Vauxhall Insignia - car with split personality?

[greenarrow]

I've been running a Vauxhall Insignia for the past 7 months. Traditionally, like many PHers, I hated Vauxhalls, but for some reason liked the Insignia and it ticked a lot of boxes for me, very cheap for the age of vehicle and ideal for my commute which is 140 miles Bournemouth to Reading. Anyway, this car has such as split personality. As a motorway vehicle its the best I've owned. Comfortable, really stable, a lot of thought has been put into making it easy to live with on a long drive.

At the weekends however, on local trips, it really winds me up! Its a heavy car and really feels it when driving round out typical cluttered urban streets. The diesel engine has tons of turbo lag (more than my old VAG 1.9 TDI) and its a pain to park because you cant see out of the back (my model somehow didn't have parking sensors). Compared with my old Mazda 6 Mk1 (which was great locally, but not good on m/way being a n/a petrol) its chalk and cheese!!

Any other Insignia owners feel this way? I DO like the car, but its frustrating that Vauxhall didn't do more to make the car more than a one trick motorway cruiser pony....I would certainly say that I couldn't keep it as an only car. Fortunately I have an old MX-5 in the garage for weekend fun.

[vikingaero]

There's a lot of hate on here for Insignias/Vauxhalls.

I've had many as hire cars and they've been really comfortable and OK - just what most non-car enthusiasts want.

[Henners]

vikingaero said:

I've had many as hire cars and they've been really comfortable and OK - just what most non-car enthusiasts want.

That's what I'd say - as 'a car' they're perfectly fine, like a boggo focus is. What more would you want?

As 'a drive', I hate them. However I'd hate trying to get 4 people and a dog into an Elise.

[Wacky Racer]

I have had two new Insignias, been very pleased with them.

However, the NEW Insignia Grand Sport is a massive leap forward, better in every way, I plan to order one early in the new year.

[Escort3500]

I've had quite a few as hire cars through work. Reasonably competent but very uninspiring to drive, and the woeful petrol-engined one is gutless. Interior plastics are nasty too. But as a basic family hack they'd be OK I suppose. The new one looks good. It'll be interesting to see if it's good enough to compete with its rivals.

[legless]

vikingaero said:

There's a lot of hate on here for Insignias/Vauxhalls.

I've had many as hire cars and they've been really comfortable and OK - just what most non-car enthusiasts want.

Conversely, I was previously open-minded about Insignias. I thought that they seemed like a smart, good-value motorway hack.

I had one as a hire car though a few months ago - a 2.0CDTI 160 Auto in Elite spec. I was glad to see the back of it once I handed I back.

Never before has a car that's seemed so perfect for motorway cruising failed so miserably. The seats were among the most uncomfortable I've ever sat in, to the point where they gave me appalling backache. The engine was gutless and thirsty (it wouldn't do better than 42mpg even on a steady 70mph cruise), and the autobox was dim-witted and clunky (I suspect that this was the cause of the poor economy and lethargy). Never again.

[richs2891]

Never driven one, or I think been in one,
but why are there so many at the moment running around with the front emblem missing ?

[OldGermanHeaps]

They are very variable, the cdti130s at my old work were very unreliable and horrible to drive, the 160s and the ecoflex ones were much better. The sri with 20s had a far more compliant and smooth ride than the exclusiv on 17s which is the opposite of what you would expect. I would have one again but i'd be very picky about what model, and I wouldn't pay much for one, it would have to be a lot cheaper than a decent mondeo.
The 160 with a remap and a dpf off absolutely flies, but the engine sounded every bit like a 200k miler whereas other marques with that sort of mileage sound much smoother but that was a sample size of 1 all the others i have tried were all under 3 years/150k
Every petrol one i have tried has been absolutely hateful, really surgey and no torque whatsoever and sound like they are in pain when revved.

Edited by OldGermanHeaps on Sunday 5th November 10:03

[vikingaero]

Escort3500 said:

Interior plastics are nasty too.

Are you really comparing like with like? It's fine to say that an Audi has the best interior and in comparison the Insignia is woeful. Is the Insignia comparable with Mondeos etc? In the real world the transactional value of an equivalent Audi is going to be 10 grand more and it's not realistic for it to be the same.

[bimsb6]

richs2891 said:

Never driven one, or I think been in one,
but why are there so many at the moment running around with the front emblem missing ?

The earlier models had the emblem as part of a larger part and not available as a separate item hence making replacement expensive , not sure why they fall off in the first place though.

[djc206]

bimsb6 said:

The earlier models had the emblem as part of a larger part and not available as a separate item hence making replacement expensive , not sure why they fall off in the first place though.

Because the griffin doesn’t want to be associated with the lump of scrap it’s attached to and commits hari-kari.

I don’t mind the look of Insignias, they’re certainly not as offensive as Vectras. My fiancée owned an Astra a few years ago and it was just awful, no redeeming features. One was hired for me for a work thing last year and my god it was gutless, the only thing I liked was the design of the centre console and that’s all I could find after 3 hours of trying.

[f1nn]

I ran one as a company car from 2010 to 2013, covering just over 100k.

It was reliable, the only thing that required attention other than routine servicing and brakes etc was a power steering pipe that came loose and rattled on the subframe and needed refixing.

The quality of the paint, mine was a black one, was terrible. It showed its age and mileage far worse than BMW's that followed it. Thinking on, interior plastic also marked very easily.

Mine was the 160cdti Ecoflex, 158bhp if I remember correctly. Adequate performance and economy if a bit noisy. I'd echo the OP, it is still the most accomplished motorway cruiser I've driven, although big and clumsy around town with the relatively poor visibility making parking harder than you'd expect.

[daemon]

greenarrow said:

I've been running a Vauxhall Insignia for the past 7 months. Traditionally, like many PHers, I hated Vauxhalls, but for some reason liked the Insignia and it ticked a lot of boxes for me, very cheap for the age of vehicle and ideal for my commute which is 140 miles Bournemouth to Reading. Anyway, this car has such as split personality. As a motorway vehicle its the best I've owned. Comfortable, really stable, a lot of thought has been put into making it easy to live with on a long drive.

At the weekends however, on local trips, it really winds me up! Its a heavy car and really feels it when driving round out typical cluttered urban streets. The diesel engine has tons of turbo lag (more than my old VAG 1.9 TDI) and its a pain to park because you cant see out of the back (my model somehow didn't have parking sensors). Compared with my old Mazda 6 Mk1 (which was great locally, but not good on m/way being a n/a petrol) its chalk and cheese!!

Any other Insignia owners feel this way? I DO like the car, but its frustrating that Vauxhall didn't do more to make the car more than a one trick motorway cruiser pony....I would certainly say that I couldn't keep it as an only car. Fortunately I have an old MX-5 in the garage for weekend fun.

I think most of the "hate" comes from people who have had experience of either the asthmatic 1.8i or the poverty spec models.

I ran a 160BHP 2.0CDTI SRi and found it great for what it was. A fast, comfy big tourer. I stuck a tuning box on it so it was around 190BHP. I gave £6,000 for it at 5 years old, 70K miles and a FSH. Great car.

[daemon]

What about this? I've been watching it for a little while.

2016, 250BHP, 2.0T petrol, auto, all the toys - £14,700.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

I think thats cracking value and a decent car.

[ZX10R NIN]

That one's GVFM but I'd go for this as long as fuel wasn't to big a concern:

VXR

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

I've only briefly driven a few of the VXR model but they seem like a good car but really need a map to release the midrange it transforms the car from a slightly frustrating car into a very capable do it all car, a cheaper S4 if you like.

[daemon]

ZX10R NIN said:

That one's GVFM but I'd go for this as long as fuel wasn't to big a concern:

VXR

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

I've only briefly driven a few of the VXR model but they seem like a good car but really need a map to release the midrange it transforms the car from a slightly frustrating car into a very capable do it all car, a cheaper S4 if you like.

Yes, its the fact the other one is 2016 and looks like a diesel SRi appealed to me.

One - either a SIDI variant or a VXR - would be on my radar. I'd probably prefer one in a more subtle colour though for the full Q car look.

[Ron99]

daemon said:

Yes, its the fact the other one is 2016 and looks like a diesel SRi appealed to me.
One - either a SIDI variant or a VXR - would be on my radar. I'd probably prefer one in a more subtle colour though for the full Q car look.

There are a few 2.0T (250) fitted to cars with Elite trim.
A couple of years ago I almost bought a silver 2.0T (250) auto Elite.
I ended up buying a silver 2.8T V6 4x4 auto Elite. It looks just like all the other Insignias.
I went for the older model due to better ability to put the power down along with concerns about coking, LSPI and fuel-fussiness in DI engines.

[.:ian:.]

legless said:

The engine was gutless and thirsty (it wouldn't do better than 42mpg even on a steady 70mph cruise), and the autobox was dim-witted and clunky (I suspect that this was the cause of the poor economy and lethargy). Never again.

I rented a manual version and it was also gutless and thirsty!

Also the satnav code had clearly been written by someone who had never used a satnav, or even driven a car, before... It looks like you approaching a roundabout, let me zoom in so you can no longer see the junction until you are right on top of it...

[Ron99]

greenarrow said:

I've been running a Vauxhall Insignia for the past 7 months. Traditionally, like many PHers, I hated Vauxhalls, but for some reason liked the Insignia and it ticked a lot of boxes for me, very cheap for the age of vehicle and ideal for my commute which is 140 miles Bournemouth to Reading. Anyway, this car has such as split personality. As a motorway vehicle its the best I've owned. Comfortable, really stable, a lot of thought has been put into making it easy to live with on a long drive.

At the weekends however, on local trips, it really winds me up! Its a heavy car and really feels it when driving round out typical cluttered urban streets. The diesel engine has tons of turbo lag (more than my old VAG 1.9 TDI) and its a pain to park because you cant see out of the back (my model somehow didn't have parking sensors). Compared with my old Mazda 6 Mk1 (which was great locally, but not good on m/way being a n/a petrol) its chalk and cheese!!

Any other Insignia owners feel this way? I DO like the car, but its frustrating that Vauxhall didn't do more to make the car more than a one trick motorway cruiser pony....I would certainly say that I couldn't keep it as an only car. Fortunately I have an old MX-5 in the garage for weekend fun.

Yes, I mostly agree with what you've said. Insignias are good out of town but too large and clumsy in town.
In fairness the same could be said about a lot of the 'large' cars/SUVs around nowadays. That's probably why parking sensors and reversing cameras are becoming popular. My wife's little town car doesn't need either sensors nor a camera, and in a car park it manages to easily stay within the allocated parking space with plenty of room either side to open the doors.

I run a Swift Sport alongside my Insignia. I would have liked something even smaller than the Swift for venturing into the city but I didn't want a city car due to being too slow, too unstable and too bullied if required to be used out of town.

[Mastodon2]

I've got an Insignia as a company car, I like it for what it is. It's the 1.6 whisper diesel, 136ps engine but 320nm of torque means it doesn't feel breathless at 80mph and will get 68mpg + on a motorway journey and it's remarkably quiet on a quick cruise. It's an SRI spec, so has a nice interior, the sat nav screen is big and it's a decent nav unit, it's definitely a cut above the rental spec. My only complaint is that the heated steering wheel sometimes barely feels like it warms up.

It's not exciting, but it's cheap, comfy, quiet and does the job I need it for. My use for it is mainly long motorway trips, it's really good at it. It's not something you'd drive for fun, but then you know it was never designed with that in mind.

The new Insignias are really, really good looking cars I think.