2012 opel insignia

GERMAN ROCKS

what are the insignias like as a car. The folks are looking at one for next year. It will be the basic diesel one. No extras except metallic paint. How are these nearly 3,000 dearer than there rivals such as the 508, c5, passat, avensis etc. What makes them more superior. Any known problems.

R.O.R

GERMAN ROCKS wrote: »

what are the insignias like as a car. The folks are looking at one for next year. It will be the basic diesel one. No extras except metallic paint. How are these nearly 3,000 dearer than there rivals such as the 508, c5, passat, avensis etc. What makes them more superior. Any known problems.

Don't buy the S model. It's the only one not to get Nav as standard for next year, and I reckon that will really hurt come sale time.

Retail price may be quite a bit higher than the competition, but cost price will be in or around what the others are.

2012 has start stop on, so god knows what that will do to reliability. Haven't been that great so far. Brakes, gearboxes and electrical issues.

barura

As a car, lots of people here sing there praises. I hear they are fun to drive, and nippy too.

You know for less than that car new you can get amazing Mercs, BMW's, hell, even the insignia itself for a fair few quid less with low miles if you consider a 2010 one? It'd have all the nice things too, like leather interior and all that.

Just saying...

EDIT: Oh the diesel?? That's a whole different kettle of fish. Nevermind what I just said, I was thinking of the Petrol.

-Corkie-

GERMAN ROCKS wrote: »

what are the insignias like as a car. The folks are looking at one for next year. It will be the basic diesel one. No extras except metallic paint. How are these nearly 3,000 dearer than there rivals such as the 508, c5, passat, avensis etc. What makes them more superior. Any known problems.

The diesel I had was very noisy I found and also had poor visibility when you are at a junction..

Paulw

I've a 2009 diesel Insignia SRi, and I love it. A great drive. I've had no problems with the car.

Open road driving it's brilliant. Obviously not brilliant, fuel wise, when city driving.

No idea what the 2012 version will be like, but if I was updating or buying again, I'd definitely go for the Insignia.

-Corkie-

Paulw wrote: »

I've a 2009 diesel Insignia SRi, and I love it. A great drive. I've had no problems with the car.

Open road driving it's brilliant. Obviously not brilliant, fuel wise, when city driving.

No idea what the 2012 version will be like, but if I was updating or buying again, I'd definitely go for the Insignia.

Is that the one with leather sports seats...

pudzey101

I know the guy selling this one
http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/2554169

Has nothing bad to say about it, plenty of power and unreal on fuel he says
actually i must ask him why the hell he's selling it then :rolleyes:

-Corkie-

pudzey101 wrote: »

I know the guy selling this one
http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/2554169

Has nothing bad to say about it, plenty of power and unreal on fuel he says
actually i must ask him why the hell he's selling it then :rolleyes:

That one is the poverty spec. You will get the elite model for a few quid more.

Damien360

I have a 2.0 130bhp estate SE model insignia.

Very comfortable space to be in with a fantastic spec. S spec should be avoided. I have mine since last week in Sept and have put 11,000km on it so far.

The handling is poor. It is very, very poor in the wet compared to my last car the mondeo zetec. The whole car twitches a lot like it momentarily lost it's footing every so often. I could slow down to solve this but I am comparing to my last car the mondeo. In the dry, it understeers noticeably when pushed.

Fuel economy, it is claiming to get 6.2L/km over many tank refills but when I measure myself, I got a calculation of 41mpg.

The gearing is very long in every gear. I have to work it like a petrol for overtakes. Rarely dropped gears in my mondeo but always in the insignia. It feels underpowered compared to the mondeo (125bhp 1.8TDCi zetec) but that is because of gear ratios I think.

Most annoying feature is the electric boot. Press a button for it to go up slowly and then press another for it to come down. Seems fine, I hear you say, but if anything gets in the way as it comes down, it pops back open. As I am often walking away at this point, it means returning to the car to remove the tiny obstruction and close again.

On the subject of the load space, it is tiny compared to the mondeo. There is a huge lip on the rear that is unusable as the boot lid sits on this.

Visibility on junctions is poor but that is a feature of many new cars. I believe this is due to safety having the window at shoulder height to protect occupants. Also, it really needs park sensors as rear visibilty is awful.

I do like the car, although the above should make you wonder aloud and I have no choice to change as work gave me this. But I do miss my mondeo. The insignia is not really a drivers car at all. I would not buy one for my family if I had the money.

fletch

I wouldn't be a fan of Opels but i hired an Insignia in the UK and it really impressed me. It was so smooth and comfortable on the motorway.

YouTookMyName

pudzey101 wrote: »

I know the guy selling this one
http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/2554169

Has nothing bad to say about it, plenty of power and unreal on fuel he says
actually i must ask him why the hell he's selling it then :rolleyes:

Because as Insignia go it's fugly.

walus

Damien360 wrote: »

I have a 2.0 130bhp estate SE model insignia.

The handling is poor. It is very, very poor in the wet compared to my last car the mondeo zetec. The whole car twitches a lot like it momentarily lost it's footing every so often. I could slow down to solve this but I am comparing to my last car the mondeo. In the dry, it understeers noticeably when pushed.

I agree with that. I had one hired six months ago and nearly crashed it on a straight road! I was not going fast or driving like a maniac just to clear that out. It seems that there is a long delay with what you do to steering wheel and how the wheels themselves react. It has I believe something to do with this new electric power steering and software that controls it. What happened was that I was passing out a car on a motorway to Dublin and as I was about to pass it fully, the driver pulled out forcing me outside the road. That was not a problem from my point of view as it happened to me before. What I was completely surprised about was the way the car reacted - I gave it a quick nudge to the left expecting it would come back gently on the road again. But no, nothing happened, so I gave it a nudge again and this is when things went wrong. Then the car oversteer to the left and I ended up trying to tame it down swinging like a snake all over the road. I have never been so scare behind the wheel so far, I though I would crash it for sure. Later I heard they were releasing a software patch for steering in 2012 insignias - it seems like there is more software to it this days than good old fashion mechanics.
My advice do not buy it. even if they fixed the steering, the handling is poor - the car seems to heavy and has no feel. Looks ridiculous inside too.

pajo1981

walus wrote: »

It seems that there is a long delay with what you do to steering wheel and how the wheels themselves react. It has I believe something to do with this new electric power steering and software that controls it

It's power assisted not steer-by-wire, wtf!

Paulw

-Corkie- wrote: »

Is that the one with leather sports seats...

No, we didn't go for the leather, we wanted the cloth seats.

Lower suspension, metal sports pedals, lumbar support seats, etc.

walus

pajo1981 wrote: »

It's power assisted not steer-by-wire, wtf!

Whichever way it is done (I'm not an expert mechanic) it is not a fully hydraulic system at all. And the fact that it need a piece of software to run does not spell any good. I drove cars built in the 90s that in similar situations behaved very predictably unlike the Insignia. The fact that Opel have issued software upgrade for the steering means they were not happy about it - they would not be doing it otherwise, would they?

blackbox

walus wrote: »

I agree with that. I had one hired six months ago and nearly crashed it on a straight road! I was not going fast or driving like a maniac just to clear that out. It seems that there is a long delay with what you do to steering wheel and how the wheels themselves react. It has I believe something to do with this new electric power steering and software that controls it. What happened was that I was passing out a car on a motorway to Dublin and as I was about to pass it fully, the driver pulled out forcing me outside the road. That was not a problem from my point of view as it happened to me before. What I was completely surprised about was the way the car reacted - I gave it a quick nudge to the left expecting it would come back gently on the road again. But no, nothing happened, so I gave it a nudge again and this is when things went wrong. Then the car oversteer to the left and I ended up trying to tame it down swinging like a snake all over the road. I have never been so scare behind the wheel so far, I though I would crash it for sure. Later I heard they were releasing a software patch for steering in 2012 insignias - it seems like there is more software to it this days than good old fashion mechanics.
My advice do not buy it. even if they fixed the steering, the handling is poor - the car seems to heavy and has no feel. Looks ridiculous inside too.

The problems that walus is referring to suggests that his tyres were very soft.

The Insignia has hydraulically assisted power steering (unless they changed it recently). Even with electrically assisted steering there is no delay due to having a direct mechanical linkage.

I have a 2010 Insignia diesel 160bhp and I am reasonably pleased with it after 60k km. I don't know why anyone would buy the 130bhp model as it is only a few quid cheaper and no more economical to run.

It is very economical for traffic and cruising, but the engine definitely sounds a bit agricultural when idling.

I avoided low profile tyres and lowered suspension as I was looking for comfort - I have an alternative car for the other stuff. I still find that it has lots of grip (now on Continentals, but previous Bridgestones good too).

Car is well equipped, but the standard of finish looks a bit lower than my previous passat - however in practice it doesn't have the interior creaks and rattles of the passat.

My other gripe is that I couldn't get the ergonomic seat option as I wanted a light coloured interior, but the seat is still better than the passat's (while not fantastic).

Lex Luthor

Lad working with me has a 2011 SE 130bhp Estate. Has put about 35,000km on it and so far has no problems.
One gripe I have with it is I dont like the seats...think the are too firm for my liking. I also have the same issue with the new Astra.

Also the boot in the estate is small for the class of car. Not only is it very narrow but not that deep aswell.

walus

blackbox, it is not as if the tyres were very soft, there was a definite lag between what you did with the steering wheel and how the wheels reacted. I have never experienced anything like this and confirmed that the next day in similar conditions. This time however I waited after the wheels reacted, so there was no overreaction from me. Very strange. I drive an 04 car which probably left the drawing board back in the 90s and it does react a lot, I mean a lot, quicker. Week later I had a Passat for the same trip and tried to throw it out of balance doing the same thing - to no avail - it was solid and predicable.

R.O.R

I've driven so many different Insignia's at this point that I've lost count, and I've never experienced any issues with the steering. The huge standard tyres on SE, SRi and Elite means it handles pretty well, as long as it's got decent rubber. I've had reports that they aren't great in the Ice, but haven't driven one in those conditions.

mickdw

walus wrote: »

blackbox, it is not as if the tyres were very soft, there was a definite lag between what you did with the steering wheel and how the wheels reacted. I have never experienced anything like this and confirmed that the next day in similar conditions. This time however I waited after the wheels reacted, so there was no overreaction from me. Very strange. I drive an 04 car which probably left the drawing board back in the 90s and it does react a lot, I mean a lot, quicker. Week later I had a Passat for the same trip and tried to throw it out of balance doing the same thing - to no avail - it was solid and predicable.

Sounds like it had a serious issue tbh.

pajo1981

walus wrote: »

blackbox, it is not as if the tyres were very soft, there was a definite lag between what you did with the steering wheel and how the wheels reacted.

Lag between turning the wheel and the car reacting, maybe?

As a PP said there is a mechanical linkage between the steering wheel and wheels, this would make steering wheel to wheel lag impossible.