The 1990 Buick Reatta actually isn’t a bad looking car, if you ask us. For many designs born of the late 1980s and early 1990s (especially from domestic automakers) the Reatta stood out.
It’s hard to stumble upon one of these rarities. Only 21,000 Reattas were hand assembled (?!) between 1988 and 1991. General Motors and Buick always had the idea of the Reatta being the brand’s halo vehicle, and kept production volumes low. Sound familiar?
That’s because Buick is following a similar strategy, albeit with a mass-production convertible from Poland this time: The 2016 Buick Cascada. The Cascada is the first Buick drop-top since the Reatta convertible, and we’re happy to report it’s a fine daily-cruiser.
The Reatta was liked by much of the Motor Week staff all the way back in 1990, and proved capable in both luxurious cruising, and in performance, hustled by the now iconic 3800 V6 engine.
One fun talking point we stumbled upon? The Reatta’s convertible option cost $6,700 more than the coupe, bringing a final price to around $35,000 in 1990. Pulling out the handy-dandy inflation calculator shows that’s nearly $64,000 in 2016 money. In comparison, the 2016 Buick Cascada has been priced at $33,990.
So, take a step back in time with us, and take a look at life before Cascada.
Comments
Is the Cascada coming to Canada?
Vic,
At this time, the Cascada will not be offered in Canada.
Cheers,
Sean
I’ve got a ’90 Reatta convertible (black on red) with roughly 40,000 miles. Where’s the video?
SevenFourteen,
Sorry about that, it wasn’t playing well with our system on the back end. Should be there now!
Cheers,
Sean
I was at Buick headquarters (Flint, MI) in 1989 and saw a prototype Reatta with a supercharged 3800… not sure why they never built it.
Talk about a blast from the past.
One of my high school teachers had this car and I remember thinking how hot it was. I think it’s aged well.
And is it me or were those Motor Week segments super long back then? Seems like a segment now is like 2-3 minutes max!!
Motorweek reviews they post are still fairly long.
Neat looking car. Too bad it was never RWD and got the SC engine.
These will be difficulty to restore as the interiors have few replacement parts left and the touch screen in many with miles can be a bit buggy.
Good low mile clean examples should always see some demand.
Then and now, its still a nice car… as we all have been saying. I tried at the time to get my mom to buy one, but it wouldn’t fit her skies too well! Oh… those mother details!
I wonder if there were to be a ‘Regatta 2’ built today, how it would be? Still: a 2 seater upper class styling convertible with all the newer designs and technology available… make it to mock a entry level Cadillac Buick style, which means as it was then, it comes fully equipped with a lot of new technology. Put this along side ‘with’ the Cascada in the showroom…. I’d buy one as the market (I think) could use a up scale convertible in the upper $50K’s all dressed… What ya say Buick? If I half recall, the Regatta then was priced a bit too high for the market and scared people off much like the recent Cadillac ELR, so… ya learn not to make the same mistake again, right! Thoughts?
Interesting that the Reatta did 0-60 in 9.2 seconds with a 3800 V6 while the Cascada does 0-60 in 8 seconds with a 4-cylinder less than half that size. Also the $35,000 base price is very similar to that of the Cascada (but 16 years ago) and the Cascada has heated seats, steering wheel, navigation, back up camera and sensors, 20″ alloy wheels, power top, rear seat and a lot more. It would seem that the Cascada is quite a bargain.
I remember as a younger lad liking it, but just a bit too rounded, seemingly aimed toward the female persuasion. Instead, my dream car of that era was a BMW 850.