Vauxhall Insignia diesel 4×4 available in the UK

By Tim Beissmann | June 09th, 2010

Vauxhall in the UK has launched a new all-wheel drive, diesel powered version of its popular Insignia mid-sized car, making it the first Vauxhall passenger vehicle to combine Adaptive 4×4 with a diesel engine.

Previously only available with the 2.0- and 2.8-litre petrol engines, the 118kW/350Nm 2.0-litre CDTi diesel can now be ordered in all-wheel drive. All of the Insignia’s diesel powerplants, including the 96kW unit and the 118kW ecoFLEX, have also undergone considerable re-engineering to improve NVH and enhance refinement and comfort.

The diesel-powered Insignia Sports Tourer 4×4 (pictured) comes standard with a six-speed manual transmission and the option of a six-speed automatic.

The manual version has a combined fuel consumption of 6.0 litres/100km, emits 159g/km CO2, accelerates from 0-100km/h in 9.8 seconds and has a top speed of 209km/h.

Boot capacity with the seats up is 540 litres and expands to 1530 litres with the back seats folded flat.

The Adaptive 4×4 has been a strong seller for Vauxhall, with 21 percent of all 2.0-litre petrol models in the UK driven by all four wheels, an option available from launch.

Vauxhall has sold more than 55,000 Insignias in the UK since its launch 18 months ago, with fleet buyers making up around 65 percent of the numbers. The percentage of private sales has almost doubled compared with the largely-unloved Vectra it replaced.

The UK remains its largest market, controlling the mid-sized sector for the past year, but it has also become the best- or second-best selling mid-sized car in 10 other European markets.

Golfschwein

Wow, check out the old Velox light clusters in the load bay when the door is lifted!

timmy201

Yeah, safer at night time when getting stuff in/out of the boot (we had one as a taxi)

Gms

A zillion times better than the ‘sportswagon’ Holden should return to importing quality European sourced cars

AB

Not in looks it isnt
Dave

looks good until you see the rear. the rear looks like that ugly liberty wagon

jojo

Rear is ugly….but with a bit of Renault quirkiness thrown in.

Karl

Drop the front drive sharfts to make it rear wheel drive!
That would sell so well.

Tomas79

4×4 is even better then a RWD….

Dave

but also heavier, which mean increased fuel use. 4×4 might be better than RWD maybe less 10% of the time. But the marketing department love 4×4 100% of the time.
AB

Manufacturers going AWD on their front wheel drive models suggests to me an admission of the inadequecies of FWD that layout

Devil’s Advocate

The same could be said for manufacturers that have a RWD as well as an AWD model…

Shak

Or could it just be that people like choice, and that different drivetrain configurations suit different conditions.
Devil’s Advocate

Exactly Shak. Each configuration has it’s advantages and disadvantages when compared to the other configurations. I can’t believe the amount of people who can’t accept the fact that, even though it may not suit them personally, a certain product/configuration can suit many other people just fine. I guess that is a by-product of the “me, me, me” society that seems to be running rampant.
jojo

Or you could drive a Subaru with Symetrical Constant All Wheel Drive which is far superioir to FRWD or RWD.
Devil’s Advocate

AWD for it’s many advantages still has some disadvantages over RWD and FWD jojo. There is more to it than the ‘superior traction’ angle. It is not the ‘be all and end all’. If it was ‘far superior’, don’t you think every car would be AWD??!!

An example, why do you think that the special edition Lamborghini Gallardo Balboni dedicated to their long serving test driver as their “ultimate handling Gallardo” was changed from AWD like other “Gallardos” to RWD only?

ManualsOnly

This makes my Octavia Scout look like a beauty queen !! Octavia isn’t outstanding but at least it isn’t as ugly as this Insignia wagon (considering the hatch/sedan is a pretty good looker)

Pops

Nice try – But no.
Peter Stone

Yeah I agree, whilst sedan and more so hatch versions of the Insignia look good the wagon looks like ass, and I’d prefer an Octavia wagon also.

ox

Holden would do well to bring the insignia and the astra here

Whatever

Get rid of that hideous Cruze – Cruze in and Cruze out i say – rubbish car.
Hopefully they can come here as an independent brand. I spoke to an Opel manager and he said that we (Australia) are a likely contender for the Opel / Vauxhall brand, YAY!!!!!!! Give Holden a run for its money, and its rubbish Korean crap!!!!!!

Bent 8 Brigade

Yeah that would make complete sense – get rid of Cruze and bring back the high priced euro vehicles that nobody was buying.
YAY!!!!!!intelligent stuff

Whatever

If you read my blog correctly Bent 8 Brigade, you would see that im not saying bring back the Euros and badge them as Holdens, that would be dumb, because noone would buy them because of the Holden badge; what i was saying is that Opel / Vauxhall would come here independently of Holden, and give the Astra, Insignia etc the proper badge they deserve, instead of the low rent Holden badge that represents cheap Korean nasties. All i can suggest to you is that you read before you comment.Thats all.

Kris

Saw them last year in Europe, They just look so good; Even better than a Bommodore!
HNC

This thing could probably give the Subarus a run for their money being a 4×4 and looking slightly better than the current Liberty’s.

jojo

Ha Ha…Yeah right LOL subaru Outback are selling like hotcakes….150% sales over Year on year sales.

Kieran

Vauxhall should set up shop next to every Subaru dealer, with Insignia going head-to-head with Liberty, raise the suspension to make an Outback contender, and then sell the new Astra against the Impreza. Granted, they’re not quite competitors, but in terms of sale volume, Astra and Insignia would send Subaru a clear message on styling…