The presenters in all the Vauxhall Insignia videos compare it to "GERMAN" competitors. These cars are primarily designed and engineered by Opel which IS a German automotive company! They differ slightly from Opel's version... primarily steering/suspension setting, optional equipment and available engines. They are even built on the Continent!
Erk Basel Correct! Kristoffer Lilja Both Opel and Vauxhall (and Holden for Aussi) are seperate companies. But today they are all owned by GM. Opel develops the cars for Europe and they are built all over the place. Vauxhall is just a retailer nowadays and doesnt built there own cars. So its tricky to say the insignia is german, bacause its acutally american but somehow still german build. Weird stuff!
It aint bad, but somehow my feeling says you get a much more special car if you pick up a BMW 3, Audi A4, Ford Mondeo or Mazda 6 tourer. Nicer to drive, better looking and maybe not better equiped but at least equal in all cases with a nicer (less boring) interior.
FrightfulAccountant You're right except the (old) Mondeo, but you must see, that the Insignia is only a facelift, so at all 5 years old. But i can't agree that the Insignia interior is boring, it's in my opinion really nice ^^
It's far from a bad interior (lots of French cars have bad interiors, just look at the Citroen Cactus urgh :s) but like the whole car it looks and feels a bit dated, not the posh and fancy things we see now in the cars I listed above. They can do better!
***** It's a complete rebadge. The days of Vauxhall Motors (the old company which made cars) are long gone, today it's called General Motors UK and is wholly owned by Adam Opel AG, which of course in turn is wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors. Ellesmere Port assembles the Astra, but that's about it. Vauxhall has no part of any kind in development of Opel cars.
What's all this nonsense about "improved ground clearance". Do you realize how small 20 mm actually is? It's less than an inch, around 4/5 of an inch to be precise. You pay extra for a jacked-up suspension and a 4x4-like body kit all for a measly inch???
Yes. No-one who actually buys these kind of cars actually goes off road, with the exception of dog walkers down mud tracks. People just want that off road(ish) look, but with cars like these they still want the practicality of a wagon over a crossover, which typically has a shite sized boot. For example, XC70 vs XC60.
'German Rivals'....insignia is a german car; it's an Opel badged as vauxhall. Even though it's owned by GM, Opel is HQ'd in Germany, cars are designed in Germany and built in Germany and UK
Just Opel being very OTT with health 'n' safety. For the maximum 10 seconds you'll have the boot open they decided to invent what no-one wants or cares about and wire in extra lights to save on average zero lives in the next 1000 years.
The engine in this is a total peach in the smaller Astra. Really punchy, in-gear acceleration. As for the Insignia, it was never made to break speed records.
Very clever. Comparing a tuned engine to a stock one ;) A remapped BiTurbo CDTi like from EDS pulls around 250hp and nearly 500Nm, just for info (wanna see a stock gtd or vrs then keep up).
My VW Jetta has a huge "transmission tunnel" just like that on the Insignia and it's FWD....yeah i don't believe that hump is for the cardan transmission shaft...
What is useless about them? Never had any issues. I had a Combo 1,3 and my father currently has a 2.0 litre diesel astra 160 hp. Never had as much as an engine light on any of them.
matt MUST KNOW that vauxhall engineers NOTHING, therefore it is impossible they 'combine german influences' because this car is OPEL. shameful for car journalist, really....
it's not professional to highlight other cars as better than this. The review does not mean a comparison, it means to show the goods and the bads of the car....nat saying audi is better...when you will make audi review, you'll say porsche is better?
