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Buick Discontinues Cascada Soft-Top Convertible

Revealed in 2012 as the Opel Cascada, Vauxhall decided to kill off the soft-top convertible brother of the Astra in July 2018. Poor sales are to blame, and guess what? Buick has a similar problem in the United States of America.
Buick Cascada 37 photos
Photo: Buick
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The compact-sized Cascada was never introduced to the Canadian lineup, and this goes to show how little Buick thinks of the convertible. Introduced in the U.S. in 2015 for 2016, the 2019 model year is the final one for the nameplate in this part of the world.

Produced in Gliwice, Poland on underpinnings from the previous generation of the Astra, the Cascada “has played its role in the portfolio perfectly, outselling many other premium convertibles while bringing in buyers from outside GM.” What Buick told Automotive News is one point of view, not the full picture.

Care to guess how many were sold in the past three years in the U.S. of A.? Make that 7,153 examples of the breed in 2016, 5,595 in 2017, and 4,136 in 2018. Although it’s far from luxurious, the Mazda MX-5 Miata in both body styles managed to move 8,971 units in 2018.

When it was launched, the Cascada was Buick’s first convertible in 25 years. But as with lots of products from General Motors, the uninspired design, cluttered dashboard full of hard plastics, and old underpinnings were too little, too late for this segment.

For $33,995 including destination charge, the Cascada is bettered by the Chevrolet Camaro Convertible for the 2019 model year. Of course the Buick comes standard with more equipment, but the Camaro has RWD, superior handling and design, as well as a more desirable badge.

As if that wasn’t enough, Buick will cease North American production of the LaCrosse on March 1st, 2019 as part of a full-blown restructuring of production operations in the United States and Canada. Similarly to the Cascada, the LaCrosse failed to capture the imagination of prospective buyers, posting abysmal sales.

If you were wondering, Opel also announced it would stop production of the Cascada towards the end of 2019. Now part of Groupe PSA, the German automaker further decided to cancel the Chevrolet Spark-based Karl and Adam city car.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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