All-new Vauxhall Insignia estate: Official pics
Author: Chris Barker
Published: 14 August 2008
All-new Vauxhall Insignia Sports Tourer breaks its cover ahead of October’s Paris Motor Show. It comes complete with two new turbocharged engines, with talk of an emission-busting ecoFLEX derivative following initial launch, yet no tech spec or price confirmation.It’s here. Call off the search. Regain your composure. Take a deep breath. And ‘it’s’ well worth the wait. In fact, the all-new Vauxhall Insignia estate is what you might call a right eyeful.Having not been leaked, robbed, nabbed, snaffled or half-inched, the new Vauxhall Insignia estate pictures are 100% legit. Above board. And before you ask, they’re also 100% genuine. No Photoshop-fakery or other software-led artistic licence going on here.Available in its entirety to the UK hordes from spring 2009, the all-new Vauxhall Insignia estate is finally amongst us. In image-form anyway. You’ll have to get yourselves a ticket to the imminent Paris Motor Show in October if you want to steam up its windows with your over-enthusiastic breath.Three petrol engines, and two diesels – borrowed from the Insignia saloon – are instantly up for grabs in the estate version, plus there’s the inclusion of a brace of new power sources. Notably a new turbo diesel and a smaller capacity turbocharged petrol lump.Unfortunately Vauxhall hasn’t deemed it appropriate as yet to regale us with tales of exactly what this duo of new engines can do. In terms of performance or economy.Known as the Sports Tourer, the all-new Insignia estate is already stretching its legs and beginning to feel its way in the premium automotive marketplace it’s hoping to gatecrash. After all the Audi estate is referred to as the Avant, whilst the BMW started this whole ‘Touring’ malarkey off with its doggy-ready stretch 5-Series way back when.As you’d expect, from the front the new Vauxhall Insignia Sports Tourer is identikit to the saloon, yet once your eyes slide past the driver’s door, the coachwork is completely new.Mark Adams, Vice-President of GM Europe Design, said, “This is a stand-alone model and not simply an estate version of the saloon. All the bodywork aft of the B-pillars is unique to the Sports Tourer.”Although sharing the exact same wheelbase, the Sports Tourer is fractionally longer than hatch and saloon.Following in the tyre-treads of the four-door and five-door Insignia, the estate will be readied for domestic loading and shifting duties with both front and all-wheel drive options.Again, continuing the trend already set by the Insignia Sports Tourer’s siblings, the manufacturer bespoke FlexRide system – that affords the driver to govern the ride set-up and quality courtesy of Vauxhall’s Adaptive Stability Technology – makes its mark here too.
An Insignia Sports Tourer ecoFLEX model – that brandishes low-emission claims all of its own – will appear on Vauxhall’s UK forecourts shortly after the introduction of the full-blooded estate.The new estate model will also benefit from the high levels of technology showcased at Insignia’s launch, such as Vauxhall’s latest generation Adaptive Forward Lighting (AFL), with its nine light beam settings, and the Front Camera System, which can read and memorize road signs and alert drivers if they unintentionally veer off the road.Vauxhall remain poker-faced with regards the Insignia Sports Tourer pricing structure when prodded, but those that seem to magic up figures at times like this suggest it’ll be about £1,000 more than the hatch/saloon.
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vauxhall have done it again and come up with a fantastic car sports tourer i cannot wait to see it for real i own a vauxhall vectra estate and love the drive a beatiful estate didnt think they could come up with a better estate but this sports tourer they have it the jackpot so superior