Opel Cascada

Is there a better way of driving than with the whole sky above you? The European side of GM now releases its third whole new product in such a short time, in a very commendable strategy of recovering from the current financial crisis of its homeland. This kind of car has a whole different focus from its urban siblings, and Opel recognizes that at first by this cabriolet’s construction, but also by placing Cascada (Spanish for “waterfall”) in a special spot of their showroom. But you can read more details about all this in the full article.

Convertible cars usually have this big emotional appeal also because this car style has been strongly associated with the high performance models. There was built a double image to expose to the public, where the automakers usually offer the same level of luxury and technology but in two different “wrappings”: the cabriolet or roadster receives the ones who only want to enjoy the weather in a fancy car, while the coupes attract the high-speed fans with the better aerodynamics that only a closed-roof car can provide. But Cascada ends up looking for a different kind of customer because it doesn’t focus at the highest top speed. Opel’s latest release makes direct competition with Peugeot 308 CC, Renault Mégane Cabriolet and VW Golf Cabrio, for example. They’re based at the mid-sized line of their brands and don’t try to seem different from them at all. Instead, they want to catch those buyers who normally would take a sedan or a station wagon, but having this option decide to travel with the family in bigger style. They come only with two doors to maintain the informal personality, instead of looking like a sedan who lost its roof, but seating four is their biggest conceptual difference from the roadsters: those are the roofless part who focus at the performance, therefore take only two occupants.

As what was said at the beginning of this article, Cascada will have this special attention at Opel’s showroom due to the fact that this brand works with many urban categories, therefore focusing at hatchbacks, sedans and minivans instead of coupes and cabriolets – before this one they had the TwinTop versions of Astra J and Tigra B, some years ago. But Cascada is more different than these ones when it comes to the structure, because its platform is exclusive, combining parts from Astra and Insignia. This explains the car’s design, which starts looking very much like Astra but changing into a whole different style, still using lots of Opel’s design rules but with a really classy result, without any excesses of strong lines in order to compose a solid, sophisticated look which ends at one of the better-looking rears of its category. All this external talent is followed by an elegant interior, with high-quality materials and complete trim levels. However, as it comes with a much stronger charisma than the urban Astra line, it seems that Opel would like to sell it a little separated from its base, in order to also seduce some of the Insignia buyers. They all must be pleased to choose between the lots of engine options that will be available, the ten external color options or the three options for the fabric roof, whose operation takes only 17 seconds.

Buick Cascada (23/01/2014)

You’re almost right: having the Opel logo swapped with Buick’s isn’t the only change that was done to this car, but it’s definitely the biggest. After Chrysler decided not to renew 200’s convertible sibling and Volkswagen just about to do the same, GM decided to try and take these customers for itself. Cascada features the same platform of Buick Verano (which is North-American for Opel Astra), but doesn’t share a single body panel nor the tech sheet: the new droptop will cross the Atlantic with only a six-speed automatic gearbox and a turbocharged 1.6 – the latter was tweaked to reach 200 hp of power and 206 lb-ft of torque. Its fabric roof takes the trunk from 13.4 to 9.8 cubic feet, but it's possible to increase this room by folding the rear seats.

Holden Cascada Turbo (02/05/2015)

Yep, there’s another badge on it. Since Opel won’t work in Australia anymore, its midsize cabriolet was recruited to work there and in New Zealand under Holden, along with Astra GTC, and Insignia, both in the sporty VXR trim. Since GM wants them to be niche models, Cascada adopted the “Turbo” surname, so as to explore its performance from the point of view of marketing: its four-cylinder 1.6 is good for 170 hp and 28.5 kgfm, same engine used by the regular Astra GTC. This one’s VXR, in turn, uses a turbocharged 2.0 and delivers 278 hp and 40.7 kgfm, while the upscale Insignia adopts a 2.8-liter V6 produced in Australia, which is capable of 322 hp and 44.3 kgfm.