Deputy Editor Graeme Roberts runs an eye over General Motors’ Europe’s updated Opel/Vauxhall Insignia range and discovers a much more refined car thanks to new engines and an improved interior. An almost identical version, built locally, is sold as the Buick Regal in the US and Canada.
It didn’t take more than a few kilometres – in pouring rain – down the road from Frankfurt airport to the amazing aviation themed venue in which GME had chosen to present the refreshed Insignia to European media to establish that this midlife facelift has produced a much improved, and much more refined car.
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You’ll need to be an Insignia anorak to spot the new from the old at a glance, especially from the front, where there’s a new, slightly larger grille and restyled front bumper moulding, with a new, more aggressive variant for the ‘sports’ models. At the back, the chrome strip has been moved down a bit to bisect the restyled tail lights and there are the usual new wheels and interior trim changes you always get with the midlife nip ‘n’ tuck. The really big changes are hidden from outside – a comprehensive revamp of the instrument display and centre stack and several new engines, with more to come following their debut at the Frankfurt show earlier this month.
Branding, specifications and variant nameplates vary across Europe by market – Vauxhall for us here in the RHD UK plus Northern Ireland, Opel – in both left and right hand drive – for the rest of Europe. And a bit beyond – Opels tend to pop up in a lot of Middle and Far Eastern markets though a recent sojourn south into Australia ended recently after initial sales did not meet expectations. Previous generation models – called Vectra – have also worn the Holden badge, and were even built Down Under for a while, but these days the largest Opel line is largely confined to the northern hemisphere and also available in North America, as we note above, as the near identical Buick Regal, supplied initially from Opel’s Rüsselsheim plant in Germany but now built in Oshawa, Canada. China, Buick’s biggest single market, also gets the car, assembled in Shanghai.
Vauxhall is changing its marketing approach for Insignia here in the UK with new pricing starting from GBP16,279, nearly GBP2,000 less than the old entry level sticker. The ‘non-premium’ D segment is a hard-fought battleground with several fine competitors like Ford’s ageing Mondeo (the full redesign expected in 2013 has been put back a year to 2014 due to the automaker closing its Belgian plant), Volkswagen’s even older Passat (not due to be replaced until at least late next year), Toyota’s recently refreshed Avensis, Mazda’s new 6 and Peugeot’s 508. Others like Nissan, which once fielded the Primera, and Mitsubishi (Galant) have long given up and gone in search of new crossover niches with the Qashqai and Outlander respectively.
So, to get the headline prices down, Vauxhall has trimmed dealer margins and will not compete as aggressively for high discount fleet business such as rental sales which have the dual disadvantge of reducing profit margins and regularly dumping large numbers of near-new cars onto the resale market, lowering residual values, which in turn leads to higher leasing costs for the brand new cars. Nonetheless, the majority of Insignias sold here will find their way onto company fleets; the model is a popular choice for company car ‘user choosers’ denied a ‘premium’ brand such as Audi or BMW.
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By GlobalDataTo lure in even more of that type of buyer, there are four new engines including a 99g/km 140PS 2.0 CDTi diesel claimed to offer large cost benefits to fleet and high mileage drivers; a new 1.6 SIDI 170PS turbo petrol; plus a new 250PS 2.0 SIDI turbo petrol. Existing diesels have also received refinement improvements. This is all part of a major powertrain and transmission renewal offensive Opel detailed back in April. It’s launching three new engine families and 13 new engines between 2012 and 2016, renewing 80% of its engine range. In the same period the company will also launch several new transmissions including new six-speed manual and automatic units. New 1.6-litre petrol and diesel engines were displayed earlier this month at the Frankfurt show together with the new five and six-speed gearboxes. They will be joined by the end of this year by a new small-displacement petrol engine family, all developed to deliver class-leading performance and refinement.
The headline news for Vauxhall, pitching for company car business, is that 99g/km CO2 output of some of the engine options. A company car driver has to pay annual tax (BIK, or benefit in kind) and his employer pays an initial registration tax and and an annual levy, the amounts all proportional to CO2 output. 99g means no annual car tax bill and, for now, no London congestion charge though so many cars now slip below the 100g threshold, that barrier is being lowered by tax-hungry bureaucrats.
Also new in the facelift line is a new wagon variant launched at Frankfurt, the Country Tourer. This “SUV-inspired” all-purpose model is based on the Sports Tourer but with all-wheel drive, higher ground clearance and “tougher” styling. The all wheel driveline comes with a chice of two turbodiesel engines: 2.0 BiTurbo CDTi, producing 195PS and 400Nm of torque, or a 2.0 CDTi with 165PS and up to 380Nm torque. The latter comes with a choice of six-speed manual or a low-friction, six-speed automatic transmission; the 195PS version is automatic only.
The Country Tourer’s electronically controlled 4×4 drivetrain has a Haldex clutch and an electronic limited slip differential to ensure traction on both paved and unpaved surfaces. It constantly adapts to the prevailing road conditions, and can vary torque distribution between the front and rear axles, as well as between the rear wheels, before a wheel begins to slip. Sensors feed individual control modules with information on yaw rate, acceleration, steering angle, wheel speed, throttle pedal position, engine speed and torque. The front/rear power distribution is adapted to the driving situation based on this information. To reduce frictional losses and save fuel, the system automatically reverts to front-wheel drive whenever it senses that no adaptive interventions are required.
