Vauxhall Insignia
1.6 CDTI Ecoflex 136 Elite Nav
Mileage 16,345 List price when new (2016) £26,415 Value now £13,000 Test economy 46.1mpg
IT’S TIME TO say goodbye to our used Insignia. We’ve had six months with it, during which time it’s shuttled me backwards and forwards to work, acted as a camera car on several photo and video shoots, sped across the Continent on a mammoth holiday road trip and even met its ancestor in the form of a 1987 Vauxhall Cavalier.
Not exactly a quiet life, then. So, what conclusions can we draw about buying a nearly new, ex-company car Insignia?
Well, the first thing is that you can’t argue with the value such a car offers. At a year old, our fully loaded Elite-spec car is now worth just half of what it cost when it was new, at £13,000.
With that in mind, I can forgive some of the Insignia’s (fair few) flaws. Some are reasonably trivial, such as front parking sensors that are always on and therefore beep endlessly if you get close to the car in front in stationary traffic, and the horribly unresponsive touchpads you use to adjust the temperature and turn on the heated seats. And some are more serious, such as the noisy engine, the tyre roar at speed, the lifeless steering and the odd-shaped boot floor.
Fuel economy is a little disappointing, too. Given that the majority of the miles we’ve covered have been on the motorway, I’d have expected the Insignia to get a bit closer to its official fuel consumption figure of 72.4mpg.
For all that, though, I’ve found the Insignia to be the sort of car you’re quite happy to get back into after a day at work. For one thing, its seats are some of the most comfortable I’ve ever sat in. Our test car has the optional ergonomic sports seats fitted, and I’d strongly recommend seeking them out (fortunately, a lot of late Insignia Elites seem to have them). You can tell them apart by their fluting, which runs across the seats horizontally rather than vertically.
Then there’s the ride. While it can be a little jittery around town, it smooths out nicely at speed. The suspension and the steering set-up also keep the Insignia stable at a 70mph cruise.
I was impressed with the heating and climate control, too. Where some cars always seem to blow too hot or too cold or struggle to react to changing weather conditions, the Insignia’s system was always spot on. Put it in auto mode and you shouldn’t have to change a thing.
But it’s the Insignia’s tremendous value that really makes it worth consideration. You’ll struggle to find a year-old car this big and with this many toys for such a low price.
I won’t pretend I shed tears when ours went back; it isn’t a particularly exciting car, after all, and it doesn’t have the polish of its premium counterparts. But it has earned my respect as a comfortable, dependable and solid-feeling worker.