My brief opinion on the 67 plate Insignia

[feef]

After a crash on Monday evening, my C6 is no longer with me, and I've got a 67 plate Vauxhall Insignia (turbo diesel hatch) as a courtesy car while they sort things out.

A few observations/thoughts on it for those that might be interested

• Seats are uncomfortable. Firm but somehow not supportive and without any lumbar adjustment
• CarPlay link is less than unreliable (drops connection after a few minutes but audio continues to play, although a google suggests it may not be a car issue, but a CarPlay issue)
• Visibility is poor all round
• Reverse gear uses a trigger to get into, but it doesn't release the trigger until it is well into the Neutral position, rather than just out of reverse. Can easily find yourself still in reverse instead of first when manoeuvring
• electric handbrake : sure it's a case of getting used to it, but pulling up to engage and pressing down to disengage seems counterintuitive. In other cars I've driven with an electric handbrake it's been 'actuate' for both on and off, no direction.
• gear change is like stirring a bowl of soup. I get the impression all the 'refinement' is simply a case of adding rubber to everything rather than making it operate smoothly in the first place.
• steering wheel : don't like the flat bottom. Feels odd when the wheel is centering through your hands
• Steering wheel controls : cruise control and heated steering wheel buttons are right next to each other. Unless you LOOK at what you're doing with your fingers, you soon find your speed dropping quickly while your hands warm up rapidly
• start/stop system : Not a fan of them anyway, but recognise they have their place, however this one is far too easily confused in stop-start traffic and there's no obvious way to turn it off.
• Collision warning : Beeps and flashes the dash to warn you if you're about to crash. It goes off when pulling out to pass parked cars at any speed over about 10-15mph
• Dash lighting : with a big touch screen, lots of dials and also lit trim on the door panels, it's a bright place to be at night. I'd prefer it to be darker. There is a dash brightness adjustment near the steering wheel, but it feels wrong to have to manually adjust that just because it's dark (That's after it's changed to 'night mode' which just changes the colour scheme of the display).
• Touch screen : not a fan, big buttons are easy to find and operate, and there is some duplication with a few physical buttons that you can fumble for without looking, but otherwise you have to take your eyes off the road to see what you're about to press.

generally, not impressed

[parabolica]

RE the E-brake, BMW is the same but I understand the theory; you pull up to engage just like you would pull up a traditional handbrake, and push down to release. The rest seems like typical vauxhall affair that I too have experienced driving Astra rentals. Surprised there is no auto-night-mode on the screen tbh.

[soad]

What did you expect? Hardly a VXR/VXR8 version.

[feef]

parabolica said:

RE the E-brake, BMW is the same but I understand the theory; you pull up to engage just like you would pull up a traditional handbrake, and push down to release. The rest seems like typical vauxhall affair that I too have experienced driving Astra rentals. Surprised there is no auto-night-mode on the screen tbh.

the auto night-mode just changes the colours, if there is a change in brightness, it's not obvious. I'm also used to having a 'dark' button which turns off all displays other than speed.

[Monkeylegend]

Good job it's only a courtesy car, just think how you would feel if you had paid money for it

[ExPat2B]

I am with you feef.

In the past I was big fan of Vaxhall. I had a Nova SRI, Astra GSI and a few Vauxhall company cars,( Omega ) and I was always a big fan of the dials and controls that Vauxhall made. They made a big investement in researching it, and as a result the dsahboards and controls always seemed to be best in class.

Recent Vauxhalls seem to be just awful, doing things differently just for the sake of it. The one touch indicators they came out with were particularly wilfully bad, and every change they have made to the basic controls seems to be a step backwards rather than forwards.

[feef]

Oh, yeah the rear seats don't accomodate child-seats well. Not just the lack of width for the base which obscures the clip, but the head-rest fouls the top of the child seat forcing it forward, and unlike some other cars, the head-rest can only be raised, not removed.

[MorganP104]

Reading this thread depresses me, because (to my eyes), the new Insignia is a good looking car.

Shame the rest of the experience doesn't appear to match the smart suit.

[Barchettaman]

soad said:

What did you expect? Hardly a VXR/VXR8 version.

Seems a bit unfair - the OP is merely giving feedback on the ergonomics/user interface of the car.

He’a not criticised it for being too slow.

Nice real-world review, OP, thanks.

[anonymous-user]

seems top get good reviews, but on ph vauxhall is always looked down on for some reason, a lot of the issues the op has are on other new cars. The C6 would be out of production nearly 6 years so any new car will be massive difference.

''The Vauxhall Insignia is only small details away from rivalling the class best.''

autocar

[feef]

The Spruce goose said:

seems top get good reviews, but on ph vauxhall is always looked down on for some reason, a lot of the issues the op has are on other new cars. The C6 would be out of production nearly 6 years so any new car will be massive difference.

''The Vauxhall Insignia is only small details away from rivalling the class best.''

autocar

Granted the C6 isn't a new car and is long out of production, but to extend that, it may have been out of production for 6 years, but as a design, it was debuted in 1999.

I'd have expected a brand new car, "even" a Vauxhall would have been a better, more refined product. As it is, other than the proliferation of gadgets, I fail to see any notable improvement. More efficient certainly, but that's about it.

[mwstewart]

Barchettaman said:

Nice real-world review, OP, thanks.

Agreed

[anonymous-user]

feef said:

As it is, other than the proliferation of gadgets, I fail to see any notable improvement. More efficient certainly, but that's about it.

Are you comparing it against the old insignia. The thing is a lot of what you say can be applied to most modern cars, I've found a lot of new cars are pretty cheap inside, even the premium brands, notchy gear-changes is a VX trait though.

[feef]

The Spruce goose said:

feef said:

As it is, other than the proliferation of gadgets, I fail to see any notable improvement. More efficient certainly, but that's about it.

Are you comparing it against the old insignia. The thing is a lot of what you say can be applied to most modern cars, I've found a lot of new cars are pretty cheap inside, even the premium brands, notchy gear-changes is a VX trait though.

I'm comparing it to what I would expect of a new car over my 10 year old car (from a nigh on 20 year old design)

In years gone by, I felt the jump in quality and feel of a new car over an older one was significant. I don't feel that we are seeing the same degree of improvement these days.

[tickedon]

feef said:

I'd have expected a brand new car, "even" a Vauxhall would have been a better, more refined product. As it is, other than the proliferation of gadgets, I fail to see any notable improvement. More efficient certainly, but that's about it.

A good number of your comments are opinions and very subjective, e.g. the electronic handbrake. For me, many of the things you've listed would be a good improvement vs an older car and are now things I couldn't live without.

That said, I've never owned nor would I choose to buy a Vauxhall myself!

[RemyMartin81D]

You could always buy my C6 if you like..

[feef]

tickedon said:

A good number of your comments are opinions and very subjective,

Correct.

Note the post title.

[caymanbill]

what was it like for road noise/tyre roar OP?

[jamei303]

Sounds like the Insignia estate auto I hired for a day back in 2012. I particularly hated the handbrake which took an age to actually operate after finally remembering to press the button in the correct direction. It was in the top 3 of my worst hire cars along with an Astra and a Punto.

[anonymous-user]

feef said:

I don't feel that we are seeing the same degree of improvement these days.

I went with my mate to a car supermarket, you get to sit in the cars, test drive them, all makes and models. I was amazed how cheap some of the interiors in premium cars were, I had a audi a4 b5 years ago,that felt more solid and better made than most modern cars.

Cars are made on budgets more tightly controlled than 20 years ago, they try to work on the minimum they can get away with without looking cheap. ive found most cars drive similar. there are slight variations but not the massive difference there was years ago.