love the R I P T I D E B L U E

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars C grimm says:

    We have a 2006 riptide blue Esv. It’s the most comfortable Escalade we own. I have 3 other Escalades, 1 for my work truck, 1 for my Sunday driver, and 1 Esv platinum that I have been dismantling for my interior swap into my 2006 Lbz Duramax. The drivetrain is going into my 95 rcsb Chevy truck. My wife barely drives her blue Esv now since she works from home but I drive it every chance I can. Still drives like new and has plenty of room and power. Nothing beats the comfort of that generation.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Fellipe Alcantara says:

    It's crazy that you can buy such nice cars for so little money… I wish this was the case in my country. But here everything is so ridiculously expensive

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Dale Higgins says:

    I too like to pull out my lamborghinis and leave them all over the place so that when someone sees them I can Say, "oh yeah I better put these silly old things away."

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Michael Nordqvist says:

    I'm so jealous that u live in USA where all the cars I want that's in drive able state sells for like 1000$ meanwhile in Sweden the cars goes for like 10 000$ not driving 😂😅

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Sam From Ohio says:

    My brother was looking for a z71 suburban in this color for a long time. We’ve seen only very few of them and none were for sale. Stumbled upon a z71 Tahoe in this color a few weeks ago that was in great shape

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars tx. by says:

    Hey Hoovie every time you said rip tide blue my baby brother had mini seizures, can you please refrain from saying this in future videos? Love from Texas!

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Troy Neva says:

    Still driving my 02 'Lade, may never part with it. My family fondly refers to her as the Garage-Queen. Sunday driver and hasn't seen rain or snow in 8-9 years I've owned. Fuel sender? Check. Viscous-coupler transfer case fail? Check. GMT800 stupid brake line routing on top of frame rail (and rusts)? Check. Still wouldn't trade it.

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Robert Jenkins says:

    If it was white I would try to buy it off you, I 100% have no doubts the second generation Escalade is going to be worth money. Collectible cars follow the generation that grew up with them it's a formula and it's been proven time and time again.

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ryan says:

    As a Cadillac fan and a mobile auto glass technician I LOVE that platform! It takes a (Domestic Windshield) DW 1549…fits the Escalade, Silverado, Sierra, Suburban, Yukon and all the other GMC/Chevy iterations of this body style all take the same glass and there all super easy!! I don’t know of a window/windshield job on that platform that takes mire than 20 min-half an hour except maybe The regulator because it’s riveted and not bolted…love love LOVE those trucks!!!

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars John Sheppard says:

    Speaking of late 90’s, early 2000’s SUV’s, have you ever been able to find a good example of the 5.9 L Limited Grand Cherokee? They seem super rare and desirable in the Jeep circles

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