Buying and owning

The Insignia is keenly priced at £27,815, and research by our colleagues on What Car? shows that discounts are there for the asking. Even before haggling, the price undercuts the nearest equivalent Škoda Superb Estate 4x4 by over £6000. Resale values are nothing to get excited about, though, holding on to a fairly modest 40% of the original asking price after three years and 36,000 miles. However, when the car undercuts its rivals by so much, that’s not as big a concern. The added weight and frictional losses from the fourwheel-drive transmission mean the Country Tourer 4x4 drinks a little more fuel than the 2WD. According to the official combined figure, you can expect 45.6mpg on the combined cycle. We found mpg in the low 40s to be realistic in solo driving, dropping to 25.4mpg while towing the Swift caravan on a varied economy route. The Country Tourer is well equipped, although we’d like to see a rear-view camera as standard. Automated emergency braking, a lane departure warning system, sat nav, climate control, cruise control and 18-inch alloys are included in the price.