"what are the good and bad, in's and out's?? "
We just bought, so I can't give you the benefit of experience actually using DVC-yet...but I can tell you some of the issues in the decision making process that led us to decide to buy.
Flexibility vs availability- the exact room(s) you want may be limited when you want to go...September is a slow time for WDW but from what I have read here, slow for WDW does not always mean slow for DVC. To us this was not a big issue since we have to plan vacations well in advance we expect to find availability to be easier to come by than someone who travels at the last minute alot. we are flexible, too. I definitely did not want a fixed time period (a week) or time of year as in most timeshares.
Deluxe vs. Economical- The most flexible is to pay cash-in the long run-that will be the most expensive IF you would stay in deluxe on site accomodations. If you always hunt for the best deal you can definitely find cheaper places to stay-even on site. DVC is a committment to a deluxe way of vacationing- you WILL stay in deluxe places-not econolodge...I have done both and have justified both ways in my mind--("sure the place is kinda cheap-but hey we'll spend the savings on other fun things") I needed to make that committment to luxury in a way that satisfied my inner cheapskate-DVC did that for me.
Lifetime vs 40 years-DVC is a lease- in 40 years you have only your memories. A traditional timeshare is yours for life until you sell it. Again, for us this was no big deal...I would rather stay on property than own off site. In 40 years I don't want the responsibility for dues, or trying to sell somethng that may be hard to sell. I want to be able to walk away easily.
Dues -they are high for timeshare but cheap for what you get compared to paying cash for a WDW room every year. If room rates plummett at WDW then it will not be a savings. I am betting even though now rooms are deeply discounted that over the next 41 years they will be at levels similar to the last 10 years-not like the last 2 months. (If this economy or the war lasts 41 years-WDW probably won't even be there -and that will be the least of our worries...)
WDW (or Orlando) for life-you are committing to vacationing regularly for years. Yes, you can trade out, but the value is diluted when you do that. If you tire of WDW there is HH and VB-again we just did not see even the dilution of value over 40 years a big deal as we love WDW and expect to go there for most of the next 41 years. If we don't, we still won't have nothing to show for it, we will just have vacations that are a bit more expensive than if we had bought those vacations ourselves rather than with DVC points. (unless we are really dumb and don't use our points at all-and we are not that dumb )
Good luck with your decision.
Paul