Modern Vauxhall. You know the rest....

[Pillock]

Oor Lass had one when they were just out, after someone drove into her 405. She said it was a six speed SRi, silver, and "fucking awful".

 

One of the reasons I love her to bits is that every car she's ever driven gets compared to a white 405.

[John F]

Pillock, on 21 Oct 2014 - 10:04 PM, said:

Oor Lass had one when they were just out, after someone drove into her 405. She said it was a six speed SRi, silver, and "fucking awful".

 

One of the reasons I love her to bits is that every car she's ever driven gets compared to a white 405.

 

I bet they all have better handbrakes...

[They_all_do_that_sir]

My mum's husband runs an insignia estate for his photography business. He seems to be pretty chuffed with it.

 

It does look pretty nice in the flesh, and seems quite well screwed together for a vauxhall.

 

I don't really have anything else to add

[Asimo]

Yeah well ok but I'd rather have a Ventora ta.

[New POD]

All I can say is that when I had my Vauxhall fetish, I remember having a bit of a dice with a V6 Vectra when I had a 115 Bhp 1.8e 8V engineed mk2 cav sri. From zero to 125 mph the Vectra struggled to catch up. (He did go past me eventually). I imagine the in-stigmia is a heavier than a Vectra.

[Stanky]

My avatar is a picture of my ex-skoda which I unsuccessfully tried to mate with an Insignia on the M27 one wet morning in 2012. The rear of the Insignia was substantially more robust than the front of my Skoda with predictable consequences.

 

The guy driving it was really nice though, and his slightly despondent comment of 'I've only had it back a week since they finished repairing it after the last person rear-ended me' sticks with me to this day. It seems that it was a bit of a target.

 

My grandfather-in-law replaced his Rover 75 Connoisseur with a diesel Insignia and he loves it.

[dugong]

A chap at the Jaaaag main dealer hypothesised thusly:

• it gives an impression of solidity and quality
• people are getting fatter. Seats have to be tougher. The old marshmallow seats fitted to Frog tin in days of yore would be knackered in no time these days.

The seats in my 305 van have seen 178,000 miles of Cambridgeshire arse and is now owned by me, the most consummate salad dodger in all the land. They're holding up fine.

[Hendry]

I want some sympathy, I work for a hire company and spend most days shuttling Vauxhalls about, a load of vastly better Fiestas and Focus or Nissan Joke/Qashqai, Golfs, and occasionally some "prestige" (ready as wanky Merc A-Class/3 series beemer/S-Line Audi's with bright blue LED DRLs)

 

I used to love Vauxhalls right up until this current gen of Astras/Corsas/Insignias and owneed several Vauxhalls, I hated Fords but Vauxhall seem to be going backwards right now whilst Ford are upping their game, Focus is hugely nicer to drive than Astra, which is poorly equipped, sure the top spec Elite has full heated leather, auto lights/wipers/interior mirror, electric folding door mirrors, dual zone climate etc but it doesn't have Bluetooth, a USB socket or DAB which are all standard on midrange Zetec Focus and SE spec Golfs, Same with Fiesta vs Corsa which is horrendous to drive, they all have dodgy fuel gauges which only register you've fuelled them after you've driven 10miles, not good when you pick one up running on fumes and stick £20 in and the gauge doesn't move, the seats are horrible "sports seats" which are rock hard, dig in to your lower back and squeeze you in, you cannot get a good driving position in any current VX, the Astra possibly the worst driving position, the Insignia looks OK although I prefer the prefacelift, again the seats dig in to your lower back even with the lumbar support all the way off, the centre display screen for the radio/phone/Bluetooth/media in the facelift looks like a child's £9.99 v-tech toy has been glued in, and the penny pinching bastards keep cost cutting and deleting features, the best is probably the early 58/09 plates with all the kit and a conventional handbrake before it changed to an EPB, however, the worst has to be the Antara, big ugly cumbersome pretend 4x4 which would get found out on a slightly muddy country road, shocking on fuel, horrible to drive, hardly any power, noisy, unrefined, poorly equipped, overly heavy clutch, and majority of it is a Chevrolet Captiva with some Vauxhall parts thrown at it e.g. stereo, ventilation controls.

 

Strangely although earlier Astra Js have an EPB the later ones have reverted to a conventional handbrake on even top spec Elite models. Not sure whether this is cost cutting or if the EPB is troublesome and rather than fix it they've given up, but surely not as they still offer it in their other models.

[AldridgePrior]

I`ve had 4 Pauxhalls but 5 General Motors cars altogether.

 

They all had one thing in common. They all had fucking Check Engine lights come on. To be fair they all functioned as normal with the pretty yellow aforementioned lights on the dash. Having learned that you could literally throw tons of parts at a Vauxhall in a bid to clear the EML I didn`t bother my arse at the end.

[John F]

That's not an engine check light.

 

It's a GPS-based brand recommendation light. It spotted that you were north of the border, and it was suggesting you bought a Volvo.

 

Because them's the rules

[urpert]

I have an Ampera at the moment (long story involving congestion charges). It had to have its entire EPB unit replaced after two months of use.

 

Perhaps that's why they've stopped putting them in Astras.

[urpert]

Also, the dealers appear to be universally terrible (and this comes from someone who's owned at least a dozen Renaults).

[dollywobbler]

My biggest problem with the Insignia SRi applies across all new cars. You can't tell it's an SRi without seeing the badge. What happened to all of that lovely red trim that used to mark out the SRi owner as a sporty gent who valued performance and sharp styling? Why hasn't it got a tacky spoiler across its arse? Why are the seats not tartan?

 

Also, the estate may be clever in having those extra lights for when the tailgate is up, but that's a feature stolen from Wartburg who were doing that decades ago.

[AldridgePrior]

 

True statement. Seems to be across the board. Manufacturers have bought into the publics obsession with image and to a degree social status climbing. Audi RS6 at first glance could be a 2.0td . Everything BMW has M badges and body kits from the factory. Nothing wrong with having something nice, but if everything is nice........

 

Cavalier GSi did look different from the base model though. I kinda liked them.  I can`t afford an RS6 but could afford other luxuries and I seriously reckon I could manage to get into the M&S Salmon meal for one price range. No Creme Brulee though. That`s kicking the arse out of it.

[Pete-M]

I've driven a few diesel Insignias. Without fail they have all been thirsty, unrefined, noisy, badly riding pieces of shit.

 

On my regular commute to Cardiff I have never managed to get less than 57 mpg from the Superb TDis - best MPG was 72 mpg. I've done the same run in four different diesel Insignias over the last 12 months and never managed more than 44 mpg from any of them.

 

The Insignia engine is LOUD in comparison to the Škoda lump, and nowhere near as smooth. The 140? Bhp Insignia lump pulls well ať some revs, probably better than the VAG TDi 140 but the noise from the thing is horrible.

 

Insignia is foul inside too, and that radio satnav thing is utterly awful. Seats are mightily uncomfortable in a long run and the steering is apparently controlled by elastic bands.