Vauxhall Insignia

Our verdict

It’s pretty good, the Insignia. Good enough to win a TG Award in 2008 – but you have to spec it right.

Comfort

The sloping roofline that helps so much with the style cramps rear necks for anyone over 5ft 8in, but up front the Insignia really works. It feels like a premium product, the seats are comfy and generally you could do some serious miles in this thing – which is good, because that’s exactly what most of them are going to do. 

Performance

It replaces the frankly awful Vectra as Vauxhall’s main medium saloon, so the Insignia gets the usual huge engine range. There’ll be everything from a 1.8-litre petrol with 140bp, 0-62mph in around 11 seconds and a 128mph top speed to a 2.8-litre V6 turbo with 256bhp, 0-62mph in 6.7 and 155mph top end. Then come the diesels. The pick is probably the 2.0-litre CDTi 160 – there are lower-power versions in the 2.0-litre range – but the 160 offers 158bhp, 48.7mpg, 0-62mph in 8.9 seconds and about 130mph. Which is enough for the daily trawl. 

Cool

You can’t shake the fact that any car that comes from Vauxhall with four doors and isn’t a VXR8 is about as cool as pins and needles. In your genitals. 

Quality

Compared to the Vectra, the Insignia is incomparable. The buttons are nice to push, the knobs decent to twiddle, there’s actual design going on throughout that matches the rest of the car. The headlamp on our test car filled with water though, so we’re reserving long-term judgement. 

Handling

Can be a little irritating on small bumps, but deals with the big stuff well. Once you get going, the Insignia can travel at surprising pace, and hangs on past the point where the old Vectra would have fallen over and died. Not a BMW 3-Series, but not bad. 

Practicality

The rear seats are cramped, but the boot is big at 520 litres (you can almost double that by dropping the seats). It’s a bugger to park – the C-pillars are thick and the back windscreen small, so go for parking sensors. One great thing? The Insignia has a huge fuel tank, so the range is phenomenal – 750 miles in the case of the diesels. 

Running costs

The 2.0-litre variant diesels return 48.7mpg, and as long as you steer clear of the Turbo V6, the insurance is very reasonable. Everything is off-the-shelf, so fixing it is easy – not a car that will bankrupt you.