Hi everyone! Last week we took the plunge and replaced our Mercedes R500 with a beautiful 2007 ESV. White Diamond, Cashmere, Navi, 22's, Info Pkg, RSE, Climate Pkg, and a sunroof. What an amazing truck! With young 4 kids, we needed something large and the ESV is perfect. Most importantly, my wife is happy!

I am very impressed with what GM has done. This is a step in the right direction as far as interior material quality, fit and finish. I will admit to having a bias against domestic vehicles, but I am very, very happy with the Caddy. My daily driver still has German DNA, but I hope the '07 Escalade is a glimpse into GM's future direction. There are still things that amaze me...Like the inability to use the navigation system while driving, still using use a real key and a fob (didn't know that still existed), and the lack of auto up windows. Most of these items are not issues even on the least expensive foreign cars.

The flip side is a screen on the nav/radio that trounces anything I have ever seen in any other car regardless of price. The ultra high resolution is simply amazing. The instrument cluster is gorgeous, the leather on the seats is buttery soft, and the drive/power are much better than expected for such a large and heavy vehicle.

I am really glad we made the move and look forward to learning all I can on this forum.

Thanks!

:welcome:, congarts on your new buy, enjoy it :thumbsup:

I have to agree with you on the "quirks", eg: nav, auto up on windows and no bluetooth! You would think that when GM spent millions on redesigning and tooling for a new vehicle that simple things like that would be addressed. I can kind of understand the lack of changing the navigation by driver while driving, we have the worst drivers here in the states but why not put a simple anti-trap sensor in the window so if someone stuck their arm or head out of the window they wouldn't get trapped, my dog did this one time while driving, she stuck her head out of the window and stepped on the window switch and got choked nearly to death. GM also should have added Bluetooth capability, usually someone who shells out $60K for a vehicle will also usually have a techie cell phone. Maybe also add a expresso machine...would that be asking for too much?

I could even do without the coffee maker :)

One more HUGE positive that I did forget to mention is OnStar and how it resolves the lack of BlueTooth issue.

In my very brief time spent shopping for the Escalade, one sales rep mentioned something in passing that luckily stayed with me....He said he thought or heard that one of the cell providers inked a deal with OnStar to be able to use your cell phone through the OnStar system. I didn't think much of it until we got the truck. A quick google search showed me that it was true and that Verizon Wireless (VW) was the company. Cool, we use VW!

I called and sure enough for a whopping $10 a month VW assigned a new phone number to our OnStar system. This number shares the minutes with my wife's cell phone, so there is no other real expense here.

Just yesterday I really started playing around with the system and realized that it is possible to program nametags. How cool!!! By simply pressing the OnStar button and going through a very short list of prompts, you can store all of your phone numbers. I stored 5 phone numbers I know my wife uses often in 2 minutes (if that). When you want to call someone you hit the OnStar button, say call, say the the name that you previously stored and it dials the number. It is faster and much safer than dialing. This totally cures the lack of bluetooth issue for us. To be able to receive calls while in her Escalade she can simply forward her primary cell phone number to the new OnStar number (which I stored in speed dial). Her cell phone will ring around 4 times and then forward to the OnStar number. The forwarding can simply be left on at all times for skae of ease. The ONLY negative is that the OnStar number does not have voice mail and if she doesn't answer there is no way of leaving a message for her since the OnStar number ends up anwering the call with a message that states the "The party you are calling is unavailable.....etc". Also, no caller ID or call waiting are available either. That kinda sucks.

This was a huge unexpected bonus. I have yet to explore the other OnStar features and hope to find some more goodies for us.

Congrats on your new truck and welcome. :)

I know about the onstar transfer, however, you'll be paying twice through Verizon. When a phone is fowarded, both numbers get charged. Ask me, I know for a fact, had to pay the bill. This wouldn't work for me anyways, I usually have about 1400+ calls a month.
Have fun with the new truck.

Congrats on the new toy.

Wait a minute...the new escalade doesnt have bluetooth!?!?! Wow, that really sucks! Its so handy to use in the lexus.


Also I used onstar only during the first year, then afterwards I had no use for it. My mobile has a speakerphone, and the navigation with onstar sucks. I would get so lost before the person would give me the next step in the directions.

I think I only used it once to book me a room in vegas, wasnt anything special.