Out to grass
Vauxhall Insignia Sports Tourer SRi VX-Line £27,810 OTR/£34,575 as tested
At the end of April, Ford announced that it would soon cease production of all cars in the US, other than the Mustang and its range of SUVs and trucks. In other words, Ford is going to concentrate on the stuf that people actually want to buy.
Sadly, it does makes sense – in this country, as in the US, cars need to be either really cheap or really desirable, leaving an ever-reducing middle market.
With the new Insignia, Vauxhall has made a pretty good job of creating a mid-market estate that you might actually want to own. The “new” model was launched a year ago and has graced the TopGear garage for six months. In that time, I’ve had no mechanical issues whatsoever and enjoyed excellent interior space (clever packaging makes the cabin feel almost as large as an E-Class Merc’s), solid build quality and materials, plus decent handling and refnement. But most of all, it looks so much better than its bland predecessor.
Our test car does, in fairness, beneft from £6,765 worth of options including the gorgeous twin-spoke 20-inch alloys at £475, but it’s a decent looking car underneath all that clobber regardless. In the olden days of company cars, when Ford and Vauxhall dominated the UK sales charts, folk would have been falling over themselves to get their hands on an Insignia.
The reality is that it doesn’t quite have enough about it to genuinely step up to the Premier League and compete with the BMW 3-Series and Audi A4, but for desirability it stands up well to its more realistic rivals such as the Ford Mondeo, Volkswagen Passat and Skoda Superb.
I’ve enjoyed living with it for these past six months and, for its looks, price and vast interior space, I’d defnitely recommend it.
The trouble is, when it was delivered to the TG Garage, back in November, my colleagues weren’t exactly falling over themselves to run it for the next six months. More fool them – Vauxhall has made a car that is better in every way than its predecessor and created something that people might actually want to buy. Fair play to them.