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Buick Cascada convertible likely dead after 2019

Opel announced it was discontinuing a few cars today, but the one that got our attention was the Cascada. The plan is to let the Opel Cascada live out its life until the end of 2019, with no replacement in the works. This brings into question the future of the Buick Cascada sold in the United States, since it's basically the same car and produced by Opel in the same factory in Poland. The Cascada has been on sale in other markets since 2012 badged as either an Opel or Vauxhall, but the Buick-badged car was only introduced in North America for the 2016 model year. Of course, Buick could decide to build the model beyond 2019, but it would need to find a new manufacturing location, convertibles aren't exactly popular, and the car would be egregiously old at that point. In other words, it looks like the Cascada is dead after 2019. We asked Buick what the game plan might be, and were told that there is nothing official to say at the moment. That's par for the course for something a manufacturer doesn't want to talk about yet, but it's also possible the announcement came as a surprise. Opel is no longer owned by GM, so the announcement actually came from the brand's new PSA ownership (the same French company that owns Peugeot and Citroen). As for the rationale behind the decision, that was a head scratcher, too. Opel/PSA said it was discontinuing the Cascada, as well as the subcompact Adam and Karl, in order to meet increasingly stringent emissions requirements and produce crossovers instead. This seems contradictory. Replacing a low-selling convertible and a pair of low-profit subcompacts with high-selling, high-profit crossovers sure seems like a solid business decision more than an emissions requirement one. Indeed, the Buick Cascada has never been a raging success in the United States either, with only 5,595 leaving the lots in 2017. It helped bring in some different kinds of customers to the Buick brand, but the impact is minute compared to a vehicle like the hot-selling Buick Encore. Related video: Featured Gallery 2019 Buick Cascada View 17 Photos Rumormill Buick Opel Convertible buick cascada

Mark Reuss: GM can't afford product 'misses,' has 'thought about' CT6 V-Series

Mark Reuss is a busy man. He oversees General Motors' global product portfolio, an all-encompassing task for a company that sold more than 9.9 million cars and trucks last year. When GM launches a well-received product, like the road-going rocket ship that is the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 – he gets credit. When the company stumbles with the slow-selling Chevy Malibu or grapples with fallout from the decade-old Saturn Ion and its flawed ignition switch, he gets blamed. GM owners, the press and sometimes the federal government, demand answers. Bob Lutz famously held the job before Reuss. So did Mary Barra, who's now GM's chief executive. There's a New GM, but the lineage is connected to a long history. When he's not thinking product, Reuss, an executive vice president, also runs the purchasing and supply chain for the company, which is still one of the largest industrial empires in the world. We caught up with Reuss on the floor of the New York Auto Show, where GM had just rolled out two crucial new products: the 2016 Cadillac CT6 and the 2016 Chevrolet Malibu. Speaking with a small group of reporters, Reuss delved into a variety of subjects, including the new Malibu, Cadillac's future (he thinks the ATS-V is going to "flame the M3 and M4"), and other topics. On fixing the Malibu: "We can't miss. We can't have those kinds of misses [like the previous generation] on our cars and crossovers and trucks. We can't do that. If we do that, we give a reason for someone to go buy something else. It's that simple. "On a car like the Malibu we have a chance to really fix all of that, which we have, and then lead. Then you've got a real opportunity there. So that's what we've really been focused on here – to fix those things." He later added: "We need that car here to transform Chevrolet desperately because it's the heart of the market. And when you think of Chevrolet, people will come back and think about what we did with the [new] Malibu and the Cruze... It's hugely important to us." On Cadillac: "If we go out and try and out-German the Germans, it's probably not going to work. We've got an opportunity here generationally where there's a lot of people younger than me that have parents that drove BMWs and Mercedes, and I think there's an opportunity there for those people to drive something different than what their parents did, and I think that's always been an opportunity in the auto industry if you look at the history of it.

GM recalls 740,000 vehicles over daytime running light issue

General Motors is recalling over 740,000 vehicles due to a daytime running light issue that causes all of the affected cars to run afoul of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Vehicles affected by this recall are spread across many of GM’s brands. Models include the 2020-2023 Cadillac CT4 and CT5, 2021-2023 Buick Envision, 2022-2023 Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESV, 2022-2023 Chevrolet Silverado 1500, Suburban, Tahoe and 2022-2023 GMC Sierra 1500, Yukon, and Yukon XL. GM says that the daytime running lights may remain on in these cars when the headlights are activated. This is a problem, because FMVSS rules require that the daytime running lights deactivate once the headlights turn on. If the DRLs remain on, GM says that could result in additional glare, thereby increasing the risk of an accident. The cause of this failure to deactivate the DRLs comes from body control module software that “under a combination of certain pre-conditions, could fail to deactivate the DRLs,” according to GM. Other GM vehicles were tested, but due to a difference in software or hardware, they remain unaffected. If this is reminding you of another recent GM recall, youÂ’d be right, as GM recalled another 340,000 vehicles for the same issue last month. After that original issue was found within GM, the company began looking into its other cars to determine if the population was larger than originally thought. GM found the additional vehicles included in todayÂ’s recall have the problem. The fix will either be via an over-the-air update or it will require you to bring the vehicle into a dealer for a software update, depending on which vehicle you have. Owner notification letters letting folks know what is necessary are currently scheduled to go out on January 23, 2023. Related video: Cadillac Escalade Infotainment Review