Vauxhall Cascada

Vauxhall Cascada

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cobra kid

Original Poster:

4,949 posts

241 months

Friday 2nd July 2021
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One of these passed me on my way home on Wednesday. I completely forgot they existed. What were Vauxhall thinking when signing it off? What market were they hoping to tap into or create?

Andy665

3,627 posts

229 months

Friday 2nd July 2021
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Always thought it was a good looking car, killed by the badge, if it had got a premium badge on it it would have sold well

Scrump

22,050 posts

159 months

Friday 2nd July 2021
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Vauxhall’s attempt at a VW Eos competitor, but a bit late to the party.

nichio3478

92 posts

106 months

Friday 2nd July 2021
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The convertible hire car market.

Hired one in Sicily. Had a great time in it. Was really impressed.

Carlososos

976 posts

97 months

Friday 2nd July 2021
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Much nicer than the equivalent grey boxes with posh badges driving around. Our tastes have been numbed by marketing of the boring.

Dr Interceptor

7,794 posts

197 months

Friday 2nd July 2021
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Better than the Focus CC... God that was an ugly car, especially from the rear 3/4 view.


Limpet

6,318 posts

162 months

Friday 2nd July 2021
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I've only ever seen one on the road. I was tempted to put it on the 'Cars you never knew existed' thread.

Really good looking car, IMO and I seem to remember when I googled it, it reviewed well too. But without a German badge, clearly nobody cared.

donkmeister

8,195 posts

101 months

Friday 2nd July 2021
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Scrump said:
Vauxhall’s attempt at a VW Eos competitor, but a bit late to the party.
Ah yes, because VW invented convertibles in 2006 with the Eos. All the other mainstream hatchback-based convertibles that were available at the same time are just figments of our imaginations biggrin

There was nothing inherently wrong with the Cascada, it just isn't really the core business for the VW/Ford/Vauxhall sector of the market, which is why there are so few Eos/Cascada/Astra TT / Focus CC about. People who want convertibles often want something a bit less bland, which is why the aforementioned are more curvy than their hatchback brethren.

Saab 9-3 convertibles are everywhere despite having strong links to the Cascada (indeed, wasn't the Cascada intended to plug the gap in the GM line-up after the 9-3 was phased out?)

Paul_M3

2,371 posts

186 months

Friday 2nd July 2021
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My girlfriend had one for a few years. She really liked it.

It was a good looking car and very well spec'd as the 'Elite' version. Ok, it certainly wasn't a drivers car, but it was very comfortable and easy to drive. Two adults could fit in the back with no issues.

I took it to work myself a few times, and wafting along with the roof down was quite pleasant.

OllieJolly

348 posts

117 months

Friday 2nd July 2021
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I like the Cascada, although it looks more like an Insignia convertible from the back.
Shame that many are fitted with the 2.0 CDTI though, I don't really "get" buying a diesel convertible.

Varelco

402 posts

64 months

Friday 2nd July 2021
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cobra kid said:
What were Vauxhall thinking when signing it off? What market were they hoping to tap into or create?
Erm the convertible one? What makes its so ludicrous compared to the other offerings out there. Basically every manufacture has had a similar model based on their standard platforms.

cobra kid

Original Poster:

4,949 posts

241 months

Friday 2nd July 2021
quotequote all
Paul_M3 said:
My girlfriend had one for a few years. She really liked it.

It was a good looking car and very well spec'd as the 'Elite' version. Ok, it certainly wasn't a drivers car, but it was very comfortable and easy to drive. Two adults could fit in the back with no issues.

I took it to work myself a few times, and wafting along with the roof down was quite pleasant.
Aye, the guy cruising past me seemed very chilled in his.

Dolf Stoppard

1,323 posts

123 months

Friday 2nd July 2021
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A woman I worked with had one of these, as well as two of the awful hard top things it replaced. Every single one of them leaked and the garage could never fix them. And she kept on buying them!

georgeyboy12345

3,520 posts

36 months

Friday 2nd July 2021
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Convertible Astra

uk1988

55 posts

96 months

Friday 2nd July 2021
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In the right colour I actually think they look quite smart. Few enough of them about that joe public who doesn’t know too much about cars won’t instantly know it’s just a 4yr old Vauxhall worth 8k.

I knew I wanted a modest sized convertible last year and had a scroll through all the possible candidates on Autotrader. I went for an S3 in the end, but in all honesty if the Cascada had come with a remotely decent petrol engine (most are a paltry 1.4) I would have genuinely been tempted to at least take one for a test drive and potentially save the 15k difference.

RVB

1,985 posts

82 months

Friday 2nd July 2021
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Nice looking but as a Vauxhall fan I always thought it was far too big to justify not having rear doors and very few, if any, had anything more than an average engine.

Petrols were almost all 1.4 with 140hp and 200Nm torque, taking about 10 secs to reach 60mph and not really the smooth, wafty, effortless feel a car like that should have.
Fuel consumption was poor considering the very average acceleration.

Late in its production I think a few had 1.6 engines with 200hp and 300Nm torque, taking about 8s to reach 60mph but as was often the case, the more powerful engine variants were very rare and ended up as dealer manager cars (demos) which the managers didn't want to part with unless at a ridiculous premium price.

Nickp82

3,189 posts

94 months

Friday 2nd July 2021
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It’s a bit like the PT Cruiser, people moan that cars are all the same but when manufacturers do something a bit different (there weren’t many direct competitors to the Cascada) they don’t sell.

MrGTI6

3,161 posts

131 months

Friday 2nd July 2021
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Scrump said:
Vauxhall’s attempt at a VW Eos competitor, but a bit late to the party.
The Cascada's predecessor, the Astra Twintop, was released in the same year as the Eos. Which itself was two or three years late to "the party".

FestivAli

1,088 posts

239 months

Saturday 3rd July 2021
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They sold them here as a Holden. They didn't sell many, but every time I see one I think it's a pretty good looking car. I'd be tempted as a used buy but a friend works as a service advisor for a place that used to sell Holdens (Holden shut down in late 2019 or 2020 I can't remember) but he said getting parts now for the Opel/Vauxhall based stuff is hard here in Aus now.

Uncle John

4,295 posts

192 months

Saturday 3rd July 2021
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Why did they name it after a beetle……?