While PSA, Renault, Ford and Toyota struggle in Europe’s D segment, Opel-Vauxhall boasts of 100,000 Insignia orders since the facelifted model was launched at September 2013’s Frankfurt show. What’s GM Europe’s secret ingredient?
The answer isn’t quite as simple as GM having a far younger car than most rivals in this size class, but it’s a major reason, as is the British market, where vehicle sales have been rising for well over two years now. How ironic then that Vauxhall is a word rarely mentioned when GM Europe executives introduce new models at motor shows. What’s more, the Griffin-badged Insignia is the reason why the Rüesselsheim plant adjacent to Opel HQ has been so busy in recent years.
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European operations continue to lose money but as GM president Dan Ammann recently told Dave Leggett, the losses will end. As is so often the case, trimming costs and launching new and freshened cars is how Opel-Vauxhall has been clawing its way back to black ink. Outside Britain, customer prospects tend not to think of the Insignia as a mainstream model but the cash its high sales volume and transaction prices generate must surely be proving a boon to the brands’ turnaround plan.
Opel and Vauxhall’s priciest car might be selling well but it’s not quite the leader in its size class. Yet can the most popular model in that segment, the BMW 3 Series, really be thought of as premium? Opinions are divided but its sales rate for the first quarter was in excess of 47,000 units, making it the best performer in Europe’s D segment. Next up, and a remarkable achievement for such an old car range, is the Passat – it lagged the 3 Series range by roughly 10,000 cars. Then comes the Insignia. Thanks to facelift launched in late 2013 and the continued expansion of the UK market, sales of Opel and Vauxhall’s big sedan, hatch and wagon surged by 31% in Q1 to around 24,000 units.
Opel claims that the Insignia is number one in its segment not just in Britain but also Spain and The Netherlands. And in many other markets, including Belgium, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Norway, it occupies the number two slot. In Germany, it also occupies second place in its class among what Opel terms ‘the volume manufacturers’ – for the year to date, sales are up 46% year on year. Since this model series replaced the Vectra in late 2008, over 600,000 units have been sold.
To keep the momentum going until the replacement arrives in 2016, and to give dealers an additional model, a rival for the Passat Alltrack was introduced as part of the revised line-up. Opel says Europe-wide sales for the high-riding estate – the Country Tourer – now make up five percent of Insignia volumes. Production of AWD cars started in August 2013, a few weeks ahead of the CT’s Frankfurt IAA debut, with build of FWD cars commencing in January.
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By GlobalDataIn Germany and certain other LHD countries, the Country Tourer is offered with three 2.0-litre four-cylinder direct injection turbocharged engines. Vauxhall saw minimal potential demand for the 184kW (250hp) SIDI petrol unit so just the two diesels are available. These produce 120kW (163hp) or 143kW (195hp) and 400Nm. The standard diesel has a torque output of 350Nm but this rises to 380Nm when overboost is activated. You can tell the BiTurbo from the 163hp CT by its two tailpipes. It also has a standard six-speed automatic transmission, whereas the single-turbo engine has a six-speed manual with the auto gearbox an option.
Compared to other Insignia estates, the Country Tourer has anthracite-coloured protective cladding on the side sills and lower body sections, as well as distinctive front and rear lights. The tinted headlamps have embedded chrome-effect accents and depending on the model grade, incorporate wing-shaped LED daytime running lights.
The test vehicle had adaptive all-wheel. Vauxhall notes that to reduce frictional losses and save fuel, the system automatically reverts to front-wheel drive whenever it senses that no added traction is required. Try as I may, the electronics prevented wheelspin under all conditions, but amazingly enough, there was not a drop of rain over the week – in England, in June. As this was just ahead of Wimbledon and Glastonbury, there were no surprises when the heavens opened a couple of days after the CT was collected.
The 4×4 drivetrain incorporates a Haldex clutch and an electronic limited-slip differential. Torque is distributed automatically from zero to 100 percent between the front and rear axles, as well as between the rear wheels. The main benefit is said to be on wet or snow-covered roads, when any tyre slippage is detected and corrected before traction is lost.
According to Vauxhall, sensors constantly feed individual control modules with information on yaw rate, acceleration, steering angle, wheel speed, throttle pedal position, engine speed and torque, so that the front/rear power distribution is constantly adapted to the driving situation based on this information.
All 4×4 versions of the Country Tourer also come with an electronically-controlled rear-axle Limited Slip Differential (eLSD). The eLSD controls the distribution of torque between the rear wheels, transferring drive to the wheel with the most grip. Even if three wheels are on loose or slippery ground and only one rear wheel has traction, the car is said to remain stable and skid-free.
Being lucky enough to drive a different car most weeks and also often attend the media launches of forthcoming models means I get to try out a lot of infotainment systems. Not all are as well designed as Intellilink. There’s a selection of Opel videos here, which demonstrate the main features. The Country Tourer’s satnav was one of the most intuitive systems that I’ve used – everything you need is there and can be accessed quickly.
The Country Tourer underlines just how good so many of GM Europe’s cars continue to be – I’m not too keen on the Spark or Agila but one size up and things get a lot better. I recently speculated that the coming of the next Corsa and the age of the rival Fiesta will possibly see Vauxhall edging past Ford of Britain in passenger car sales in the final quarter of 2015. GM Europe has definitely got more intelligently thought through plans for future products – why Ford is spending money adapting the Edge and Mustang for Europe while delaying the next Fiesta is anyone’s guess.
A built-in-Europe new Mondeo will finally appear towards the end of 2014, and this model plus the next Passat will inevitably give Insignia sales a bit of a knock in 2015. But Opel-Vauxhall needn’t worry too much as the brands are planning to launch the second generation Insignia in 2016, using E2XX, a new GM architecture.
At one stage Opel was going to have to work with PSA on a joint project to replace their brands’ big cars but these plans changed. In October 2012, GM and PSA stated that a “joint programme for mid-sized cars” would be one of four co-developed architectures to be launched “by the end of 2016”. This would have meant replacements for the Peugeot 508, Citroen C5 and what will by then have been facelifted and renamed the DS 5. But in December 2012, GM and PSA issued a new statement to the media concerning their future shared vehicles and platforms: there was no mention of cars in this size class.
The E2XX should be a front- and all-wheel drive architecture, to be be shared with the replacements for the Buick Regal, Chevrolet Impala & Malbu and Cadillac XTS sedans. The Opel and Vauxhall will come first. In March 2014, Opel issued a media statement which opened as follows: “On top of four Insignia variants and the Zafira Tourer, which will be produced as of January 2015, the Ruesselsheim plant will get two additional vehicles later in the decade”. The four would logically be replacements for the sedan, hatchback, wagon and Country Tourer.
For the moment, the Insignia remains the top model for Opel and Vauxhall and until the recent comments by the head of GM’s UK operations, it did seem that two extra premium priced vehicles were on the horizon. Now it would seem that in Britain, at least, the models which Opel-Vauxhall chief K-T Neumann announced in a March media statement will not seek to compete with the likes of Volvo or Lexus. Or even Ford of Europe’s Vignale or Renault’s Inititiale Paris upscale model grades?
One additional Opel/Vauxhall will also be exported from Rüsselsheim to North America. “Due to competitive reasons, details about this car will not be announced until the end of the year”, Opel’s statement added. One of the two additional cars for Europe would logically be a sedan with frameless doors and a low roof – in other words, a rival to the next Volkswagen CC. And the other? Probably a crossover and also based on the same architecture as the next Insignia.
As the public’s growing appetite for the Insignia proves, big Vauxhalls (and Opels) have been quietly getting on with becoming second only to Volkswagen and BMW in Europe’s D segment – pushing upwards from there won’t be easy but it IS possible.
4 July 2014 update: Vauxhall’s own data shows the Insignia leading the UK market’s D segment in the first half of 2014. The company sold 13,347 units of the car, with the VW Passat in second place on 9,722 followed by the Ford Mondeo with 8,141, a long way ahead of the Volkswagen CC (3,162).
