Traiding in 2021 Tahoe High Country for 2021 Escalade worth it?

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xycrazy

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We're about to trade in our 2021 Tahoe High Country. Car drives perfectly fine. Has just 40K miles and is in perfect condition. In and out. BUT the seats hurt as they're dang uncomfortable. We bought it for long road trips and I realized that I drive my Grand Cherokee much more often because of the very comfy seats. Altough the Tahoe is a nice truck, don't get me wrong, it never really "clicked" with us. So just having it sitting in the garage is something that bothers me as this thing was expensive (80K). If I'm selling it we will take a hit of about 25K which hurts, too. But I think if we spend so much money on a car (which we never did before) then it should be for a car that we enjoy and we're excited about to drive. That's not really the case with the Tahoe. It's OK to drive it. Nothing spectacular or exciting about it. To many people that might sound like a first world problem (and it certainly is!) but this in fact bothering us and so we're torn between 1. just keeping and driving the Tahoe or 2. suck it up and trading it in for a used Escalade Sport Platinum.

The Escalade has very nice seats. I love the comfy leather and the smell. We also like how it looks. It is definitely a very nice car. But is it worth it to take the financial loss and the risk of buying a car with possible problems (that we don't know yet)? With the Tahoe we know everything is fine except with the seats... and that sucks, too! Btw. does the Escalade has any big issues I should be aware of that are different than with the Tahoe, besides the lifter issues?

Anyways, the angel on my shoulder tells me to keep driving the Tahoe and avoiding the financial hit and the devil on the other side tells me to pull the trigger - lol!
Would you trade it in if you were in that situation and could afford it and would get a good deal on the Escalade?
 

K2 Kaiju

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Would you be happy if you switched for the seats and something else major fails? If you like everything else, what about custom upholstery? For much less you could get something truly badass. Maybe even rich Corinthian leather. I love seeing the interior transformations on Motor Trend (Bitchin Rides, Iron Ressurection, etc)...
 

Silverado4x4

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No way I would trade and take a $25,000 hit, do what K2 Kaiju said have custom upholstery seats put in for probably a 1/4 to a 1/3rd of the cost you could also take a picture of the Escalade seats and have the shop put them in. Tell them you want the seats from an Escalade installed. Your taking a chance of buying a problem vehicle. Iam always very cautious of vehicles being sold so new on the lot for a reason, is it a lemon and someone dumped it to get out of it due to major issues and your buying a problem child.
 
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Stbentoak

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I looked at an escalade before I bought my Denali, but I just couldn't justify the cost. Hey, I still want an escalade. But I probably won't ever own one. This is why it's super critical that the one choice you make is the one you're willing to stick with. I'm not willing to take a bath on a vehicle just to switch them for something a little better. When they come to my stable, they stay for a long time.
 
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xycrazy

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I looked at an escalade before I bought my Denali, but I just couldn't justify the cost. Hey, I still want an escalade. But I probably won't ever own one. This is why it's super critical that the one choice you make is the one you're willing to stick with. I'm not willing to take a bath on a vehicle just to switch them for something a little better. When they come to my stable, they stay for a long time.
Do you mean the initial costs or maintenance as well? It seems that maintenance is not much more expensive than with the Tahoe. Oil change is the same e.g.
 
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xycrazy

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No way I would trade and take a $25,000 hit, do what K2 Kaiju said have custom upholstery seats put in for probably a 1/4 to a 1/3rd of the cost you could also take a picture of the Escalade seats and have the shop put them in. Tell them you want the seats from an Escalade installed. You’re taking a chance of buying a problem vehicle. Iam always very cautious of vehicles being sold so new on the lot for a reason, is it a lemon and someone dumped it to get out of it due to major issues and your buying a problem child.
OK I have no clue how that works but if I want the Escalade seats from the sport platinum trim with massage function they could do it? So they would buy them somewhere and put them in? Is that what you’re saying? Still wondering how they would do that with the massage function though. I’ve never done that so I’m really interested in understanding how that actually works with a custom upholstery shop

Still, I would need to change the wheels as I want black ones. So that’s gonna cost me at least 3,5-4K to change it to how I want it. Not considered the fact that I would like to wrap the chrome on the sides. I could easily end up spending 12,5-15K for doing the seats, wheels, chrome. And it remains a Tahoe. If it would be a GMC I would do it. But with a Tahoe… I can’t justify that. And the car starts to slightly rust at the rear axles. So I don’t know if that’s getting worse or not. But that amount of money doesn’t seem to justify doing it. If I spend 10K more I could drive an Escalade where I only would change the exhaust and be done with it. So yeah… I’m torn as you can tell but if considering all those costs just to make a Tahoe look and feel more nice… I don’t think that is wisely spent money either
 
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Bigburb3500

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YOLO - do it if you can afford it. But otherwise the custom interior sounds like such a great idea!
I think I’ve asked on another thread but the Caddy seats are hard to put in because they are controlled thru the infotainment screen. They might be able to retrofit something “similar” but not actual Caddy Platty seats.
 

BacDoc

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Would you be happy if you switched for the seats and something else major fails? If you like everything else, what about custom upholstery? For much less you could get something truly badass. Maybe even rich Corinthian leather. I love seeing the interior transformations on Motor Trend (Bitchin Rides, Iron Ressurection, etc)...
Seems like this is a great option! Even going with the best custom application it’s probably cheaper than deprecation of selling the Tahoe.

Also I would rather keep a 2021 that you know the history of rather than taking a gamble. These dysfunction on demand motors seem to be more common in 2021 model year from what I’ve heard from mechanics at my local dealership.
 

15burban

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Kind of sounds like you've kind of made up your mind. If you don't like the Tahoe does it really matter how much money you'll "lose" if you're paying for a vehicle you don't like? If you're paying for a vehicle you don't like and don't use like you wanted too, to me you're losing money on it anyways. Even if you do keep it.

Now me being a cheap arse the wife wanted her suburban blacked out so for under a grand it went from
Snapchat-1744763332.jpg

To this
Snapchat-1833249481.jpg
20240209_160825.jpg
It's older then yours obviously so the parts I bought were probably cheaper and I don't have better pictures. The chrome around the windows is now plasti dipped black (took 6 hours about $50) new black grill off ebay was like $120, wheel covers (100), vland smoked escalade tails (360 I think) smoked 3rd brake light under 100, black grill and hatch emblems, and debadged (also was done after the pics).

I'd rather make something my own then buy something that looks just like most of the other same models you see on the road.
 

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