2009 Vauxhall Insignia Exclusiv from UK and Ireland - Comments

Nothing touch wood so far has gone wrong, other than a message pop up about water in the diesel filter after heavy rain. Haven't seen it again though.

Quality and styling of this car are far beyond what you would expect from Vauxhall. The interior has a prestigious german car feel, everything feels solid, quality and in the right place. Clearly some serious design has been put into the interior, which is a very cosy and pleasant place to be.

This is matched by the classy and stylish external design, even the steel wheels with plastic trims that genuinely look like alloy wheels, but are much easier to clean and replace if you scratch them!

Back to the interior, the ambient lighting is a welcome moody feature that adds discrete orange and red LED glows to the front door pockets and front and rear centre area. The main instruments (speedo, rev counter, fuel and temperature gauges are backlight with white LED's whilst the rest of the controls are a pleasant red. My only issue is the radio display is brighter than the rest of the instruments and not independently adjustable. The Exclusiv has the single line red dot matrix display, but it's very clear and used quite well.

Sound system as standard is extremely good. Don't expect gut wrenching bass, but the sound stage and mid range is extremely clean and crisp, it sounds like a very good high fidelity system, even if the bass is a bit boxy when you boost it too much.

Performance from the 160 bhp diesel engine is superb and combines decent torque with amazing economy. The diesel burner can be rather unrefined when cold, but once warmed up is smooth and drops into the background. Amazing economy, I've averaged over 60 mpg on my daily commutes and that's combined with weekend urban driving. I've got over 830 miles between fill ups from the generous 70 litre tank.

Boot is huge, even by Vectra C standards and seats are supportive but very comfy. Lots of adjustments including electric height and 4 way electric lumbar control, only pity is the seat back adjustment for rake is a lever/ratcheted and not a big turny knob. It took me a couple of weeks to find the best seating position simply because there are so many permutations.

Driving position is certainly lower than the Corsa, steering wheel can be adjusted for reach and rake, although at first I was expecting it to adjust higher.. but then I realised the seat needed to be dropped a bit.

Lots of toys even on the Exclusiv model and you can set up driver preferences from the radio display and config menus. You also get climate control, a full alarm system, trip computer, auto headlights, ESP and traction control, lots of airbags, antilock brakes of course, occupancy detection for seatbelts, mp3 playback from CDs, electric mirrors which are heated, etc.. etc...

Will give you all a report update with time as I did with the Vectra SRI (C) I had before the Corsa.

Just a quick update about a month now after getting the car. Economy is turning out to be amazing for this size car, I have managed 830 miles between top up and light coming on for low fuel, on two successive fill ups. Mostly motorway driving of course but even so this beats the Vectra 2.2dti and the 1.2 Corsa at 56 mph on the motorway!

Seats are extremely comfy now I've found the best position and climate control does a marvelous job of maintaining a constant comfy temperature in the cab. Torque on this 2.0 CDTi 160 bhp is really superb, even with 3 adults in the car it pulled like a rocket up a very steep mountain road in 4th... excellent overtaking performance and all round solid performance.

Just obtained some Philips Xtreme power uprated headlamp bulbs and Osram Nightbreakers for full beam, so looking forward to enhanced night driving.

I waited approximately 3 months for my 1.8 S.E.90 saloon Insignia. I was surprised to find model was fitted with the electric hand brake, which does require some getting used to, and can be a problem in certain driving situations.

Also, straining your head around the steering wheel looking to see if the (P) is on or off, it is difficult to see clearly traffic approaching from the left at junction due to the wide door pillars and passenger seat head rest obstructing view.

There is also an annoying wind noise on the passenger side as if a window or door is open, but they are all closed..

Petrol consumption is higher @ 32-08 mpg. Mileage to date 1045.

Reference the electronic handbrake - don't forget that you can pull away without manually releasing it. If you press the gas pedal and then bring the clutch up gently, the parking brake will release automatically.

Also, the Insignia has hill hold assist, so if you release the brake pedal on a hill, the car will hold for a couple of seconds.

In reference to the electronic handbrake, the problem is not the the 'hold' facility or that you can release it by moving the car, it is knowing if the brake has been applied. Many times I have pulled the switch quickly & found that the brake was not applied, that is when I have to take my eyes off the road to see if the brake is on before I release the footbrake. I don't think enough thought has been put into it. Auto Hold like the VW is much better, it comes on automatically when the wheels are stopped with the footbrake.