Until now, Opel's larger offerings have been poorly received and consistently bland, but the excellent Insignia marks a new departure, writes Paddy Comyn
TIMING IS hugely important in the motor industry, so the bigwigs at Opel must be absolutely kicking themselves. Having survived a shaky spell in the late 1990s, producing some pretty awful stuff, the early part of the 21st century has been good for the brand. The Corsa was the best-selling supermini in Ireland, the Astra has been one of the biggest selling cars in Europe and the Zafira people-carrier has been a consistently good performer.
Sales in Europe for General Motors – owners of the Opel brand – reached 2.04 million vehicles in 2008, with a market share of 9.3 per cent – and it was the third year in a row in which the firm topped 2 million vehicles in the region.
And just as they produce a car that wins the title of European Car of the Year, the motoring industry appears to go into freefall. Typical.
While the Corsa and Astra, in particular, have been very successful in the last few years, it all got a bit average when it came to their bigger offering. The Vectra, the car that preceded the new Insignia, never really captured the imagination and became increasingly bland and lumpy as the years went on.
Ford’s Mondeo was better-looking and infinitely better to drive, Skoda’s Superb offered luxury car dimensions and specification and Citroën really pulled up its chaussettes with the beautiful, brilliant and blatantly Germanic C5. Opel really didn’t have a choice but to up its game.
With an all-new platform underneath, Opel set about designing a car that would not only rival its rep-mobile peers, but would also tickle the toes of those not quite at executive car level just yet.
Beauty is always subjective, but few would argue that this is not a striking car – and a week in our SRi version cemented this; it turned plenty of heads. However, the fact that it was one of the few ‘09 registered cars on the road might have accounted for this. New-car bingo hasn’t been fun at all this year.
The rear is reminiscient of a BMW 6-Series, but the sloping roofline doesn’t do much for the interior headroom. The front end has a large, menacing grille wearing a rather discreet new Opel emblem.
Inside, there has been a huge leap forward in terms of quality and design. The cabin looks good, with driver-focused controls and a sharply styled cockpit. Our car was fully loaded with everything from satellite navigation to a high-end audio system and was finished with piano black inserts. The system fitted to our car used an iDrive-like dial to navigate various functions, but there are still a lot of buttons to get around. The sports seats are quite firm, but offer lots of support.
Inside and out, this is certainly the most alluring car in the segment. Overall, the car has a purposeful stance and, packaged as our press car was, it looked every bit the executive car.
However, ours wasn’t quite what the average punter will plump for, as, amidst all the talk of diesel technology, we were driving a 2.0-litre petrol turbo version of the Insignia, with four-wheel drive – likely to be as common a sight in 2009 as a happy estate agent.
There is a pretty comprehensive engine line-up for the new Insignia. Unlike Ford, which is focusing mainly on diesel engines for the Mondeo, Opel is giving us a full menu for now, with a 115bhp 1.6-litre petrol engine, 140bhp 1.8-litre petrol engine and two 2.0-litre diesel engines with 130bhp and 160bhp.
There are also two turbocharged petrol units – a 2.0-litre with 220bhp and, at the top of the range, a 2.8-litre V6 turbo with 280bhp.
Under the skin, the Insignia offers a new chassis concept in the form of the optional FlexRide, which is an adaptive suspension control system. By pressing a button on the dash, FlexRide allows the driver to choose a sporty ride or a relaxed setup in addition to the default mode, which itself is on the firm side.
The FlexRide system also alters the characteristics of the dampers, the response of the accelerator pedal, the ESP and steering and, where four-wheel drive is fitted, it tweaks this too. In standard mode the steering felt a little vague, but hit the Sport button and (as well as the dials lighting up red, which is a great touch) the steering feels much better. This is, however, at the expense of ride comfort, which becomes very firm.
Press the Tour button and everything becomes loose and squishy – but, even in the Tour mode, something called driving mode control (DMC) is ready to respond to an emergency manoeuvre.
The four-wheel drive, which is an option on the 2.0-litre turbo, employs a Haldex hydraulic rear clutch unit to continuously adjust and optimise drive torque distribution between the front and rear axles. The eLSD is a limited slip differential and this is fitted on the 4x4 SRi version. This can transfer up to 50 per cent of torque between the drive shafts, to whichever wheel has more grip.
So after all that, is it any good? Well, yes it is. The Insignia doesn’t leave you feeling like you should have worked a bit harder to get an executive car and it certainly doesn’t look or feel like a standard issue family car. Granted, we were driving a pretty fast, expensive and lavishly furnished model, but it was really easy to connect with this car – and its feeling of assurance is remarkable.
This is a very flattering car to drive and, equipped with four-wheel drive, it literally felt unshakeable – even in the wet and miserable conditions we have been enduring of late. I’d go as far to say that in this specification we’d have it over many basic executive models. Sure, you might sneak into an Audi A4 or BMW 3-Series for this money, but it’s going to have a pretty weedy engine compared with the Insignia. And, while the Opel badge might not have the same kudos as the Audi, you certainly won’t be ashamed to be arriving at the most upmarket of business dinners in this beauty.
Back to reality though – the bulk of sales are likely to come from the 2.0-litre CDTi 130bhp diesel, which starts from €27,495, just €1,000 more than the weedy 1.6-litre petrol, which should be ignored.
Not only has the 130bhp diesel got the lowest CO2 emissions in the range at 154g/km, meaning that it occupies Band C, but it is over a second faster to 100km/h, has a higher top speed and has better fuel consumption than the 1.6-litre petrol. So that’s a no-brainer, really.
Specification levels vary, too. The standard S trim gets ESP, cruise control, air conditioning and automatic lights and, from here, you can choose SC, SE, SRi and at the top, the Elite. The SC or SE specifications are probably the way to go.
There is a choice between saloon and hatchback – we would choose the 2.0-litre CDTi SC hatchback at €29,695 as a perfect family car. Recent news of its high scores in the Euro NCAP safety tests further justify this decision.
However, as a great mix between family, performance and executive car, the 2.0-litre Turbo SRi is really very good. It is ideal for someone who has outgrown a Golf GTI, wouldn’t be seen dead in a Skoda Octavia RS but can’t stomach driving an underpowered German executive car either.
Factfile Opel Insignia 2.0-litre Turbo SRi 4x4
Engine: 1998cc, four-cylinder, turbo, petrol engine, with 220bhp @ 5,300rpm and 350Nm of torque @ 2,000-4,000rpm. Six-speed manual transmission, four-wheel drive.
0-100km/h: 7.7 secs
Specification: Electronic stability control, cruise control, air conditioning, leather steering wheel with stereo controls, automatic lights, LED daytime dunning lights, CD player, trip computer and electric adjustment and lumbar support on the driver's seat.
SRi adds lowered, uprated sports suspension, sports instruments and steering wheel, 18" 5x2-spoke light alloy wheels, front fog lights and sports front seats with extendable cushions.
Options fitted to our test car included adaptive 4x4, that in the SRi features an electronic limited slip differential (eLSD). There was also DVD satellite navigation that is an optional extra, at €2,579.
L/100km (mpg) combined: 9.2 (30.7)
CO2 emissions: 215g/km
Tax: Band F, 32 per cent VRT and €1,050 annual road tax
Price: €38,395