You can call it an Opel, but don’t confuse the Cascada with German sports cabrios
In search of a budget convertible for Buick, the folks at General Motors looked through its global product line to find something that fit the bill. Ultimately, GM settled on Opel’s Cascada two-plus-two convertible. Getting it ready for Buick rebadging, GM opted out of a rename, leaving us with what we have here — the 2016 version of a Toyota Solara or Chrysler Sebring.
That might seem like an insult, but it isn’t: The Cascada does a perfectly fine job at being an inoffensive two-plus-two convertible. While the interior seems ripped straight from 2008 with its myriad black plastic switches and red LCD screen planted in the middle of the gauge cluster, it actually works well — the switches and functions are laid out intuitively, for painless operation … save for the recessed infotainment system, which is clunky and not easy to manage. I especially had trouble working the navigation, but even that became second nature after a day in the driver’s seat.
Powering Buick’s latest drop top is a 1.6-liter turbocharged I4 that makes all the right whistling and whooshing noises to appeal to the racer boy in all of us. The noise is fun, but doesn’t equate to any real performance — the engine makes 200 hp at 5,500 rpm, and 207 lb-ft at 1,800 rpm. It might not set records for acceleration, but much like the other easy-going convertibles of the past, it does a fine job keeping up with traffic. The six-speed automatic feeding the front wheels does a decent job at managing power and being invisible — shifts are soft but moderately quick.
2016 Buick Cascada Premium
This Buick is sprung for the luxury customer, so the ride is quiet and soft. The downside is that, without adjustable dampers, the suspension favors brake dive and body roll.
The lone interesting tech feature for this convertible is a window switch placed inside the top switch. It may not be groundbreaking, but a common window switch to raise and lower all the windows simultaneously makes convertible life slightly more convenient.
When one of the highlights of the car is a window switch, that says a lot about the car itself, but for fans of unassuming convertibles — this is the car for you, and will bring fond memories of your Solara or Sebring. However, for folks wanting more excitement out of a drop-top — a folding-top Mustang or Camaro is easily within this Buick’s price spread and far more fun to drive.
— Wesley Wren, Associate Editor
2016 Buick Cascada Premium
OTHER VOICES:
If you’re looking for a vehicle that illustrates the vast gulf between what enthusiasts look for in a car and what the general populace seems to want, look no further than the Cascada.
Everything good about the platform-mate Verano is gone. The any semblance of sprightliness is crushed by an extra 700 pounds of curb weight. Rear visibility is sub-Camaro, and that’s saying something. With 200 hp, it gets out of its own way — but it doesn’t sound happy about it.
But then, I had assumed that the stuff I thought was good about the Verano was the same stuff Verano buyers thought was good about the Verano. I should have known better: To most people — people who will in all likelihood never read this review — cupholder placement is more important than handling neutrality or steering feel.
No, I take that back: to most people, cupholder placement is a factor, whereas driving dynamics simply are not. Oh well.
Assuming $ 40K is your budget, and open-top driving is your chief objective, just about any other convertible on the market looks like a better bet, from the Mustang to the Camaro to the MX-5 to the Fiat 500 Abarth Cabrio, even.
Here, you get an interior that somehow feels less premium than a comparable hardtop Buick paired with a snoozer of a driving experience. It is neither sporty nor luxurious — you’ll have to turn a physical key to start the car, and GM-spec plastic trim and buttons abound. Oh, and there’s no place to stash those golf clubs on account of the ragtop folding apparatus.
And yet…the Cascada is one of the few cars people actually ask me about by name when they find out what I do for a living. To them, it seems like a “fun” car, much like the Sebring and Cavalier convertibles must have at the time — and truth be told, it’s probably exactly what they’re looking for in a weekend cruiser.
This has forced me to confront the uncomfortable fact that the Cascada is exactly what non-geeks want: a totally safe, totally boring way to feel a little more wind in their hair. Will they even care if/when autonomous driving wipes the steering wheel off the dashboard? I somehow doubt it.
— Graham Kozak, Associate Editor
2016 Buick Cascada Premium
A couple things surprised me about the Cascada: One, it got a whole lot more looks than I would have guessed. Lots of people checked it out, asked about it — they seemed to love it. Two, the doors are huge. And heavy. That’s a non-sequitur, but it jumped out at me.
OK. On to the car: I think it looks good. I like the shape. Top up, it looks well-proportioned and of a whole. It was rainy and snowy and cold all weekend when I had the car, so I didn’t put the top down, but from pictures it looks good with the top down, too.
I didn’t expect a sporty driving experience, but the Cascada surprised me some: The ride is actually decent. I expected soft and wallowy, but the thing has some firmness to it; it might even be too firm for Buick owners. I also thought the steering was heavy and quick — enough. Overall, not the mush I expected. Stiffening the chassis no doubt adds pounds, but it works. Speaking of, the chassis is solid and the driving experience is quiet at most speeds. The turbo four is smooth and quiet, but provides only a leisurely pace — those potential owners I mentioned a second ago should be happy with that; I doubt most are in a hurry.
The interior is nicely built and looks classy enough, but is quite button heavy — it takes some focus to dial up the heat, defrost or seat heaters, etc.
One thing Buick might have going for it is that its newest offering has almost no competition. The Germans have some smallish convertibles but they’re priced well above the Buick. Examples: A BMW 2-Series convertible starts a grand higher than the Buick while a 3-Series starts at 50K. Ironically, one arguable Cascada competitor comes from General Motors’ own stable, the Camaro convertible. It’s early days for the Cascada but I wonder how much cross shopping there would be between the two …
By the way, Buick sales so far in ’15 are up 6,100 overall; 3,000 if you look at just passenger cars. Buick has moved 580-plus Cascadas so far this year, so it is helping a bit.
Kozak called the car “totally boring.” I don’t know that I’d go that far, and in the summer months, I bet he’d change his tune.
— Wes Raynal, Editor
Options: Deep Sky Metallic paint ($ 395)