My personal car reviews: Opel Insignia CDTI

I couldn't tell from your video but is that particular insignia equipped with stop/start?
 
Weeeeird specs. Does it have the adaptive headlights and Opel eye? Feels like what they've basically done is create a Rental Edition with the big navi screen to help tourists find their way and then ignored everything that didnt come with the navi (like the electronic handbrake).

I went on the configurator and if I wanted the xenon lights and fogs that your car has, it comes with "advanced front and rear park assist". There's another package (normal headlights) and even then front and rear park assist is included.
 
I have no clue, what kind of edition that was. There are dozens of different specs and packages for the Insignia.

I couldn't tell from your video but is that particular insignia equipped with stop/start?

No, it wasn't.
 
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Can you tell/look up what year it is from the license plate? Cause it's impossible to order that engine with a manual without start stop.

Edit
Spoke to soon. German configurator is crazy. Also germans hate the enviroment. :p

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Can you tell/look up what year it is from the license plate?

You can take the date of the next T?V check from the rear license plate and subtract three years, that's the first registration of the car.
 
Or you can simply look up the colour code of the T?V badge on the number plate. The Insignia had a green one, which means it was registred in 2012.
 
Or you can simply look up the colour code of the T?V badge on the number plate. The Insignia had a green one, which means it was registred in 2012.

If it was registered in 2012 it would have a yellow badge that says due in 2015.

The badge here is indeed green, meaning due in 2012. You can tell from the black bar that it is rotated 1/12th to the left, indicating the month of November. Going back three years, the car was first registered in November 2009.
 
The car had only 3000 km on the odometer. Cars only live their life as a rental car for about half a year max, before they are sold off and they do 3000 km in a week. And the smell I described in my review, wouldn't be as strong after 3 years. The car looked, felt and drove like brand new. Something doesn't make sense here. Even an Opel Insignia isn't parked somewhere for three years and then given to a rental company.

Maybe they switched number plates with another car? Dunno why, though.
 
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The only possible explanation would be a different T?V interval instead of the usual first three years.


PS: Yup, that's it - T?V every 12 months, so the Insignia was registered in November of any year, only 2011 fits the mileage.
 
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I'd have a Mondeo, now that we're discussing alternatives. Nothing comes close in terms of all-round driving capabilities.

Specifically a used one with the 2.5 five cylinder turbo. Plz.
 
Some people have a strong opinion about the current Peugeot 508 being the best of the class, even better than Audi.

Any thoughts on that? Because I don't have Peugeot on my screen to be honest.
 
I considered a new or minimally used Insignia estate when I was choosing a car a year and a half ago. Haven't driven one, but had plenty of opportunities to sit in one and was taken on a ride in one once, and I came to similar conclusions you did - very bad visibility, quite cramped in the back, not too big a boot, and too many buttons. I'm not convinced with the looks, either - as you say, the car looks very generic, with few features that'd make it stand out. Quite happy I went with my Mercedes find back then - the only problem it doesn't address is "too many buttons", but at least most of them do useful things in the Merc :)
 
Some people have a strong opinion about the current Peugeot 508 being the best of the class, even better than Audi.

Any thoughts on that? Because I don't have Peugeot on my screen to be honest.
Haven't driven one, would very much like to though. I've sat in one and everything looked and felt a lot nicer than the 407 it replaced. If you do manage to rent one, please report back :)

It actually feels like PSA knows what they're doing right now. Everything they've put out as of late looks really nice. I like the "new" C5 too.
 
Some people have a strong opinion about the current Peugeot 508 being the best of the class, even better than Audi.

Any thoughts on that? Because I don't have Peugeot on my screen to be honest.

I've read many reviews stating it was "one of the best", but it hasn't managed beating the Passat and the Superb in danish magazines.
 
Look at it this way, the French were bound to get something right at some point :p
 
Hello mate.

I am new here and I can say that you did very thorough job in this review.

However, would like to ask you and the other members of this thread what do you think about petrol engines for Insignia? I am planning to buy either 1.4T or 1.6T, and would like some feedback about these two types if anyone has experience with those.

Thank you in advance
 
Had the car (5-door hatchback) for a day just a week ago, frankly hated it.
It made a very snowy drive with partly dangerous road conditions even more frustrating, and a bit more dangerous.
Starting with the myriads of buttons which make most actions in the car a "hunt and peck" exercise. And if you actually look for stuff, like how to turn on heated side mirrors, they forget to tell you in the manual (literally - it is mentioned in the index, but left out on the page it points you to).
The steering is imprecise and has no feel whatsoever, so on very slippery roads, you really have no idea what the car is doing.

This one was actually equipped with a rear wiper, but every time that thing went on its business, the radio would get static, driving you nuts. The radio also got some faint static when the rear window heater was turned on. It is all nice and shiny having the radio antenna hidden in the rear window, but for crying out loud, engineer it correctly.

The navigation somewhat worked, but I had a frustrating run-in with the voice command lady when she told me I had to acknowledge some legal bullshit about having to keep attention.
That meant: issue voice command, get told it is aborting now, first acknowledge their legal crap. So in order to use the button-less voice command, you first have to look what the hell is going on on the screen, look around for the correct button and press that before being allowed to continue with the whole button-less voice commanding. Brilliant? err, no.
Afterwards, the voice command lady kept being rather stubborn and hearing-impaired.

Anything I liked? The ride to me was actually rather good, not too hard, not too soft. But that's about it.

I actually liked the idea of the Insignia being a somewhat affordable car which still was a kind of "premium". Unfortunately, it is nowhere near "premium". I cannot recommend this car to anyone. Get a Ford Mondeo.

Regards,

Robert
 
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