New Vauxhall Insignia for under £16K

Making its world debut at this week’s British Motor Show – and an equally as grand global entrance – are the two models are on Vauxhall’s display stand – a four-door saloon and a five-door hatchback – with very little to pick between them. Not least their coupe-esque silhouettes.

We were there remember, breaking the news when the all-new Vauxhall Insignia spec and images were first nabbed, scanned and uploaded onto the web, and we’ve followed it every step of the way since, leading up to this weeks official unveiling at the British Motor Show.

Re-creating a dramatic scene straight out of a sci-fi B-movie, an Insignia tumbled out of a giant orb and crashed to earth in front a crowd of 300 invited, yet strangely startled onlookers in central London, well and truly announcing its worldwide arrival on the D-Segment mid-size scene.

This stunt was of course staged to emphasise what a momentous technological and engineering achievement the new Vauxhall Insignia is, made all the more poignant when you recall its the successor to the Vectra. Nevertheless, that was a car that found favour with more buyers in the UK than anywhere else in Europe during its lifetime, and was no stranger to motorway service areas overnight car parks throughout the UK as a result.

But whilst the Vectra was more akin to a loyal, obedient, yet slightly mongrel pet dog, the new Insignia is a Kennel Club-bred pedigree chum that will bring you more pleasure, belonging and knowledge than a saliva-coated paper each morning.

Style, excitement and dynamism are all now Insignia Man’s new best friend courtesy of Vauxhall’s insistence it seems on throwing away the Griffin-badged rule book, and starting over.

As we’ve reported previously, there’s no escaping Vauxhall's insistence that the all-new Insignia is a massive groundswell toward the premium D-Segment sector and you-know-who territories. Germans, like using numbers instead of names for models. If what we see here before us is anything to go by, then Bavaria might have more of a fight on their automotive hands than they could ever have imagined in the past in this market.

Meanwhile, Mondeo Men might be left decidedly shaken, yet not stirred, when the Insignia pulls up alongside him at the Travel Lodge entrance henceforth.

New Vauxhall Insignia technologically advanced for D-Segment

The technology – unlike the Vectra’s – is very much planted in this, or even the next, century. Personalised suspension settings programmed by the driver, an adaptive four wheel drive system that doles out grip and traction to whichever quarter it feels is struggling at any one time, the capabilities to tell you the speed limit on the road in which you’re about to travel on before you get there and displaying its findings on the instrumentation panel and inform you if you happen to be in a no-overtaking zone.

You know, the sort of gizmos found in executive cars.

And then there’s the interior.

Apparently, the wing-like dash spreading out before the driver that slopes off into the door trims will become the omnipresent curvaceous trademark of Vauxhall interiors during the coming years, whilst the overall design, materials and ambience created definitely whiff of the Teutonic touch, and for that we applaud Vauxhall.

Petrols and diesels are offered for all tastes and pockets upwards, from the £15,935 1.8-litre Exclusiv fossil fuel burner – brandishing amongst other delights electronic stability control, auto headlights, cruise and climate – and £16,935 2.0-litre CDTI oil-burning variant that get the Insignia fleet under way.

With the complete Insignia range available to UK buyers by November, other variants to look out for are an estate, a high-economy diesel and an uber-rapid VXR model. Hold on to your hats, it should be quite a ride!