Well, besides 'bang for your buck', it offers plenty to brag about in the office canteen. There’s asymmetrical four-wheel drive, HiPerStrut front suspension, supportive Recaro sports seats, adaptive dampers and four-piston performance brakes by Brembo. Alan Partridge could dine out for months on this stuff.
It had all that stuff before, mind you, so it's no real surprise that we found the car’s performance and handling very much as it was back in 2009, too. The Insignia Supersport is a fairly fast and capable sports saloon, but a slightly mannered and straight-laced one. In the end, while it’s a usable, grown-up kind of performance car, it doesn’t involve or excite you as much as it might.
There’s little drama or definition about the thrum of its V6 engine. It doesn’t sound fast and, given its head, the Insignia doesn’t feel as fast as that 170mph terminal speed implies. Throttle response is soft when you’ve got Normal mode selected, while the pedal becomes over-sensitive in VXR mode. Sport mode is a relatively happy medium, in which the car’s ride and handling compromise is both taut and compliant.
But there’s neither a big whoosh of torque to speak of when you ask for one, nor a frenzied race to the redline that might be worth waiting for.
There’s strange inconsistency, too, about the way the Insignia VXR steers. You get a big, unresponsive ‘sneeze zone’ around the dead-ahead, followed by a sudden increase in directness at about 50deg of lock. You can get used to that, though, and when you do, you’ll find reasonable balance and more than enough lateral grip to have a bit of fun with.
But familiarity doesn’t quite redeem a four-wheel drive system that fails to deliver much extra cornering agility in all but the slipperiest conditions, and that also can’t keep the steering feedback completely unsullied by driving forces as you flex your right foot.
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Loss Leader?
Vauxhall traditionally created horrible performance cars full of understeer with sod all engineering prowess, perhaps they are loss leading to gain a rep', maybe this particular performance vauxhall is decent.
As interesting as it looks...
... I'd suggest the new price point speaks volumes about how this car hasn't been selling.
Whilst I'm sure this model will be better resolved, it's emissions rating makes it unfavourable for mid range company car buyers, and branding wise it may not be the car of choice for those higher up the company car scheme eschelons.
Shame really as it (and other performance Vauxhalls) of recent times have been fine vehicles, and a huge step forward for the brand, bet it goes like stink.
With BMW M3 V8s available for
With BMW M3 V8s available for under £20,000 (see Auto Trader), with reasonable mileage, why would I want to pay £30,000 for a Vauxhall that will lose value like the clappers?
Frightmare Bob wrote: With
Because many people are terrified of second hand cars and need a cast iron warranty, a lot of these will be company purchases, the BMW running costs will be huge and if it goes wrong... Why would anyone buy a new car if that wasn't the case? I'd imagine Vauxhall are not looking to shift that many of these anyway.