The 1999-2000 Cadillac Escalade Retrospective & How The Escalade Dominated The Luxury SUV Segment 

Overall great video, this is one of my favorite Escalade generations and I personally own a 2000. Speaking of that, in 2000, most Escalades were given a dealer installed rosen vhs entertainmet system as a free upgrade so thats what separates it from the 1999 . Mine has one and it still works today!

I bought a 00 Escalade in Jan 2023. I've put 10k on it in a year. I love this thing. I've named her Meadow Soprano

I own a 2000. Love it, it’s truly a mixture of 20th century Cadillac and a Chevy pick-up truck. Rides nice, but it’s capable, has nice speakers, comfortable leather seats. Really have only had to fix oil leaks, and power steering pump. Other than that it has been routine maintenance. 153,000 miles and 24 years.

GM should've done one of two things; 1) This generation of Escalade should've came out in 1992, when GM redesigned its full size SUV's 2) GM should've waited just one more year to introduce the Cadillac Escalade, so that way 2002-2006 Escalade should've been introduced for the 2000 model year.

I had the 99-00 Escalade limited. Purchased new along with 00 Lexus LS 400. It was very nice. The brakes wore out sooner than expected but other than that, it was solid.

Great vid Rob! I did the Lincoln Blackwood vid awhile back and mentioned how the Navigator caught Caddy with their pants down. Later on, the Escalade EXT ate the Blackwood for breakfast. The second gen Escalade and CTS sedan really boosted Caddys image (and sales) at the time.

Very high quality content 🎞️

This channel is so underrated. You guys are gonna hit 100k soon.

I own 2000 Escalade drive daily

When Caddy dropped the second gen, ‘02 Escalade, sales went through THE roof and pop culture was responsible for most of it. Escalade became the new status symbol. The best thing GM could’ve done, which they did, was offer it with a 345hp version of the LQ series 6.0L

The first gen was nasty as a badge engineer but they had to start somewhere. They went from a last minute stop gap to the cliche rapper meme leader in the segment. Great job as always AT - but sorry, in going to have to skip your ketchup drunk this time around brother.

Thank you for the video. You did an excellent job. Some things I wanted to say you know GM did the same thing before with Cadillac several times. The Seville was based off the Chevrolet Nova in 1975 and they came up with a different car in short time. They did it again in 1982 with Cimarron. That one failed. That too was in short time. They did it again with Escalade off the GMC and it was successful. This is nothing new, but it was interesting. Dennis Burke who worked for Oldsmobile designed the Escalade that was hugely successful. Thank you again. Escalade is still leading Cadillac in 2024. Escalade. It is good to be the Cadillac.

Most would remember, it was dominant!

I never quite understood how the first generation Escalade evaded the harsh criticism thrown at the Cimarron for the exact same thing. I never drove a first or second gen Escalade. I was, however, enamored with the third, especially the rear-drive ESV. I test-drove a first gen Denali in 1998. Not bad but way too plasticky on the inside for the price.

I own a black 2000 Cadillac Escalade

These cadillac escalades are so nice that they are too expensive too be driven on the road that's how nice thay are

Looking for one.now with low miles, But the Yukon Denali to me is better .

I’ve only seen 2 first gen Escalades EVER! But damn if I still don’t see a few 2nd gen every now and then. Every third gen I see has a large crack in the dash 😭

People say the repurpose 1999-2000 Cadillac Escalade was lazy. But if anything, it's genius. A strategy GMC needs to go back to. The 2000-2002, depending on opinion, was the peek of GMC quality when it came to engine production. Since then, it's been a slow down hill. Splitting up production is what most likely hurt GMC. Think about it. Find a 1999 Yukon or Escalade and they have 300K, 400k miles and still run. Those engines are tanks made to last. As for me. I currently own and drive a 2000 Cadillac Escalade with 136K miles. For a copy and paste of the GMC Yukon. My 2000 Cadillac Escalade turns a lot of heads! Handling is surprisingly really good . She moves like a boat, but that V8 is powerful, and you'll feel it every time you accelerate. Because she is a copy and paste, parts are cheap to get and easy to find. I couldn't be happier to drive a piece of history. And to top it all off. I won her at an auction for $1250 dollars earlier this year. So I couldn't have been happier!

I'm probably the only one but I've always liked the Denali better than the Escalade. I'm also partial because it was my first car at 16 in 2014 lol 🤷🏽‍♂️🤷🏽‍♂️

Man if this came out in January 2001 as a 2002 model it would be one hell of a way to start the nameplate that way the 1st generation wouldn’t exist.

Could you make a video next about the pontiac Aztek

my favorite gen of the Escalade is the 1999 and 2000 while it is a rush job I love the look of stealth wealth it gives off if only it had more features of the GMC brother

I like the first one's the best. I hear everyone say its just a yukon but the cad just does it perfectly for my taste. I absolutely hate suvs with all of my soul but if u forced me the first version of the escalade would be my choice. The 02 would have driven to a navigator. I really dont like the front of them at all.

By Cadillac Escalade....you mean Tony Soprano's old car?

First comment(for real) NICE!!!!!!

The first Navigator was a better vehicle than the the Escalade

Some one paid allot of money back in the day for this

Probably the laziest rebadging job ever, GM was just desperate to have a competitor to the Lincoln Navigator since Ford was kicking their ass.

2:55 - I despised GM for the badge BS they did, but none more than this example. To me, this is worse than Cimarron. I wish customers rejected it and that it flopped.

reason why it stole the show is because the navigator was hot garbage, did not look like luxury at all and the 5.4 was so bad and unreliable, mb ml was too small and unreliable, range rovers were too pricy and no luxury at all, lexus and nissan trucks was and is a joke