The Cadillac Escalade-V brings a supercharged powerhouse to the iconic luxury SUV. In order to wrangle all 689 horsepower found under the hood of the Escalade-V, customers can expect to shell out at least $150,000, a starting price tag worthy of top-tier service. Unfortunately, the luxury marque fumbled with at least one customer, as Cadillac Society spoke to a Caddy owner who refinanced their brand new 2023 Escalade-V and had their vehicle’s warranty voided as a result. Thankfully, though, the story does have a happy ending.
The 2023 Cadillac Escalade-V buyer in question told Cadillac Society that they purchased the high-performance luxury SUV in September 2022 and chose to finance the vehicle through GM Financial. In January 2023, the customer took advantage of an opportunity to refinance the vehicle at a lower interest rate with a different finance company. No transfer of title took place during the refinancing operation.
A short while later, the customer began experiencing issues with their Escalade-V, as the luxury SUV displayed a “service 4WD” message and exhibited power loss. The customer brought the vehicle to the dealer and was told that the engine control module (ECU) was in need of reprogramming. It was then that the dealer inform the customer that this particular Escalade-V had a warranty block on it, and it therefore would not be serviced without payment. The customer reached out to Cadillac’s parent company, General Motors, for guidance, but was faced with radio silence from both GM and the dealer for over a week before they were finally contacted and informed that the warranty had been voided dude to non-retention of the Escalade-V.
As a reminder, the Cadillac Escalade-V currently has a mandatory ownership period lasting six months. If the owner chooses to sell the vehicle before this six month period is up, the manufacturer voids the warranty. The practice is intended to discourage customers from attempting to sell the vehicle at an inflated price, and also applies to the CT4-V Blackwing and CT5-V Blackwing super sedans.
But given that there was no transfer of title in this particular customer’s case, they were understandably upset at the news that their Escalade-V’s warranty had been rendered null as a result of their decision to refinance.
Ultimately, Cadillac Society was told by the Escalade-V owner that Cadillac rectified the situation, with an executive calling the customer to personally apologize. The warranty attached to their Cadillac Escalade-V has since been reinstated, with the ordeal lasting 10 days, start to finish. Obviously, this situation is rather frustrating all around, and hopefully Escalade-V owners in the future won’t find themselves facing the same issue.
And while this story does have a happy ending, we posit that this is not the kind of ownership experience a $150,000 luxury product deserves.
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