... Spend 6 hours in an insignia!

Took one to Portsmouth and back today and it was horrible! A 1.8 petrol manual hatch and I couldn't find a thing right with it other than it didn't breakdown! Noisy, bouncy, dull, terrible interior - getting as bad as Nissan and Toyota for human interaction, badly designed boot so not only can you not see out of it properly you also can't fit things in easily. I could go on and on!

I'll be glad to get back in the O3 tomorrow!

Hateful things i agree.

... Spend 6 hours in an insignia!

Took one to Portsmouth and back today and it was horrible! A 1.8 petrol manual hatch and I couldn't find a thing right with it other than it didn't breakdown! Noisy, bouncy, dull, terrible interior - getting as bad as Nissan and Toyota for human interaction, badly designed boot so not only can you not see out of it properly you also can't fit things in easily. I could go on and on!

I'll be glad to get back in the O3 tomorrow!

I agree, Portsmouth is terrible... full of matelots and suchlike...

We had one last year for a weeks holiday (fly/hire) in Scotland - had all the toys and buttons (except wind down windows in the back - weird?!) but no logic to how they were put there, just thrown at the dash almost. It had a laptop mouse pad thing in the middle which really didn't work when i was driving and trying to use it - not for me.

I know someone with a 10 plate Insignia 1.8. He told me that the mpg is woeful, discs and pads changed before 40k, gearbox replaced as the gear stick started moving back and forth while driving. The dealer said a shaft could come out through the casing if he carried on driving it. Various visits to the dealer with the 'handbrake' system. The last time I saw him he said it hadn't been to the dealer for a month since another coil pack had been replaced.

They arent that bad and the facelift model is a big improvement on the old one. I know a few people in my firm who have run pre facelift 160 CDTi hatches (an Exclusiv and SRi),given them a hard life and had very little trouble with them, only the SRI had brake trouble and only the once.

Also the 1.8 engine is verging on ancient and is probably one of the worst variants. No torque, high CO2...I am really not sure why they still make it when the 1.4 Turbo was put in place to fill the void.

Dont get me wrong unless massively discounted id never buy one with my own cash but as a company car with the right engine and spec level id possibly contemplate one as they do make for a very cheap CC.

Also given some of the posts on here its not entirely fair to slander the Insignia for reliability when the O3 is exhibiting its fair share of build and electrical gremlins.

dont get me wrong it's a car and ticks the boxes of a car with toys, and probably is as realible as anything else, but I found it non-logically laid out. We drive a lot of hire vehicles for work and tbh the VAG stuff is generally the easiest to feel at home in quickest, and that's from my daily driver being a mondeo for 4 years.

Edited 20 March, 201511 yr by Exeterj

... Spend 6 hours in an insignia!

Took one to Portsmouth and back today and it was horrible! A 1.8 petrol manual hatch and I couldn't find a thing right with it other than it didn't breakdown! Noisy, bouncy, dull, terrible interior - getting as bad as Nissan and Toyota for human interaction, badly designed boot so not only can you not see out of it properly you also can't fit things in easily. I could go on and on!

I'll be glad to get back in the O3 tomorrow!

I don't know which is more horrific......driving an Insignia or a trip to Portsmouth..........either way my condolences to you. :peek:

A work mate bought a year old Insignia, he  took it back to the same dealers after 6 months to part ex against  an Astra Vxr and they offered him half of what he paid for it, hence he still has it, but he hates it............................tried to tell him but would he listen.............. :no:

They are crap. I had one as a courtesy car whilst mine was in for some crash repairs. It was a facelift one with all the toys. Joke infotainment operated by laughable laptop touchpad, which did not work. Numb to the point of unbearable tedium. Big fat steering wheel big fat bore. Hideous.

AND... They smell of baby sick inside

I had that with a 08 plate vectra, admittedly after 2 years ownership.... It was traced to the aircon system but they tried unsuccessfully to clean out.... It was eye-wateringly rancid in summer

Snet with speeling mistkaes from my phoen

Edited 20 March, 201511 yr by Greg R

A friend of mine had no choice for her company car and received a Vectra. When GM saw sense and stopped doing them she received an Insignia.

Just recently, a change in fleet management resulted in her getting a Golf, she was so relieved she burst into tears...

I also had the misfortune of an Impignia courtesy car in between stealth 2 and stealth 3... I feel sorry for people who actually buy them with their own money....

AND... They smell of baby sick inside

That feature is available on any car, just depends on the driver.

 

Opel / Vauxhall are really struggling, though you get the feeling that GM has done that on purpose, or at least haven't done much to change it. They have at last made cars that look better (the previous Astras weren't very nice to look at and the one we had drank as much oil as fuel). It's such a shame then that in every motoring test they lose many points for being extremely heavy. Their recent partnership with PSA doesn't inspire much confidence tbh, and I doubt that PSA will gain much from GMs involvement either.

We'll see I guess.

They have at last made cars that look better (the previous Astras weren't very nice to look at and the one we had drank as much oil as fuel). It's such a shame then that in every motoring test they lose many points for being extremely heavy.

I really liked the look of the H generation Astras, and their handling (especially with FlexRide) was great. I loved chucking that car around a track. 

I liked the Astra-G, when it came out it handled as well as a Golf which was the class leader, for a very short period then the next generation Golf came out and blew it away!

 

I was working for VX at the time and they took us on test days with all kinds of cars to compare it to on the track and road.

 

Then again, the best was Jason Plato taking you for a spin in a 1.0 3cyl Corsa-B and revving the nuts off of it - that was fun!

I appreciate life with a VRS most when I don't have it because it's stuck at a Dealers 15 miles away from where I live being fixed again. I appreciate that it sucks having a poorly put together car and a Dealer that is so far away (15 miles is an hour in London traffic).