I'm currently debating whether to buy this car under the smart-buy or lease it. Can someone tell me what type of experience they may have had trying to sell the car back to GMAC at the end of a smart-buy? I can't imagine the depreciation on this car being good. Currently the smart-buy terms are extremely attractive (there must be a catch i.e. the sell back price to GMAC), but generally I like to get a new car every 3 or 4 years. On the other hand, I wouldn't necessarily mind owning this car for longer than 3 or 4 years if I was reasonably confident that it could hold up at the very least as a station car. Does anyone have any experience with an Escalade that has > 50-75K miles on it? Thanks!

I had a 00 camaro on a smart buy. The worse part is you are stuck with the car until your time is up. You will be completely upside down during the entire term and you have to be below the mileage requirement or pay a stiff penalty.

I will say that sometimes they will give you early outs on a new same company car ie gmc, cad etc. When it came time for my term to end i had absolutely no problems turning it in on a tahoe. I did just use a conventional loan because I hated being stuck in the car and brand if anything bad went wrong.
D.Brisson 04 escalade

I'm currently debating whether to buy this car under the smart-buy or lease it. Can someone tell me what type of experience they may have had trying to sell the car back to GMAC at the end of a smart-buy? I can't imagine the depreciation on this car being good. Currently the smart-buy terms are extremely attractive (there must be a catch i.e. the sell back price to GMAC), but generally I like to get a new car every 3 or 4 years. On the other hand, I wouldn't necessarily mind owning this car for longer than 3 or 4 years if I was reasonably confident that it could hold up at the very least as a station car. Does anyone have any experience with an Escalade that has > 50-75K miles on it? Thanks!

I thought about a lease too because I have also been trading ever 3-4 years so I checked out leasing programs when I went for the 04 EXT and a lease looks attractive at first but...
Here's what I find bad about a lease...
I don't own the vehicle, I'm locked into the lease, can't get out without penalty payments for early termination or going over the milage if I went the full term of the lease.
Also.. If for some reason I couldn't make the payments or just decide I wanted a different vehicle... I can't even sell the vehicle to get out from under it.
I decided to buy the EXT like usual with a loan for the balance after the trade in and feel it's just better than a lease.
A lease to me is like renting the vehicle because at the end of the lease you have to turn the vehicle in and get another or you have nothing to drive.
At least if you do happen to keep a vehicle long enough to pay it off you still have something to drive, trade in or sell.
Some people may find a good reason for having a lease but I don't see any advantage to them.
Just my opinion.
Regards.. Frank

I leased my first few Suburbans, and that I started purchasing them instead of leasing, my cars and trucks are always in good shape (I sell car care products) and I usually have customers or friends that buy my cars and trucks for a few dollars more than normal trade in prices, for me purchasing was a better deal.