“Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car.” – E. B. White
2017 Buick Cascada Convertible Sport Touring Vehicle
Review by Stephen Valentino
Buick sometimes gets a bad rap – it’s long history of reliability as a “family car” somehow conjures up images of boxy sedans owned by uncles and fathers – or grandfathers. Fortunately, the Cascada is not your grandpa’s Buick anymore baby! This compact convertible has power, beauty, style and elegance and handles like a dream. 2017 was the first year it was introduced in the United States with the original design by Opel in Germany and the engine made in Hungary, a 6-speed Automatic Transmission assembled in Mexico, and the Cascada itself is built in Poland for export to countries around the world. It’s truly an international endeavor.
The Cascada is a convertible with a one-button easy opening and closing convertible top and is also soundproofed so you hear no road noise when it is closed and it is very quick and easy to open and close. The handling and steering is sheer perfection. I drove The Cascada through the winding twisty road of Laurel Canyon which has a 20 to 25 mile an hour speed limit and I took it about 40 MPH and it held the road for dear life with no problems. It banked perfectly, it never left the lane, it didn’t throw me around in the car and it had a great turning radius.
Now let’s talk about the power of this car. No problems there. Due to the quick acceleration, I was actually shocked that it only had a 4-cylinder engine, but based on the fact that this is a 1.6 L turbo-charged 4 cylinder, when you put your foot on the gas pedal, it takes off like a bat out of hell.
The overall design package inside and out is very luxurious yet sporty with a pointed nose along with LED wrapped headlights and many red LED lighting accents in the interior with heated and electronically adjustable front seats, heated steering wheel, accurate cruise control, dual air conditioning, and an excellent tap touch computer screen for the radio, Sirius Radio, WiFi and telephone along with the navigation. It also has very conveniently placed electronic seat belt presenters that move the seat belt forward so you can easily grab it and put it on, which is always a problem with a convertible. It’s admirable that they have very elegantly corrected this problem.
Not all is perfect, however. Being made from an Opel design of several years ago, it is lacking in some of the features you might expect in a top-of-the-line contemporary car such as air-conditioned seats. I love the features but they entail the placement of many more buttons in the center console which makes it slightly difficult to quickly pick the right one while you’re driving. But there is no question this car is elegant and sporty whether the top is up or down and very comfortable to drive along with standard 20 inch wheels with low profile tires; it just simply clings to the road.
Some of the other features on this vehicle include a 5-year, 70,000 mile power train warranty, a 4-year 50,000 mile limited bumper-to-bumper warranty, stable Trac stability control, traction control, 4-wheel anti-lock disc brakes, driver and passenger front, knee and side-impact airbags, electronic parking brake, rear vision camera, rain sensing automatic windshield wipers, auto on-and-off head lamps with tunnel detection, front- and rear-parking assist that are really very useful, forward collision alert, lane departure warning, front and rear air deflectors, remote vehicle start, keyless entry, 8 way power driver and passenger sports bucket seats, lumbar, 50/50 fold-flat rear seats, A premium 7 speaker audio system,an auto-dimming inside rear-view mirror, illuminated vanity mirrors, premium floor mats, steel Sports pedals, front fog lamps, dual outside heated mirrors, 20-inch sterling silver painted Wheels, thermally insulated convertible top, LED daytime running lamps, and On Star help with a five-year plan. All of this comes in for a total vehicle price of $37,990.
The government 5-star safety ratings include an overall vehicle score of 5 Stars, frontal crash a rating of 4 stars, side crash a rating of 5 stars and roll-over a rating of 4 stars.
The fuel economy is impressive for a sexy higher-performance vehicle, with a combined fuel economy of 23 MPG around town 20 MPG and on the Highway 27 MPG.
I really enjoyed driving and testing the 2017 Buick Cascada and I liked it so much I wouldn’t mind owning one myself and it is certainly an eye-catching car. It passed the eyeball test with flying colors – wherever I drove it people were looking at it. This is a car that I rate five stars on the Valentino Scale in terms of overall quality and beauty.
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