Vauxhall Insignia Estate 2.0T - VXRepmobile

[w00dy]

After buying a 525i and having to deal with BMW lack of maintenance issues to replace my sensible daily Octavia 1.6 TDI, I knew I should have bought something I could care less about. I decided I wanted something petrol and modern (by my standards at least) for daily duties. 

Cars usually choose me and not the other way round, so I wasn't looking for an Insignia, nor was I really aware of the 2.0 turbo petrol which inexplicably completed the quick petrol line-up below the VXr and 2.8 Turbo. They were avialable with Haldex AWD and with an auto box, but this is a FWD manual. It uses the Astra VXR engine is a lower state of tune and once I'd seen this I knew it was the car for me.

 

Some giffer mods helped to keep the price reasonable, but did make me look a bit of a berk on my 300 mile trip back from Durham. It seems a well cared for car with lots of service history (although oddly no MOT history for the first owner )

 

It's wearing BBS style 216s as found on some BMWs

The tyres? Yes they are Radar Dimax 4 seasons. This review tells you all you need to know.

It's quite nice inside, loads of adjustment on the seat in this SRI spec which is an odd mix of niceties and poverty (windy windows in the rear seems very mean)

It idn;t take long for me to crack out the heat gun

So far I like it, it's a good cruiser and has plenty of poke. No steering feel whatsoever, but that's not why I bought it.

 

[JJ0063]

Those stickers were fucking shocking. The wrong badge on the wheels gives me the ick but I’m sure you can sort that if you want to!

These are massive with the seats down and I’ve always had a soft spot for the interiors I must say.

[sierraman]

I once bought a car with proper giffer hubcaps, I waited till he fucked off back in the house and slung the trims in his black bin. 

[sierraman]

19 minutes ago, w00dy said:

After buying a ropey 525i to replace my sensible daily Octavia 1.6 TDI, I knew I'd messed up. I decided I wanted something petrol and modern (by my standards at least) for daily duites. 

Cars usually choose me and not the other way round, so I wasn't looking for an Insignia, nor was I really aware of the 2.0 turbo petrol which inexplicably completed the quick petrol line-up below the VXr and 2.8 Turbo. They were avialable with Haldex AWD and with an auto box, but this is a FWD manual. It uses the Astra VXR engine is a lower state of tune and once I'd seen this I knew it was the car for me.

 

Some giffer mods helped to keep the price reasonable, but did make me look a bit of a berk on my 300 mile trip back from Durham. It seems a well cared for car with lots of service history (although oddly no MOT history for the first owner )

 

It's wearing BBS style 216s as found on some BMWs

The tyres? Yes they are Radar Dimax 4 seasons. This review tells you all you need to know.

It's quite nice inside, loads of adjustment on the seat in this SRI spec which is an odd mix of niceties and poverty (windy windows in the rear seems very mean)

It idn;t take long for me to crack out the heat gun

So far I like it, it's a good cruiser and has plenty of poke. No steering feel whatsoever, but that's not why I bought it.

 

Fucking hell he isn’t half spaffing all over the curtains about them tyres! 🤣

[w00dy]

43 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

Those stickers were fucking shocking. The wrong badge on the wheels gives me the ick but I’m sure you can sort that if you want to!

These are massive with the seats down and I’ve always had a soft spot for the interiors I must say.

It might be hard to find correct ones that fit, so I'll probably stick to not caring. It's certainly got a good amount of room, some of the switches and stuff are a touch too GM, but it's held up well for 137k

35 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I once bought a car with proper giffer hubcaps, I waited till he fucked off back in the house and slung the trims in his black bin. 

I considered taking my heat gun, but with a 6 hour drive home I decided I didn't care enough.

33 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Fucking hell he isn’t half spaffing all over the curtains about them tyres! 🤣

If buying some cheapo tyres was the best decision he's ever made then perhaps he needs to consider whether he's the sort of person who should be reviewing anything.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Always found these an honest inoffensive way to cover rapid motorway miles as rental cars when they were new. 
But that odd seats thing, really annoys me, not even consistent, some have adjustable thigh support on the passenger seat too. Doesn’t even seem to be trim level dependent.

[Aston Martin]

The stickers are bad, but the wind-deflectors are shocking.

[w00dy]

1 hour ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

Always found these an honest inoffensive way to cover rapid motorway miles as rental cars when they were new. 
But that odd seats thing, really annoys me, not even consistent, some have adjustable thigh support on the passenger seat too. Doesn’t even seem to be trim level dependent.

Yeh, Vauxhall have an odd habit of making it very obvious where they saved the pennies, where most manufacturers prefer to hide it. I do love an extendy-base.

59 minutes ago, Aston Martin said:

The stickers are bad, but the wind-deflectors are shocking.

They will be going, but they are definitely less offensive to me than the Lotus badge.

[Hogie]

That will be a proper weapon if you do chip/map it...... a real wolf in sheeps clothing....I like it a lot

 

[Bren]

Those tyres are deffo on my radar.

How much is the tax?

[grogee]

Is the M32 gearbag? Hope not...

[Bren]

The tourer looks much nicer than than the hatch.

I would have the biturbo - diesel but nearly 200 hp.

 

[w00dy]

20 hours ago, Hogie said:

That will be a proper weapon if you do chip/map it...... a real wolf in sheeps clothing....I like it a lot

 

Yeh, should be amusing as long as it can get the power down. I had a  Saab 9000 with very similar numbers and that was pretty quick (albeit lighter)

19 hours ago, Bren said:

Those tyres are deffo on my radar.

How much is the tax?

£320 with the latest increase.

17 hours ago, grogee said:

Is the M32 gearbag? Hope not...

F40 I think, Dunno if that's much improvement.

 

 

I have been moved from the modern section. Not sure why given it's newer than a lot of the stuff in there, but someone has clearly decided this is pure shite.

[Bren]

Has it had the belts done?

[SiC]

Is that engine derived from the same family that Saab put in their 9-3?

If so, they're very good engines. 

[Dave_Q]

Could the first owner have been a taxi driver? Some authorities run their own taxi inspection instead of the MOT.

Granted a pez turbo is a bit of a weird choice for that but it could be one of the "taxi drivers" I see lined up on ranks all day chatting whose objective seems to be to avoid their wife all day and not take any fares

[Matty]

Big, handsome comfortable, quick. What's not to like? I'd be in to something like this in a shot if my missus wasn't a raging snob 😒

[w00dy]

2 hours ago, Bren said:

Has it had the belts done?

The engines on a chain unless you mean accessory belt which I will change unless it's been done recently given that might have killed my Octavia.

2 hours ago, SiC said:

Is that engine derived from the same family that Saab put in their 9-3?

If so, they're very good engines. 

I'm not sure really. it's all GM stuff and I think they're related. Same engine came in the final shape 9-5 unsurprisingly given it's very much an Insignia in a pretty suit.

2 hours ago, Dave_Q said:

Could the first owner have been a taxi driver? Some authorities run their own taxi inspection instead of the MOT.

Granted a pez turbo is a bit of a weird choice for that but it could be one of the "taxi drivers" I see lined up on ranks all day chatting whose objective seems to be to avoid their wife all day and not take any fares

Quite possibly. 115k miles in 7 years is high, but feels low for taxi life.

1 hour ago, Matty said:

Big, handsome comfortable, quick. What's not to like? I'd be in to something like this in a shot if my missus wasn't a raging snob 😒

The key is to buy so much old shite, that something like an 11 year old Insignia becomes respectable and modern. Worked for me.

[outlaw118]

Hmmm, inspired to look at these, never gave them a thought. Will need badermatic though, and there doesn't seem to be many about that's not either a 2.8 or well over budget. 

Got a dizzle on my watchlist now, will update my Fred in Ask a Shiter!

[Matty]

49 minutes ago, w00dy said:

The engines on a chain unless you mean accessory belt which I will change unless it's been done recently given that might have killed my Octavia.

I'm not sure really. it's all GM stuff and I think they're related. Same engine came in the final shape 9-5 unsurprisingly given it's very much an Insignia in a pretty suit.

Quite possibly. 115k miles in 7 years is high, but feels low for taxi life.

The key is to buy so much old shite, that something like an 11 year old Insignia becomes respectable and modern. Worked for me.

Been doing that since she met me. 20 years now and I reckon it's finally getting old (pun not intended) 🤪

[stuboy]

On 4/15/2023 at 10:35 AM, w00dy said:

so understated........... u say u looked a berk??

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 16/04/2023 at 22:16, stuboy said:

so understated........... u say u looked a berk??

see the before pics

[Neil clark]

On 4/16/2023 at 2:51 PM, Dave_Q said:

Could the first owner have been a taxi driver? Some authorities run their own taxi inspection instead of the MOT.

Granted a pez turbo is a bit of a weird choice for that but it could be one of the "taxi drivers" I see lined up on ranks all day chatting whose objective seems to be to avoid their wife all day and not take any fares

Whys that sound like me?

[omegod]

Colleagues has a 4x4 Insignia TD estate with the business pack, it's loaded to fuck with kit and has a digi dash. She's asked me to look at it a few times when its done diesel type weird stuff but I wouldn't touch that drivetrain with a shitty stick.

Good looking cars though !

 

[JJ0063]

How’s this going @w00dy?

Ive always liked how these drive, had a 16 plate diesel Sri as a courtesy car a few years back and didn’t want to give it back. Always wondered if I’d be mad to buy one.

[w00dy]

1 hour ago, JJ0063 said:

How’s this going @w00dy?

Ive always liked how these drive, had a 16 plate diesel Sri as a courtesy car a few years back and didn’t want to give it back. Always wondered if I’d be mad to buy one.

Going great and so far I think it was the perfect choice. 2k miles in and nothing of concern, it's a comfortable mile muncher and is averaging about 35mpg including a fai bit of urban use and enjoying the performance, I think it might want a thermostat too which ought to improve that a touch. Had the air-con re-gassed since it wasn't doing anything, only been 5 days but so far so good with that. Build quality definitely feels a step down from my Octavia, but it's good enough and the comfort of the seat more than makes up for it.

With the diesels I stayed away given the reports of oil-pickup issues. This thread is worth a read if you haven't seen it.

 

[JJ0063]

1 hour ago, w00dy said:

Going great and so far I think it was the perfect choice. 2k miles in and nothing of concern, it's a comfortable mile muncher and is averaging about 35mpg including a fai bit of urban use and enjoying the performance, I think it might want a thermostat too which ought to improve that a touch. Had the air-con re-gassed since it wasn't doing anything, only been 5 days but so far so good with that. Build quality definitely feels a step down from my Octavia, but it's good enough and the comfort of the seat more than makes up for it.

With the diesels I stayed away given the reports of oil-pickup issues. This thread is worth a read if you haven't seen it.

 

35 is pretty decent for the size of the thing, better than I would have expected. 
 

I used to run Astra J 1.7 diesels and for some weird reason always had a massive soft spot for them. Just liked that era of interiors as the Astra and Insignia were very similar inside.

I know the diesels are prone to issues which is a concern but I can’t help but think something like this is a very nice looking thing and to me still looks like a brand new car.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155551124306?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=qCCUgx_7Sa6&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=IaiIXmW2Rkq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

[AnnoyingPentium]

2 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

I know the diesels are prone to issues which is a concern but I can’t help but think something like this is a very nice looking thing and to me still looks like a brand new car.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155551124306?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=qCCUgx_7Sa6&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=IaiIXmW2Rkq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

My Grampa had a handful of these, ranging from 2009 to 2016 plate cars, albeit hatchbacks but still diesels. Used them all as tow cars and thought they were very good. Now onto a 2019 Insignia with the same engine.

[RoverFolkUs]

Insignias are great, IF you can find a good one. Unfortunately a lot of them seem to be neglected even more so than equivalent Mondeos, I'd say about 90% of the ones I see are utterly fucked! 

The 1.8 petrol isn't immune from HGF either. 

But if you find a decent one that's been looked after I think they're absolutely brilliant. Similar affair with the Astra J but there's a few more decent ones of those out there. 

[Bren]

I really like the tourer. They made a bi turbo with the diesel engine - nearly 200 hp.

The VXR is a good performer however the issue is whether or not you could put up with the running costs for something with a Vauxhall badge.