Thoughts on a Vauxhall insignia?
Discussion
I've been thinking of retiring the little V reg corsa for something much more modern and grown up.
My dream car would be a skyline or vxr8 but price vs age is not working with my thinking now as we are going to be starting a family soon.
I quite like the look of estates and my boy racer days are loooooong gone. I like exec looking cars.
Bow and merc are nice but their prices are too high for me as I don't use the car much at all.
I might do 3k miles per year but more when the kids start appearing.
Diesel estate is cool as I camp a lot and tow the bikes to track days and I'm trying to keep the mileage off my van.
Now, my budget is around 16k. Give or take and you can get an Insignia Elite with all the toys for that. 14 plate. 8k miles.
Sounds great but what are these cars like to live with. I love the new shape mondeo in sport trim but that price is too far out of my budget.
Volvo is pricey too in the 1-2year old range.
Are the insignias good to drive? Comfy? I don't race around anymore (I have motorbikes for that silliness)
Our driving is a mix of a couple miles to 150 in a day when we regularly head coast side so dpf issues shouldn't be a problem.
My requirements are comfort and looks first. Sportiness is far down ththe list.
Thanks!
J
My dream car would be a skyline or vxr8 but price vs age is not working with my thinking now as we are going to be starting a family soon.
I quite like the look of estates and my boy racer days are loooooong gone. I like exec looking cars.
Bow and merc are nice but their prices are too high for me as I don't use the car much at all.
I might do 3k miles per year but more when the kids start appearing.
Diesel estate is cool as I camp a lot and tow the bikes to track days and I'm trying to keep the mileage off my van.
Now, my budget is around 16k. Give or take and you can get an Insignia Elite with all the toys for that. 14 plate. 8k miles.
Sounds great but what are these cars like to live with. I love the new shape mondeo in sport trim but that price is too far out of my budget.
Volvo is pricey too in the 1-2year old range.
Are the insignias good to drive? Comfy? I don't race around anymore (I have motorbikes for that silliness)
Our driving is a mix of a couple miles to 150 in a day when we regularly head coast side so dpf issues shouldn't be a problem.
My requirements are comfort and looks first. Sportiness is far down ththe list.
Thanks!
J
Decent enough cars, spoilt by the build quality and the dealers.
Comfiest, most planted car I've ever driven on the motorway, feel a bit clumsy on country roads.
Avoid the petrols, especially the 1.8 which is rubbish. 158bhp diesel is fast enough, relatively fuel efficient if not the most refined engine you'll ever drive.
I had one as a company car, and the worst thing about it was the paint and interior quality, when it went back it looked every single one of its 100 odd thousand miles. BMW and similar, in my experience, cope with the miles far better.
I'd have another, but they make a bit more sense to me a bit older at around 7-8k than what your suggesting spending.
Comfiest, most planted car I've ever driven on the motorway, feel a bit clumsy on country roads.
Avoid the petrols, especially the 1.8 which is rubbish. 158bhp diesel is fast enough, relatively fuel efficient if not the most refined engine you'll ever drive.
I had one as a company car, and the worst thing about it was the paint and interior quality, when it went back it looked every single one of its 100 odd thousand miles. BMW and similar, in my experience, cope with the miles far better.
I'd have another, but they make a bit more sense to me a bit older at around 7-8k than what your suggesting spending.
I would have thought that their build quality these days were ok?
The cars I were looking at were still with a year warranty left over and then you could buy 2 or 3 more years warranty form£500.
I get the paint is thin. My new vivaro scratches easily. Also my old vivaro.. Christ, I'm sounding like a right Vauxhall nutter
I keep my vehicles for years so I'm not that precious about resale values
The cars I were looking at were still with a year warranty left over and then you could buy 2 or 3 more years warranty form£500.
I get the paint is thin. My new vivaro scratches easily. Also my old vivaro.. Christ, I'm sounding like a right Vauxhall nutter
I keep my vehicles for years so I'm not that precious about resale values
I'm with Rileyblue - I had one as a rentallfor three days and was hugely disappointed by the drive, the build quality, and the ergonomics - worst of those was the DREADFUL reflection in the windscreen.
In what could be a major shocker, I actually thought the Vectras I drove when working for a GM company were better.
In what could be a major shocker, I actually thought the Vectras I drove when working for a GM company were better.
Our current corsa is falling apart hence we are using my van more. Once the kids arrive in our life then we would use it loads. I only thought of diesel because 95% of them sold are diesels.
I guess I'll need to take them out for extended drives to see which I like.
As for unrefined...all my cars have been 15-20 years old when I bought them so unrefined is what I've become used to so the newer cars should feel wonderful in retrospect. My corsa is also 50bhp 1.0 so the newer car will be a rocket ship in comparison
I guess I'll need to take them out for extended drives to see which I like.
As for unrefined...all my cars have been 15-20 years old when I bought them so unrefined is what I've become used to so the newer cars should feel wonderful in retrospect. My corsa is also 50bhp 1.0 so the newer car will be a rocket ship in comparison
DKS said:
3k miles a year isn't worth an oil burner surely? Nice V6 petrol?
16k will just about get you into a vxr estate. If you can find one. A mate of mine paid 16 for a 2 year old estate with 22k miles. Looks great. Uber rare too.I winced at the running costs though. Not a cheap car to run!
I've had quite a few on hire from Enterprise, though not in the past 6-9 months so I don't know if the current versions are better. However, the ones I drove with the 1.8 petrol engine were dire: gutless and useless when you wanted to overtake. The CDti models were a whole lot better and much better to drive. On motorways they were fine, comfy and reasonably capable over a long trip. You couldn't really hustle them along rural roads with any confidence however. The interior quality was pretty tacky as well. I prefer the Mondeo.
I bought a CDTI as a motorway work hack. So far I've done over 6k in as many months, faultless, goes well enough for a bit of normal road furniture, and good mpg. Don't agree with the comments re interior, it's a nice place to be with decent kit and feels better than the equivalent mondeo's I looked at and drove....
I'm on my 3rd one as a company car, 1st was a 2011 put 70k on that a 160bhp ecoflex in exclusive trim. Perfectly adequate car for getting A to B, never let me down but never excited you to go for a drive. Dealers are pity full!!!
No2 was was the mk2 140bhp techline vast improvement cleaner interior and plenty of kit, still dull. Now have an Sri vrx line 170bhp handles better again plenty of kit but the desire for a spirited early morning drive is never going to happen. To sum them up perfectly adequate vanilla car,although a Hungarian chap was admiring it last week each to there own.
To be clear the dealers are terrible we have tried several different ones all leave you frustrated.
No2 was was the mk2 140bhp techline vast improvement cleaner interior and plenty of kit, still dull. Now have an Sri vrx line 170bhp handles better again plenty of kit but the desire for a spirited early morning drive is never going to happen. To sum them up perfectly adequate vanilla car,although a Hungarian chap was admiring it last week each to there own.
To be clear the dealers are terrible we have tried several different ones all leave you frustrated.
The facelift interiors are nicer to use than the first version, I've had 2 as hire cars this year and they both worked really well for the motorway work I was doing.
First one was an 2.0 CDTi SRi with a whole 6 miles on the clock, it was comfortable and the seats were supportive and grippy on the section of A-road I had to cover before and after the motorway slog.
Second was a 2.0 CDTi Elite - the toys in this were ace, DAB radio, touchpad control for all the audio/satnav stuff along with touchscreen, the Adaptive Forward Lighting with bending headlight beams were epic on twisties at night. Although the seats in this weren't as heavily bolstered as the SRi ones, the full leather trim was nice, and they still held me in place with a smoother ride.
Rear hatch access isn't as square as our current Vectra, and it's a shame to see they dropped the 2.8T from the Elite on the facelifts as it's a lovely engine, just VXR-only now.
First one was an 2.0 CDTi SRi with a whole 6 miles on the clock, it was comfortable and the seats were supportive and grippy on the section of A-road I had to cover before and after the motorway slog.
Second was a 2.0 CDTi Elite - the toys in this were ace, DAB radio, touchpad control for all the audio/satnav stuff along with touchscreen, the Adaptive Forward Lighting with bending headlight beams were epic on twisties at night. Although the seats in this weren't as heavily bolstered as the SRi ones, the full leather trim was nice, and they still held me in place with a smoother ride.
Rear hatch access isn't as square as our current Vectra, and it's a shame to see they dropped the 2.8T from the Elite on the facelifts as it's a lovely engine, just VXR-only now.
Djtemeka said:
I'm not a fan of the old shape mondeo but the new shape is great. Pity the prices are still too strong.
I wonder if I can find a vxr in an estate. Running costs don't bother me really but if I'm going to go down that road then the vxr8 would get the look in.
You say prices are too strong but a quick look on Motorpoint will get you in a 15 plate car with less than 15k on the clock for less than £16k. Lower specs have nearly all the toys, to be fair, I never use most of the gizmos.I wonder if I can find a vxr in an estate. Running costs don't bother me really but if I'm going to go down that road then the vxr8 would get the look in.
Just make sure you check the car over and seek out its history.
Slightly different option - have you considered a SEAT Exeo? Based on a B7 Audi A4 and to be fair looks the spit of it from most angles except for the rear.
For your budget you'll get the last of the line Sport Tech model with either a 170ps tdi or if you're lucky a 2.0tfsi 200ps petrol + leather, xenons, nav, bose audio, 18s and proven reliability as the B7 shape Audi has a decent reputation.
Not many about mind, this is the only 170ps I can find on the various classifieds that's end of the line spec:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...
For your budget you'll get the last of the line Sport Tech model with either a 170ps tdi or if you're lucky a 2.0tfsi 200ps petrol + leather, xenons, nav, bose audio, 18s and proven reliability as the B7 shape Audi has a decent reputation.
Not many about mind, this is the only 170ps I can find on the various classifieds that's end of the line spec:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...
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