Revealed ahead of its 2015 Detroit Auto Show debut, the 2016 Buick Cascada marks the brand’s return to the convertible game after a 25-year absence [Live photos now available – CA].
The 2+2 convertible — based on the Opel model of the same name — can seat four adults comfortably, with its top able to provide more of the same when up, both in regards to warmth and noise. Said top can be taken down in 17 seconds at speeds up to 31 mph.
Speaking of speed, power for the Cascada comes via a 1.6-liter turbo-four with direct injection and variable valve timing, capable of 200 horsepower and 206 lb-ft of torque, 221 lb-ft with overboost. A six-speed auto will direct that power to the front.
Heading back inside, those who take their Cascada to the beach house for a weekend getaway will have 13.4 cubic feet of cargo space to use with the top up, 9.8 cubic feet when the top is down. The electronically controlled rear seatbacks fold down to provide more storage space, as well.
Other features include: Buick IntelliLink connected-vehicle system with Apple iOS 6+ compatibility; pop-up rollover protection bars that activate upon detection of potential rollover accidents; OnStar 4G LTE with Wi-Fi; standard safety features such as lane departure, rear park assist, rearview camera and Rainsense windshield wipers; HiPer Strut front suspension, derived from the Regal and LaCrosse; Watts Z-link rear suspension; and a rigid body structure composed of high-strength steel, reinforced side sills, and A-pillars made with press-hardened steel.
The 2016 Buick Cascada is set to go on sale next year.
This should have mass-appeal. Especially with the ladies.
Looks like a reasonable small convertible. I bet the press will hate it and the target market will love it.
target market: Avis, Hertz, National etc
Pricing will have a huge effect on its sales numbers. It’ll be common in high school and college parking lots if it’s relatively cheap, but will flop if it’s priced like a Volvo.
If it were RWD, though, and a bit more masculine-looking, men would be more interested.
“If it were RWD, though, and a bit more masculine-looking, men would be more interested.”
You’ve described the Mustang convertible, which is what men would buy after looking at a RWD Buick convertible.
Have you seen how Buick prices other Opel things, like the Encore and the Regal? Not gonna be relatively cheap!
A niche left vacant by the departed 200 convertible. I give credit to Buick for offering something other then another crossover or sedan. I think this may be a surprising success like the Encore. I think this will make a nice stablemate to Buick’s other offerings
Say what you want about Buick, but at least they seem to know who they are and who their customer is and continually bringing out models that cater to them without any of the confusion, chaos and drama that is Cadillac
“… at least they seem to know who they are and who their customer is and continually brings out models that cater to them …”
Buick and GM are fighting for survival and relevance in today’s global automotive market place. The US market pales in comparison to the Asian market.
Asia is where the growth is. VW and Toyota are the manufacturers that will succeed globally. GM and Ford will be also-rans globally.
I am aware of this, Buick sold a million cars last year mostly to the Chinese. They don’t even need to be in North America to survive, but they are and sales have improved year after year. I would say they’re doing things right
” Buick sold a million cars last year mostly to the Chinese.”
Yes, they did!
I have often voiced my preference for giving Buick to GM of Shanghai, and folding GMC into Chevrolet trucks as an upscale trim level.
If I were to open up a dealership today I would strongly cons1der a Buick/GMC dealership because there would be almost something for everyone who actually buy cars and trucks that entered the door
The Buick/GMC dealership my brothers sold in AZ is doing real well, both sales-wise and financially.
Even opened up its own showroom and sales location away from the other non-GM brands.
Sales staff is also almost all-new with focus on much younger, hungrier, better-educated college grads with degrees in sales and marketing.
I’ve been told potential clientèle is mostly in their 40s to 50s these days as most older Buick owners have either died or migrated to Avalon or Lexus for their replacements.
The Buick/Cadillac/GMC dealer here moves more vehicles than the Chevy dealer does.
I’m sure part of that is thanks to GMC’s crossovers, which IMO all look better than their Chevrolet equivalents.
It’s a 2+2, where the 200 was an honest four seater. Sounds more like a replacement for the VW Eos.
If Buick doesn’t expect much volume, they might be ok here. I can’t think it will be a big seller.
This was a wise as this might be a niche market but there are few players in it and most of those are not in the reach of the average person. My only wishes would be better wheels and a V6 (being a Buick) but since we were not fit to see one in Regal that was just a pipe dream.
IMO this seems very interesting. With neither the Solara nor the Seabring/200 on the market, there is nothing in this niche (the Mustang-et al pony car convertibles being both physically bigger yet practically smaller).
And its also fits really “what is Buick” these days: unique semi-luxury cars/SUVs: taking niches that the other manufacturers neglect (e.g. a luxury small SUV w/o the pretence or price of the germans).
I think you nailed it. Buick isn’t trying to be anything but a Buick, a nice upscale car without pretense and priced accordingly.
Also with the VW Eos, Volvo C70, and Saab 9-3, there is plenty of room on the higher end for a fwd convertible. I think this will do really well.
Don’t like the Cascada name. Makes me think of dishwasher soap. Velite or even Skylark would have been better names IMO. Good looking car though, will sell if they don’t go zonkers on the pricing.
I’ve have been partial to the Skylark name.
Geez, at least Buicks have names
Good point. They could have called it the BT5. Are you listening JdN?
Does he ever?
I would have gone with the Velite name as it pairs well with Verano (since this is really just a Verano convertible). I was also hoping the Buick would at least have their waterfall grill. I wonder if GM just decided it was too expensive to make those kinds of changes for a low volume vehicle.
I’m kind of surprised Buick ditched their trademark grille and porthole vents, even though some cons1der them a self-parody they’re every bit a Buick as much as the BMW kidney grille
I think this picture is of the european model. It hasn’t been buickified.
Ooh, you are so right, looky…
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5513/9755489431_66cfe2f355_o.jpg
I tried to take a really good look and I think I see the Buick tri-shield emblem on the grille instead of the Opel lightning bolt. So maybe they just decided to minimize modifications to it. Will know when I see it at the Detriot Auto Show this Saturday. Can’t wait!
I’m pretty sure that’s an Opel emblem
I agree, Velite would have been my choice, more masculine sounding than Cascada. I could make a case for Skylark too, with it being a convertble. I also like a name Opel used before, Calibra. I don’t think that is the Buick version pictured, but the Opel instead. Will be surprised if they don’t give it the “Buick” front clip.
I would have gone with Wildcat. Anyway, as much as I dislike nearly all things GM, this should do well. If they keep it in the $30-45k price range, it could be a big hit.
The bones are Opel, which means Euro tuned and thoroughly communicative.
That’s a lot of money (30-45) for something this small.
“Velite” contains the word “Elite”, which I think Buick is trying to avoid.
And I think that they avoided “Wildcat” to avoid the redundancy based on the likelihood that it will be mainly driven by “Cougars”.
I”m in a part of the United States where the Cascade name is used a lot, since the Cascade Mountains traverse Washington and Oregon. You’ll see lots of “Cascade” this and that in the phone book – remember those? There are also variants, the main one being Cascadia. So Cascada sounds wrong to my ears…but at least the car doesn’t have to suffer an acronym instead of a name.
Bernard Malamud’s semi-comic novel A New Life (1961) takes place at Cascadia College (based on Oregon State in Corvallis, where he’d been a faculty member in the 1950s). I’ve read it probably 10 times since the late 1970s, and the state of Cascadia is more real to me than the actual Pacific Northwest, which I’ve never visited (yet).
Cascadia sounds better to me than Cascada, too.
Too many syllables – it’s a car, not a literary device ;-)
+1. I’m turned off by manufacturers who use acronyms instead of names for cars. I wonder if they know that it drives away sales.
Yeah, I grew up in the pacific NW, and I think even Subaru has a “cascade’ edition outback if my memory serves correct.
Well, so much for the Riviera nameplate, although aside from the seventh-gen, the Riviera always was a *large* coupe.
I understand that it’s more or less a direct rebadge of the Opel Cascada, but Buick could at least change the interior lighting to that ice-blue/aqua color that it uses in all the rest of its cars, or even white…especially since most of the electronics seem to be parts-bin, or shared with the Verano.
What’s funny in the world of GM is that it seems that Buick is doing it right. They are offering nice cars that are very well equipped at good prices. There is a very strong value proposition in purchasing just about any of there offerings today. Contrast that to Cadillac. DeNysschen’s approach of offering cars that have some shortcomings against their competitors at prices similar is very confusing. How do you get conquest sales if you don’t provide the customer something better than the proven competition. Lexus did it by offering a better car at a better price. Buick is doing something similar. How can GM have it so wrong with their other luxury brand?
That’s the $64,000 question, oh wait, knock $3K off that, the $61,000 question, oh wait, end of year savings knock $15K off that, the $46,000 question
Now THAT’S an ELR price that many could live with!
It’s almost as though GM has the germ of a good idea. Buick handles classic American luxury (though with European models?) while taking on Lexus and Caddy takes on the Germans in the sport luxury category and moves more upmarket.
I think it’s a feasible plan, but they need to execute it on the Cadillac side better than they are now.
I suspect internally Buick is being run by the Chevrolet management team and Cadillac is being run by the no management team. If Chevrolet starting going off the reservation with its product I suspect Buick would follow, fortunately for the overall company this is not the case.
It’s almost as though GM has the germ of a good idea. Buick handles classic American luxury (though with European models?) while taking on Lexus and Caddy takes on the Germans in the sport luxury category and moves more upmarket.
I think it’s a feasible plan, but they need to execute it on the Cadillac sde better than they are now.
If I were interested in a convertible this would be at the top of my list. Mustangs are nice but who needs a high powered rear wheel drive car in a convertible form for cruising. High speeds in a convertible with the top down would not be my idea of fun. Driving leasurely on a nice windy senic road with the top down would be my idea of a perfect drive.
The last convertible I owned was a BMW M car. I get that there is a draw to cruise with a convertible, but driving fast is just as fun and desireable. We are looking at a Porsche Boxster S for my wife just for this reason. You either crave a drivers car or you don’t. Doing it in a convertible is a seperate component to the equation.
I hope it gets more Buick interior. The
Opel one has nice shapes but the colours are colder than I’d like. This is a car I’d enjoy owning. I don’t often say that. I should explain I like comfort cars not sport sedans:
Citroen (I own an 1990 XM), Lancia, Volvo, Rover et cetera.
I’d rather have an old droptop Reatta.
Especially in that nice sorta wine burgundy color.
You were seriously limited on colors with the Reatta, I believe.
Wine, black, white, red, navy.
I just can’t look at that windshield frame without imagining a dent in my face.
” The 2+2 convertible — based on the Opel model of the same name — can seat four adults comfortably.”
Um, 2+2, does not mean seating four adults comfortably, at least in the English language. Now, I am not sure about the results of focus groups held in the Cameroon. The Pygmy peoples may disagree with the 2+2 description, but I doubt it.
The Cascada is more than a 2+2. Like the Astra convertible of the early 00s, it’s supposed to be spacious for four, not unlike the Saab 9-3 whose customers are now homeless.
I squinted at the main photo; it seems to have a Buick badge.
It does, and so do the wheels.
Agree, it looks like a VW Eos which largely was favoured by a niche market of affluent, mature females.
The Eos was however, considered to be overpriced.
If this Buick is priced more reasonably (or offered in a de-contented) version it may become a preferred choice ‘on campus’.
Don’t write GM off. It is doing well in China. Opel does have some good ideas/designs. The trucks/Cross-overs making them money. As long as management does not screw up royally (again), they can remain viable.
“Skylark” was ruined forever by the N-body variant from 1985 to 1997. Some had classic Buick styling (the 1992-1997 coupe) but the marketing just wasn’t there. I saw two mid-90s Oldsmobile Achievas yesterday and recalled selling them starting in late 1991. Easy “sell” at the $199 a month lease for the $14,090 sedan. My 1995 Olds Cutlass Supreme convertible (built in the last week of production!)will be for sale soon to make room for the new Buick Cascada. All Buick needs is a $299 lease and it will fly out of showrooms. My wife and I flew to Washington state to buy a 2000 Olds Silhouette GL and saw the ’95 convertible at the same dealership parked on an elevated display facing the highway. So we bought two vehicles that day in 2006.