Should I bid on this 2021 Escalade Premium Luxury? Sealed bid closes Tuesday (update: I won it, delivery and the first 2,000 miles)

long time lurker on car sites, first real post. need gut checks before tuesday night.

the lot: 2021 Cadillac Escalade Premium Luxury, 6.2 V8, 10-speed, 4WD, Black Raven over Jet Black, 40,180 miles per the dash photo. AKG 19 speaker system, the big curved OLED screen, second row captains. the bank took it back and it's parked at a lender's lot outside Columbia, maybe 100 miles from my house. it is listed on the M&A Auto Sales site, sealed bid, closes tuesday at 8 pm eastern.

why this and not another MDX: three kids, and my 9 year old is now taller than the MDX third row wants him to be. the 2021 Escalade went to the independent rear suspension, and the third row got real legroom.

my questions, in order of how much they keep me up:

1. is 40k on a 2021 6.2 a good or bad sign given the engine recall everybody is talking about?
2. i was going to bid $55,000. too low to win, or too high for a repo?
3. what would you ask them for before bidding, since i cannot go look at it?

update before the close.

i emailed the m&a people friday night with naomi's list. the answer came back this afternoon, so a little slow, i was sweating all weekend. but they sent everything: cold start video (no tick that i can hear, quiet after a few seconds), cluster photo with no lights, oil life at 38%, tire dates are 2022 so not original, third row clean. one wheel has curb rash on the passenger front. and the recall check on nhtsa.gov shows the 6.2 recall open, not done. so the dealer gets to do that, free.

mdx_since_2014, they confirmed there is no buyer's premium, the winning bid is the price, and delivery inside 1,000 miles is free. Columbia to Greenville is nothing.

so the question is just the number. i am now thinking $57,250. my wife thinks i am crazy for spending that much on a used car. she also complains every day about the MDX third row.

WON IT. $57,250.

the email from M and A came in at 8:24 pm. honestly i expected to lose. back in june i bid on a 2020 Navigator Reserve the same way, put in $41,500, and lost. i never found out by how much, which still bugs me, but that is how blind bidding works.

wire goes out tomorrow morning from our credit union. they quoted about two weeks for delivery.

telluride_or_palisade, i hear you, and the Palisade is a great car. but we test drove both in may and my wife, the one who says i am crazy, picked the Escalade seats. so.

it's here. long one, sorry.

wired the money july 30, truck showed up wednesday the 13th on an enclosed carrier that m&a auto sales booked, so a day over two weeks. the driver called the night before and again an hour out. he and i walked around it with the condition sheet, matched the curb rash on the wheel and a scratch on the rear bumper that was in the listing photos. nothing new. signed, done.

fault number one: the TPMS light came on the next morning. the right rear sensor was dead, battery gone. $85 at the tire shop down Woodruff Road for a new sensor and relearn. that is the only thing wrong so far.

the less fun part, and nobody warned me: South Carolina charges an infrastructure maintenance fee when you title a car, 5% capped at $500. i hit the cap. then Greenville County property tax on the truck before you get plates. so budget a real chunk of money for the DMV visit, it is not just a title fee.

carpool_three_kids, third row: night and day from the MDX. my 9 year old sits back there with his knees nowhere near his chin. the boosters stay put better than they did in the old car because the seatback is taller. there are tether anchors back there, check your manual for which seats get lower anchors.

UPDATE, now 2,140 miles on it since delivery, and one real problem.

recall first, since navigator asked: the Cadillac dealer did not care at all where i bought it. VIN in, appointment made, they inspected the engine, it passed, new oil spec and new oil cap like naomi said. three hours, $0.

the problem: we took the kids up to the Blue Ridge Parkway last weekend for the leaves (half the parkway near Asheville is still closed from Helene, so we came in from the Brevard side). coming down the long grades, the 10-speed would do a hard clunk on some downshifts around 20 mph, enough that my wife asked if we hit something. it never did it around town.

took it to the dealer tuesday. they found a stored transmission code, updated the transmission software and did a relearn. 40k miles is still inside GM's powertrain warranty so it cost nothing. i had the m&a 6-month warranty paperwork in the glovebox in case the factory one did not cover it, but i didn't need it. no clunk since on the hills around Paris Mountain.

mileage over 2,140 miles: 17.1 average. that is what a 6.2 gets. the kids have named it "the boat."