Bought a Cascada last Friday.

[Jag530G]

Hi everyone,

I've bought a Cascada which I picked up last Friday. Murphy's law meant although Noosa was sunny on Friday it rained all weekend and this morning. Haven't traded anything in for it, stil have the Cruze and the Monaro, although the Cruze may go down the track and my wife can have the Cascada as a daily.

Thoughts on the car.

Looks great, quite a wedgy dramatic shape, look good roof up or down, which isn't generally the case for convertibles.

Compared with my '09 Cruze CDX (which shares GM's DeltaII platform), the Cascada has a touch firmer ride, slightly more body roll and a smidge more understeer. The Cascada is nealry 200kg heavier and the roof mechanism would raise the C-of-G. It rides on 18s with 235x50series tyres. quite high profile and big diameter tyres compared with my V2 Monaro which has 18s with 235x40 series tyres and VE/VFs on 18s which have 45 series tyres.

The SIDI turbo 1.6 has pretty good mid range but down low 1000-1500 rpm is a bit doughy, once above 1500rpm its fine. Doesn't have the harshness of the Cruze's 1.8 at high revs.

Interior quality is excellent, best thing about the car. Stitched dash top looks good and the seats are fantastic, come with thigh support extenders, which since I am 192cm, are a joy. All cars should have these. Still learning how to use the infotainment system, there's a lot of features although for those of you with a VF it would be quite familiar.

Biggest disappointment is the paint colour range, White, Silver, Dark Grey (which I got), Black and a Blue. Pretty boring really. Interior colour is Dark Grey although the "Launch Edition" comes with tan which looks nice. I had built a Cascada on the Vauxhall website a few months ago and they offered a nice plum colur with the tan trim which would have been my first preference. Unfortunantly the Launch Edition rides on 20s which I don't want, especially for a convertible. I have become quite anti-big-wheels in my middle age, tyres cost a fortune, they have too much inertia so hurt acceleration and ruin the ride comfort.

Hopefully we will get some sunny weather soon and I can get the roof down.

Crossed fingers Holden bring out the Camaro in 2017/18 and I can trade this in on a Camaro SS convertible and have all that I want, a V8 Convertible.

Cheers, Matthew

[Smitty]

.. thanks, good report!

I have been looking at the Cascada for the missus ....
Her old 2003 Astra Convertible got the grumps (aka LARGE repair bills) a few years
ago so I got her a 1 series BMW Couple... which even though it has a sunroof, she
still hankers over the roof that comes off like the old Astra

will wait 'til the weather is better down here (Spring) and then better go for a test drive

[Jag530G]

Another thing about the Cascada Smitty, they have excellent interior space, actual proper leg room in the back even with the front seat comfortable for me (192cm tall). Interesting you mentioned the BMW 1 series. When my 5yo daugher was at daycare last year she had friends (twins) who used to ride around in the back of a BMW 120i convertible. Seeing that a small car like a 120i convertible could fit kiddie seats in the back was my motivation to get a convertible but the Cascada is much more spacious in the back, it is actually a fairly sensible family car if you can cope with 2 doors.

Also compared with the the old TS Astra Convertibe (I've hired a few TS and AH convertibles over the years, liked them for what they are so was happy to order a Cascada) the Cascada is very good value here in Australia. A Cascada is $41,990 auto only, I remember back in the TS Astra Convertible days they were around $45K manual, $47K auto and $49K turbo manual. Interestingly, A Vauxhall Cascada Elite 1.6T auto is around 28K pounds, or AUD$55K, so Holden have done a good job on pricing.

Cheers, Matthew

[Smitty]

ta Matt... most helpful!

the comments on leg room are convincing me....

I paid a neat $40k driveaway for the old TS astra convertible but it helps to be fleet manager who buys 15+Holdens a year
so the price of the Cascada is certainly tempting plus of course your comments on size make it even more desirable as the missus
is always carting grandies (aged 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 ands 14) around. Holden have done a very good job on pricing .. with certainly
the BMW 2 series, Golf and Audi A3 convertibles in its sights

We got the 1 series Coupe as BMW had no 1 series Convertibles in the country at the time (there were lots due on a ship) but we
didn't want to wait... I was running the Astra around in limp mode for starters plus BMW at the time had one of these end of year specials
running so after a bit of discussion (work is also listed with BMW Aust for fleet plus I know the finance manager at the local stealership)
I got a sizable discount + 5 years warranty + 5 years free service on the Coupe... and an amazing trade in amount for a stuffed Astra

[jaykay]

For those of you that don't know WTF a Cascada is (like me) here you go.....

http://www.holden.com.au/cars/cascad...campaign=brand

[XUV]

For those of you that don't know WTF a Cascada is (like me) here you go.....

http://www.holden.com.au/cars/cascad...campaign=brand

i read it as 'Cressida' and only clicked on to see why? someone was so proud of the fact ....

[Smitty]

For those of you that don't know WTF a Cascada is (like me) here you go.....

http://www.holden.com.au/cars/cascad...campaign=brand

.. who is Alex Davis?

[IJ.]

For those of you that don't know WTF a Cascada is (like me) here you go.....

http://www.holden.com.au/cars/cascad...campaign=brand

Go Holden advertising Guru's... never seen or heard of one till now... can't understand why the company is failing..

[Jag530G]

For those of you that don't know WTF a Cascada is (like me) here you go.....

http://www.holden.com.au/cars/cascad...campaign=brand

Go Holden advertising Guru's... never seen or heard of one till now... can't understand why the company is failing..

Hardly anyone knows about Cascadas... When I ordered the car a couple weeks ago, on the day it was released, it wasn't loaded up on the Holden ordering system so had to do an old fashioned paper order. Even when it arrived in Australia QLD DOT had to be bought up to speed on what it was and when I picked up the car RACQ didn't have it listed in their system for insurance so had to do some manual underwriting. I've known about it from seeing some in the UK last year and reading articles on TTAC as they will be exported to America as Buicks later this year. Evidently the Cascada was meant to be here a couple years ago badged as an Opel but GM pulled the plug on Opel before it made it here.

Cheers, Matthew

[XUV]

Hardly anyone knows about Cascadas... When I ordered the car a couple weeks ago, on the day it was released, it wasn't loaded up on the Holden ordering system so had to do an old fashioned paper order. Even when it arrived in Australia QLD DOT had to be bought up to speed on what it was and when I picked up the car RACQ didn't have it listed in their system for insurance so had to do some manual underwriting. I've known about it from seeing some in the UK last year and reading articles on TTAC as they will be exported to America as Buicks later this year. Evidently the Cascada was meant to be here a couple years ago badged as an Opel but GM pulled the plug on Opel before it made it here.

Cheers, Matthew

on that basis we could theoretically order a Camaro

[VTClubSprtR8]

Hey Jag, how's that roof action eh? Remember the ol' Astra's with "whirring and "grinding" locks and latches. LOL.

Not with these new Cascada's roofs. A very fast QUIET roof. I was shocked when I tried them out. Not bad at all.

[Smitty]

... a few months down the track on more comments/gripes about the car?


my missus has now seen one/sat in one and as an old TS Astra Convertible driver she is seriously looking at one
(and trading a near new BMW 1 series coupe I might add!)

[HSV,_I_GOT_ONE]

Never heard of them either and had to it. Looks like a very nice rig! Looks appear to be heavily borrowed from the 6 series coupes.

[Jag530G]

... a few months down the track on more comments/gripes about the car?


my missus has now seen one/sat in one and as an old TS Astra Convertible driver she is seriously looking at one
(and trading a near new BMW 1 series coupe I might add!)

Still love it. Done 5000kms in it. Had some guy in a Prado crash into the rear bumper a month ago so got a new bumper for it. Like everything with this car its a case of "never heard of it", this time had to wait a week for a replacement bumper.

Its basically everything I want for a non V8 family sized convertible. I'm not fussed about the performance, it is much better than our 1.8L auto Cruze which is the benchmark for slow. The only thing I find annoying is the slow data entry for the sat nav, still haven't got the hang of voice control, not that I've used it much. If the next model had Blind Spot Detection, Keyless Go and a Touchscreen, I'd upgrade, they are the three features I'd like to have.

It is interesting the difference between this and my Monaro. The Monaro feels quite raw now with a cammed LS3 and a heavy duty clutch, fun to drive in its own way and still an excellent highway cruiser. The Cascada is fun to put around the coast, drive to the beach etc, crusie around on a sunny day. Glad to have both really. Ideally if Holden brought out the Camaro V8 convertible that would be the best of all worlds.

Only issue with the car was the satnav antenna which wasn't working and was fixed at the 1 month inspection.

Cheers, Matthew