Holden Vectra (Insignia) 2008 London Motorshow
July 24, 2008 by Alborz Fallah
Holden Vectra 2008 London Motorshow
The Holden Vectra-equivalent which will join the saloon and estate variants when it arrives in Europe in 2009.
Holden has previously refused to comment regarding the potential return of the Vectra to Australia, however it would seem likely as the logical rival to the new Mazda6 and Ford Mondeo.
Like the saloon, the Insignia fastback will be available with either front- or all-wheel drive and a remarkable seven engines to choose from.
These include four petrol engines ranging from a 4-cylinder 86kW unit to a 194kW V6 and three new 2.0-litre direct-injection diesels ranging from 82 to 120kW.
The AWD is fitted with the FlexRide mechatronic chassis system with its Adaptive Stability Technology, but is also optional for the FWD models.
Click through to the next page for a comprehensive gallery.
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Stylized Epica. What went wrong?
This is a classy car. I don’t think it looks its best in pictures though.
It doesn’t look so good in these pictures, the rear looks a bit Japanese. I’d have to say the Mondeo has the edge here but an impressive selection of engines + AWD, too bad we’ll never see it. We’ll have the empressive EpicHeapOfShite to admire on our roads…great!
We’re not getting this are we?
If someone removed the badges and announced this as a new Toyota Waddeva, I’d believe them.
Some of the proportions are odd, particularly in profile and rear three-quarter, and it’s bland. All Toyota trademarks.
Tom, did you read the article mate?
With a fair bit of Opel manufacturing being offloaded to other countries as Ford has done with the Focus which will be built outside of Europe as well you ca bet your bottom dollar that the cars Holden will get coming out of South Korea will be of the same standard and the same model range that in the past we got from Europe like the Corsa/Barina, Vectra and Astra. It is just the same as Ford building the Focus here in Australia. To those critisizing Holdens move you wait and see what Australia will be getting in a couple of years. I really think you will be eating your words after all who complains about VW’s being built in Mexico etc and some Mercs being Built in North America…. The current Holden/Daewoo range is in its final days and I believe that considering Hyundai and Kia/ Ssayong etc will be the inferior Korean product (Not saying they will be bad) because they will not be building European Designed and engineered cars. Its already known that the Next Astra will be built for the right hand drive market in South Korea alongside a new Viva for the Australian buyers.
Again too those saying Holdenwoo etc, oh I look forward to the day you find out what I am saying is true because you will not here the end of it…..Anyone with half a business brain can see what GM is doing here as they only need to look at what VW does, what Ford does with its cars that are built in South Africa and what all companies do with their pickups eg. Navara, Ranger/B500, Colorado, Triton etc which are all built in Thailand now oh and Honda with the Jazz, Civic, Accord and their 4WD (gone blank on the name at the moment)the only difference being that GM have used up the existing Daewoo stock while they upgrade the plant. You will see that I am at least 90% correct with my prediction.
Frosty right on, I agree with you. I know several people who have bought the current Barina and Viva and they are very happy with them. But please Holden can we have this now as I would pay a premium to have something that looks this good.
I really like the car….except the back, it looks awful!
Frosty, I think your highlighting 2 arguments here. Firstly it should not matter where the car is built because the build quality should be defined and checked by the manufacture. We’ve already seen this with the likes of BMW etc.
The problem with the Holden Daewoo products is the actual car itself is sub standard and cheap. If the epica was built in germany to its current spec and stardard it would still be crap because the car is of a low standard to begin with. If the production of the Astra shifts to Korea then so so long as GM uphold good quality checks the car will be fine. But the question then would be why would you have the
viva/Barina or Epica at all if GM start shifting to this type of global production. Maybe thats the longterm strategy and you could possibly be right. The current range of daewoo cars could just be a gap filler. Unfortunately only time will tell.
Lazybones – theres no question mate, the current range of Daewoos ARE a top gap solution. This has been confirmed by basically everyone. The next wave of european opels, ie corsa/barina, insignia, astra, will all be built in europe as well as south korea by daewoo. In some cases they will build exactly the same as what opel builds, and in other cases they will do some level of differentiation, from minor interior and exterior changes, to completely different bodys and interiors, however the mechanicals will all be identical.
Yes the current range of daewoos being sold here as holdens are sub standard (except for the captiva, i think thats alright personally) but they really are just stop gaps, the next wave will be of the same standard as the european opel/vauxhal equivilants because, for all intents and purposes, they will be the same!
I think that you guys are reading the situation all wrong.
GM are not going to be building European designed cars in Korea.
Instead they are going to be taking the Korean desinged cars to Europe, in an extension to the current set-up.
Is the Astra replacement actually designed by GM Europe or is it the next generation Daewoo designed Epica?
Gee Richo, you think the holden salesman told your story to the poor buggers who have purchased these stop gap shitheaps in the meantime.?
Im with Golf, that could be the next Camry, this could really cause Toyota problems, lmao!
Well Bret, that is the millon dollar question. Because the design and spec levels will be the important feature not the location of manufacture. We have already seen the Captiva in Europe sole as the Antara, but i doubt the Barina/Viva/Epica could ever compete in Europe, they aren’t competing very well in Australia as it is. So unless GM/Daewoo are seriously about to up their game, I would guess their future models would be more Euro designed than Korean. But we’ll have to wait and see…
Bret, no Opel Designed AND engineered vehicles will be be built in South Korea just as Ford are doing with the Ford Focus shifting to Australia. It is Common knowledge that Euro built cars are just going to get more expensive to bring here to Australia. GM and Ford are getting around that by building them closer to our market whether they build them here or South Korea/ Thailand/ India etc plus of course costs can also be lowered due to the extremely cheap wages in the south east asian countries and when added to the free trade agreement makes it a better proposition business wise. It will not be the other way around because as I have said what GM is going to do has already been implemented by VW and Honda for a number of years now and will become even more commonplace in the years ahead. I am sure if you could have euro inspired cars sent here from South east asia and say for example that you could get a Insignia/ Mondeo and a quality Japanese large car for under $30,000 instead of over $30,000 you would get a better buyer reaction ans still make a reasoably good profit margin out of it.
Oh and by the way, the only Korean Connection with the Captiva/ Antara is that its built there. Engineering wise its got more Euro/ Aussie Import with Mike Simcoe involved heavily with it. It was the first actual new from the ground up and had nothing to do with Daewoo before it was bought by GM.
Really Frosty, and here I was thinking it was a Korean designed and built Daewoo based on GM’s “Theta” platform. Essentially its a cheap Korean knock-off of a European design. Did you happen to read Holden’s propaganda brochure on this vehicle by chance?
go golf on that word :)
Silky, frosty’s point was that the captive was the first car that was fully developed by Daewoo since it was taken over by GM, and it was the first car fully developed by Daewoo based off a GM platform, as opposed to the viva, barina and epica which where all built off Daewoo platforms. So yes it was still developed in Korea by Daewoo, however Holden actually had a very large input in the development of the car, Holden engineers did the chassis tuning and the engine/gearbox integration and Mike Simcoe (designer of the Monaro) did the styling for it in his new role as head designer for GM Asia.
So the point is silky, the captive although designed in Korea by Daewoo, it really is a full GM design, and it’s the first car by Daewoo that is a full GM design, hence why there is such a large gap in quality between the captive and other Daewoo imports. For a “form guide” if you like of what future GM Daewoo/Holden products will be like, look to the captive, not the epica/viva/barina which, as we have already covered, are “stop gap” cars built off old Daewoo (pre-GM) designs.
Also Silky, did the holden rep say that to the buyers of barina’s etc? Who knows, but fact is the information regarding the current Daewoo imports has been freely available for quite some time now and people bought these cars with their eyes wide open. Can only really blame themselves if they are now subsequently unhappy with their vehicles. Same as how the ford festiva for many years was actually a KIA design that was also imported from Korea
Actually Richo in your own words “So the point is silky, the captive although designed in Korea by Daewoo, it really is a full GM design” What you mean of course is the the platform is GM, the design and finish pretty much all Daewoo.
Now Gee, what did I say again “it was a Korean designed and built Daewoo based on GM’s “Theta” platform”
Richo, if you have a problem understanding simple sentence structure perhaps you should attend to it. I know you think you are smart and thats good, I am all for encouraging self esteem, just read the post a couple of times before you comment.
Also huckleberry my point regarding the stop gap daewoo sales was once bitten…
From memory were you not the guy singing hyms to holdens epica return policy? You didnt read the detail to closely there either.
Also poor old frosty believes that Holden really got their hands on the Captiva, they did, but not nearly as much as Holden would want you to think. The captiva is a dog on the dirt, hardly built for Oz conditions, actually, its pretty much a dog all round..
I’ve read the Captiva is competitive with the Mazda CX-7… and alot more economical too.
It definitely looks ok, and appears to be selling well.
To the person most likely named silky keep the name “A Joke” up because that is exactly what you are. You are a Joke. You are most likely infact I think its a certainty are one of those who add woo to the Holde name. I have run 2 businesses i my life from scratch. One now known as a well known hiring company and another being in the security industry. I have business knowledge which you could only ever dream of and what GM is doing is going to be one of the best business decisions one could make. European quality at South Korean prices in the case of the Astra, Corsa/Barina and more European/ Australian/ U.S imput in the remaiing Light/Small and medium class cars such as for example Viva. The Epica will mirror the insignia which if you look from the front view with the Headlights/ Indicators housing being almost identical with the Insignia and the Grill being more like the MY09 Epica which has lost the crome bar horizotally though the grill on it. Starting to show abit of a family resemblence there which even if you have seen the MY09 Barina is also seen in that car. I can see Holden having premium versions like Astra and Corsa running alongside Viva and Barina with the Corsa also being built in South Korea with its European origans fully exposed for all to see. I can also see a mid size premium RWD Holden (Torana) running alongside the Cheaper Epica or Possibly Insignia following the Astra also to be built in South Korea for the Aus and other markets on our side of the world. GM has already also stated there is a strong possibility of a second smaller car being built by Holde in Australia. Whether its the Torana or maybe even the Opel inspired Corsa it doesn’t matter. GM can do this for Australia as Holden is well known for producing quality products as show with the G8 and Camaro ad for the excellent concepts it comes up with for eg. Torana TT36. Coupe 60, The VT Ecomodore, Efijy and Sandman just to name a few. You really need to look at what is happening in the future with these cars and not just say that the future Korean built cars will be no better than the current stop gap cars because Captiva has already shown us a glimpse of what we can expect in the near future with even better products coming with better technology as it comes in. As I said to “A Joke” you aptly came up with a good name for yourself.
Ah my letter nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn is playing up as shown in my last post. Must hit the n key harder when typing.
The insignia is built on the same platfrom that the upcoming Holden Torana [Commodore] and Pontiac G6 will be built on.
Meaning the 2012 Torana could aslo be available with AWD matched up to a Twin Turbo version of the next generation direct injection V6.
I have seen sketches of what a Torana [A9-X] coupe could look like…. very impressive and hope it to makes it into production
What the hell are you talking about foggy??
We were talking about the captiva, which I note you have quickly distanced yourself from.
Nice post on future GM products, gee, thats really inside news isnt it. I dont care who you are or what you do, your comments about the captiva were absolute bollocks, sif that had MAJOR input from OZ, superficial at Best.
AS for the nut who thinks the captiva can compete against the mazda cx7, get out of the sun mate, lol.
Holden needs to sell this, they Daewoo stuff is crap.
BTW Frosty every heard of a paragraph? Your stuff is hard to read.
Listen, I don’t mean to be rude, but all this backslapping about future GM products and stuff, GM is not far away from pulling the plug or a possible merger, this is company that loses billions every year, they wouldnt know a good product if toyota gave em the blue prints(funny this insigna looks like a camry..)you all sit here and giggle at toyota, this would be the company that makes 30 billion a year isnt it? I mean, lets do the math, GM loses 30 bill, toyo makes 30 bill, wow, thats a big difference. As for the Torana, spit in the ocean and really, Its almost to late for holden as it is. You have inside knowledge and like cross sharing a platform is new technology…think camira the heap of garbage that was.
Lets get back to Captiva shall we huckleberry…lets swap note foggy o master of the universe..
Mazda 6 still owns this category. This car looks like an overinflated Epica. Will be too expensive and too close to Commodore.
Check out the derivative interior and that ugly steering wheel!
“Meaning the 2012 Torana could aslo be available with AWD matched up to a Twin Turbo version of the next generation direct injection V6.”
Totally irrelevant in a world where the biggest car seller breaks records selling “white goods”.
God spare me, you guys just don’t get it. And here comes holden with a 7.2 litre thing that takes its styling cues from a shovel, yep, they don’t get it either. GM hasn’t got it for almost 10 years.
Does anyone here get it?
is this guy really serious? He thinks he is king shit this bloke. Got news for ya mate, you don’t know half as much as you think you do. When GM took over Daewoo it was Holden management which was given the task of running the company, and it was also Holden who made the decision to pull Daewoo out of Australia and concentrate it solely in Asia, a smart business decision quite clearly. Also the point about the Captiva stands, it IS the first car fully developed by GM since its takeover of Daewoo, Holden is GM, GM is Holden, they are the same freekin company you dunce, and you accuse me of not comprehending simple things! The Barina is based on an old pre-GM daewoo design, as is the viva and epica, the captiva on the other hand is NOT based on an old Daewoo design, it was designed and built from the ground up by GM using a GM platform and a GM drivetrain. The styling was done by mike simcoe, a GM contracted designer, formerly of Holden and the designer of the monaro. I notice that YOU clearly skipped over this one…
My point was that the captiva was the first car fully developed from the ground up since the GM takeover of Daewoo and it is common knowledge inside the automtive industry that there is absolutely no similarities between GM Daewoo and the pre-GM Daewoo, none at all. It is basically Daewoo by name, but GM everything else, just like holden, just like vauxhall, just like opel, just like saab, just like chevvy… list goes on. My point was that the captiva is the first 100% designed and developed car to come out of the Daewoo plant and that is why there is such a big gulf in quality between the captiva and the other daewoo offerings. That point is 100% correct. Yes the Captiva is no good in the rough, but shit mate its a bloody soft roader what did you expect! NONE OF THEM ARE GOOD IN THE ROUGH! I’m not trying to say the captiva is a world class car, but it up there and competitive with the other cars in it’s class which is a first for cars coming from Daewoo, and you really think that this is not due to a GM influence? You really must be “a joke”
and by the way mate, the rest of us stick to the one name so the regular users of this site can keep up with who is who, are you really that embaressed by your own posts that you aren’t willing to put the same name to them? Well i guess i would be too but anyway, can you just admit you are the toyota bloke who constantly comes in here to run down any thread that speaks of holden or ford products? That way we can atleast know to just ignore you…
and yes my point was valid and not just repeating what you said because you where inferring that the captiva was just a korean/daewoo designed car using a GM platform, inferring that it was designed by the same people that designed the current barina, viva and epica. My point was that no this car was fully developed by GM, it just happened to be that the work was done in korea. Now if you can’t identify the difference between those two statements then it’s you that has the problem mate.
oh and one last thing joke, what the hell does toyota have to do with all of this? Why do you toyota fans feel the need to bring toyota into every single discussion on this site no matter how irrelivant toyota is to what we are talking about? But seen as we are on the topic of toyota, they are down 98,000 sales so far this year in the US compared to last year, 98,000! Now yes GM and Ford and Chrysler are all down more then this granted, but it does go to show that the magical toyota aren’t necessarily as king shit as people like you seem to think they are!
BretLazybones you wrong – GM already do the korean cars in Europe your crappy Holden from Korea are badged as Chevrolet here. You see TG with star in a modest price car. Its a Chevrolet badged deawoo. Not that Deawoo exist anymore
its actually Honda, just quietly, thats making the big inroads in the US with the decline of GM, ford, chrysler and yes, even toyota. And honda are a far more technologically advanced company then toyota as well, the civic hybrid being a much more realistic attempt at a viable hybrid vehicle then the prius, which as well all know is just a fasionable thing for people who want to appear green to be driving. But now we are starting to head waaaaaay off topic. In summary, GM daewoo products, currently bad (except captiva), but will be good in the future (next 5 or so years). Yes this is bad for people currently buying them, but hey everyone knows what they are, presumably they take them for a test drive before they buy them so they know full well what they are getting themselfs into, so i don’t really see a problem to be perfectly honest. Yes it’s hurting holdens reputation in the short term, but again this is a decision holden made knowing full well the consequences, so how about we all move on and get on with it! Badge engineering happens! It’s happened for a long time and will if anything only increase in the future, so lets all just move on!
Richo – isn’t it obvious… the reason they have to make it so that on every blog we end up talking about Toyota is because that’s all they know about cars and don’t want to feel left out of the discussion.. could have something to do with an inferiority complex
Funny thing is that on the blog about Toyota Prius at the London Motorshow; instead of Talking about the Prius; Dingo has decided to focus on BMs tits…. so even when they get the legitimate opportunity to talk about Toyota they would still rather talk about something else..
Wheelnut, your right mate, these toyota fans really do have a bad case of “little man” syndrome don’t they? They have a desperate need to prove themselfs… sif anyone really cares? REAL car fans like all sorts of different makes and models, not just their one beloved make
yer, you guys are real smart;
“Totally irrelevant in a world where the biggest car seller breaks records selling “white goods”.”
Like thats a compliment to toyota. Its a fact, they make white goods, generic, vanila white goods. WTF Richo, have you not heard of the camira, the “j” car or whatver, the great white lemon platform used worldwide by GM OVER 30 years ago. No, I don’t know it all, thats why I use commonsense and fact in my post.
So mate post 4 pages to improve your self esteem, the fact is you still cant understand what people are writing, you apparently have never heard of the camira and its platform being used worldwide by GM, but hey, keep wagging that tounge mate.
Wheelnut, you are not worth responding to period, “I have seen the plans…” LOL, I do believe you are trying to get a job on this site mate ;) Stick to tyres, your knowledge base ends there.
“automtive industry that there is absolutely no similarities between GM Daewoo and the pre-GM Daewoo, none at all.” Really richo, heres one, build quality.
i agree,
the constant name changing is “A JOKE”.
Mate everyone has heard of the camira and the j-car platform, they even made a dodgy cadillac off it in the US. But hey did you know the camira actually won wheels car of the year and was noted as being the best handling FWD car on the market when it was new? Yes it aged terribly, but it was actually acceptable when new (well apparently it was, i wasn’t old enough to drive back then so i don’t know)
And posting to improve my self esteem.. well if thats true then surely you must be doing the same? no? And i was refering to the company GM Daewoo as opposed to the Daewoo that went before it, not the products they make. Ofcourse you know this though, your just being a twit and trying to take comments out of context, which is pretty normal for people like you, ie one minded fools who refuse to listen to reason and instead go on and on about stuff they clearly know little about.
If you really understood the automtive world as much as you claim you do, then you would know that what i am saying, and what Frosty has said, is 100% correct. We aren’t making it up to suit any agenda’s, we are simply stating fact. At no point have i said that holdens decision to import daewoos was a good one, at no point have i said that the barina and viva and epica are good cars, but what i have said about daewoo the company and the development of the captiva is fundamentally correct, you cannot deny this, as i notice you have deftly avoided all of the comments i have made and instead have gone off on another tangent with the camira/j car program which again, is completely irrelivant to the topic we are discussing!
Figure it out mate and then come back and try and have a SERIOUS discussion based on FACTS, not personal opinions and stigma’s
and pick what bloody name you wanna go by and stick with it! If you had done this i wouldn’t have mistaken you as a toyota fanboy, although i do still suspect that is exactly what you are in disguise…
No, I’m really batman you moron.
Not sure why one or two regular trolls regularly insist on ruining an opportunity for reasonable discussion.
Back to the car in question:
I still love the curves and blade down the side highlighted in early promotional photos and am going to reserve judgement till I see it in the metal (here’s hoping Holden brings it out soon).
Combined fuel economy on the 2.0 CDTI appears to be around 5.8l / 100km (press pack says the 70l tank will do around 750 miles). Presume that would be the manual 130PS and not the 160PS or the 6 speed automatic. Also can’t make out from the press release if those figures are for a FWD car or one with the AWD (the adaptive 4×4 system). The levels of options and innovations look like an Audi brochure, but I wont get too excited. We never seem to get the full ragne of options on these mid-range European market cars (point in question – the Mondeo titanium series, or the Honda Accord Euro).
worldcarfans dot com has the full press release.
Wow – there is some crap expressed on this site.
The insignia – bigger exterior than a mondeo, less interior space than a mondeo, more expensive than a mondeo – where does it fit in the Holden line up?
wow you sure told us batman… tosser
Yes SamR, I have heard of paragraphs. I was being lazy for a change and ‘A Joke’ and his anti GM drivel got to me as he believes that GM are sending the Korean Products over to Europe when in fact the total opposite is true.
ALSO to A JOKE, If you say Simcoe’s contribution to the Captiva was insignificant you are massively wrong and if you don’t think that Simcoe is a Australian born and bred male you are wrong again. Also where is the 3.2ltr V6 Built? Melbourne, Victoria, Australia oh forgive me Port Melbourne. As I have said inside the next 3 years I look forward to saying to you if you will show your face on here, I told you so…………….
Hi Richo, regarding the Camira. I am fortunately old enough to have driven them when they were brought out and they were not actually a bad car in the day they were on sale. I actually had a JD SLE as my eco second car as my main car was a V8 and the ONLY issue I had with it was the Fuel gauge which was very inaccurate. I also had a female friend who owned her JB SLE from new until 2005 never having any real problems with it. I have heard of other people having no issues or problems. For the times it came in it was a great car. They main issue came when unleaded fuel came in and the new 1.8ltr pre unleaded motor lost power when unleaded came in. They had to make huge changes to the motor.
“BretLazybones you wrong – GM already do the korean cars in Europe your crappy Holden from Korea are badged as Chevrolet here”
Yes, don’t ask me why but under the chevy brand they sell all the old Daewoo crap, but then again Chinese cars also made it to Europe.
But as I pointed out earlier, they won’t compete well in Europe. I know the Captiva has been well received as a good cheap soft roader. But despite good sales growth for Chevy in the UK they still sell less units than when they were Daewoo! and represent less than 1.5% of the market. And why is chevy there anyway when they already have Vauxhall & Opel???
I don’t truly understand GM’s future plan, it appears a massive re-structure is underway and I can see many models thrown out and a smaller global product set for the future. I think the outcome will be felt mostly here if Korea is to be our regions GM manufacture. Why would you then have Insignia/Epica/Torano? i’m guessing only one is on the cards for the longterm furture.