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Opel Cascada

soft top convertible

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ2025129 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Opel Cascada is a four-passenger fabric-roof convertible, manufactured and marketed by Opel across a single generation for model years 2013 through 2019, prioritizing year-round touring comfort over sportiness.

Nearly identical badge engineered variants were marketed globally using the Cascada nameplate under four General Motors brands: Opel, Vauxhall, Holden, and Buick. It was also sold under the Opel Cabrio nameplate in Spain.

The 2+2 convertible was engineered at Opel's International Technical Engineering Center in Rüsselsheim, Germany, and was styled under the direction of Mark Adams, head of Opel design, at Opel's Rüsselsheim Design Center, with Andrew Dyson (exterior) and Elizabeth Wetzel (interior).

After debuting at the 2012 Geneva Auto Show, the brand variants were manufactured in Gliwice, Poland, up until assembly ended on 28 June 2019, with a combined total of 48,500 produced and the final Cascada manufactured for the US market.

The Cascada derives its name from the Spanish word for waterfall.

History and background

Engineered and styled in Germany, and manufactured in Poland (with its 200-hp 1.6 litre engine produced in Hungary and its 6-speed automatic transmission imported from Mexico), the Cascada was marketed globally under four General Motors brands:

Opel, 2013–2019, Europe

Vauxhall, 2013–2018, UK

Holden, 2014–2017, Australia and New Zealand

Buick, 2016–2019, US and China

The Opel Cascada debuted in late 2012 and was launched on 20 April 2013, offering two four-cylinder petrol engines, 1.4-litre or 1.6-litre, as well as a 2.0-litre diesel. These were offered with either a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic.

The Vauxhall Cascada launched in the UK in March 2013 with a choice of 140PS 1.4-litre and 170PS 1.6-litre turbo petrols. This was followed by a 1.6-litre Spark Ignition Direct Injection (SIDI) engine producing 200PS from October 2013.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Opel Cascada” as soft top convertible. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Opel, Cascada and soft.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2013, 2019, 2012, 2018—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Opel, Cascada and soft providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Opel Cascada”, the useful work is to connect “soft top convertible” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2025129. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2013, 2019, 2012 and 2018.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Opel Cascada primary sources, Opel Cascada archive and Opel research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Opel Cascada” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.