Vauxhall Insignia (2017 – 2022) Review

The winds of change brought new engines and a botoxed face to the Vauxhall Insignia in 2021 when, mercifully, the old model’s ‘Grand Sport’ moniker was also dropped (a wise decision on a car that is neither grand nor sporty). Unfortunately, more was needed to make the aging Vauxhall feel competitive, although huge discounts go some way to levelling the playingfield. 

The Vauxhall Insignia represents the end of an era for Vauxhall in more ways than one. It’s built on one of the firm's two remaining GM platforms (the Astra gets the other) and it competes in a class that’s slowly being wiped out by SUVs.

Unfortunately, the 2021 update is unlikely to save it. It brought freshened up styling in the form of a revised chrome grille and barbed LED headlights, with ninja-star style fog lights sitting below them. You also get a new range of petrol and diesel engines that offer efficiency savings of up to 18%, while the (sort of) sporty GSi reappears after being killed off in 2018.

From inside, the Insignia does not feel like a car that has just been updated. It has a button-heavy design and interior quality that is poor next to a Skoda Superb or Volkswagen Passat, let alone that BMW 3 Series your neighbour just got a cracking finance deal on.

The Vauxhall does come with comparable levels of equipment. As standard, you get front and rear parking sensors, climate control, auto lights and wipers, auto-dipping headlights, plus a seven-inch infotainment screen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. 

You also get plenty of space. It's not far off five metres long so there’s loads of room for tall adults in the front and acres of space in the back, a huge boot rounds off what is a very comfortable way of carrying an older family and their kit. 

It’s not just the space that makes the Insignia a great car to while away the miles in, it’s also very quiet at speed helped by its class-leading 0.25Cd drag coefficient and muted engines.

They include 1.5-litre 122PS and 2.0-litre 174PS diesels, which return fuel economy of up to 60mpg according to tough new WLTP testing, as well as 200 or 230PS 2.0-litre petrols. The latter of which is fitted to the new GSi model. 

Both petrols get a slushy nine-speed automatic gearbox that makes them extremely relaxed at the national limit, while you can swap the diesels’ six-speed manuals for an eight-speed automatic. 

Unfortunately, even the sporty GSi – which comes with switchable four-wheel drive  – won’t leave a huge grin on your face. On tighter country roads it feels like a big car, but it’s perfectly at home on sweeping A-roads and, like the rest of the range, feels at its best pointed up a motorway. 

The Vauxhall also feels cumbersome in town and, while the all-round parking sensors are handy, we’d be tempted to add the £289 optional rearview camera. Add too many options, though, and the Vauxhall makes less and less sense, something the 2021 update doesn’t change. 

As a fleet machine, bought to power up and down the motorway, the Insignia’s perfect – it’ll do that all day long, happily. It even makes sense as a private buy complete with a hefty discount (2021 cars are already advertised with £5000 off) but as a car you aspire to own, the Vauxhall feels like a relic from another era. One that will soon be no more.

Looking for a second opinion? Read heycar's review of the Vauxhall Insignia Grand Sport

Owing to wrangelings with the DVLA (we’ve all been there, eh?), when we rocked up the only 2021 Insignia that Vauxhall had available for test was the GSi – yes, the one you’re least likely to buy.

It’s the performance model with features including revised steering, sports suspension with adjustable dampers, four-wheel drive and fly-by-wire Brembo brakes that mark it out from the rest of the range. 

It’s a package that means the GSi rides well over the UK's broken roads – in any of its three damper settings – while the four-wheel drive (activated by pressing the centre-console AWD button) lets the car project its power into the Tarmac with ease. 

The powerful brakes are similarly untroubled. They have a firm pedal that makes them easy to modulate, in contrast to the fleety, overly assisted anchors you get in most of Insignia's rivals.

The difficulties come when you try to hoon the Insignia in the way you would imagine its GSi badge had intended. That starts with suspension that doesn’t give you the rock solid body control you want on tighter roads and steering that is slow, ponderous and uncommunicative. The final nail in the GSi’s coffin is its nine-speed automatic gearbox that is smooth and slushy, but in no way responsive.

Forget about the GSi badge and the Vauxhall makes a lot more sense. It is a seven-tenths car that can spirit you along A roads at a decent lick in impressive comfort. 

While we've yet to drive the standard car in 2021, you can expect it to be very comfortable – the ride has always been one of the Insignia's best qualities. Go for a lower spec model on smaller wheels and you can expect it to glide along wonderfully smoothly. The six-speed manual gearbox (carried over for 2021) has a nice action to it, with easy yet slick changes.

The Vauxhall Insignia comes with four engine options split equally between petrol and diesel.

The only model we have tried is the GSi which is powered by a 230PS 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol that, in a world where you can buy a 320PS Honda Civic, never feels all that quick. 

Rather than being gung ho with the throttle, the GSi prefers you to rely on its torquey mid-range (350Nm between 1500-3500rpm) where it's brisk but relaxed. Pushing beyond that feels a bit like asking an exercise-phobe to embark on a course of Military Fitness, something that is backed up by its strained engine tone and average performance figures of 0-62mph in seven seconds and 146mph top speed. 

Without the sporty aspirations of the GSi badge hanging around its neck, the 200PS, 350Nm 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol seems the more resolved option and it delivers performance (0-62mph in 7.2 seconds) that is all but identical to the range-topper. 

All things considered, however, in a car like the Insignia which excels on the motorway, the diesels are likely to be the more obvious choice. The entry-level three-cylinder 1.5-litre version produces 122PS to get from 0-62mph in 10.7 seconds, although its 300Nm of torque means mid-range performance will be more impressive than that figure suggests.

The 174PS 2.0-litre diesel, meanwhile, is the torque king with 380Nm on tap for swift overtakes, it gets from 0-62mph in 8.2 seconds.

The Vauxhall Insignia got a five star rating for safety from Euro NCAP, although this was achieved under 2017’s less stringent test conditions. 

Standard safety kit includes a multitude of airbags, as well as automatic emergency brakes and a lane-departure-warning system. Ultimate Nav and GSi models can be specified with the £2000 Innovation Pack which adds automatic cruise control – that can accelerate and brake the car for you on the motorway – and a head-up display.

Frustratingly, the Insignia GSi – the most powerful model and the only one that comes with four-wheel drive as standard – can only tow a 1,500kg trailer. That’s the same as the 122PS diesel.

Both the 200PS petrol and 174PS diesel can manage up to 2000kg, although the latter drops to 1800kg when fitted with the optional eight-speed automatic.

What the Insignia is good at is practicality. The fact it is more than 4.8 metres long helps - as does the long wheelbase. And it means there's plenty of room for those sat in the back. It's not up to Skoda Superb standards, but it's not far short and is more generous than a Mazda 6 or Toyota Avensis. 

The boot is big too and as this is a hatchback, there's a wide opening so getting in bulky folded pushchairs (like the classic McLaren) is no problem. Only the odd design of the wheelarches spoils it - making the load area considerably narrower than it could be.

But with 490 litres of carrying space, it's nonetheless usefully large - although a Ford Mondeo still has more room. There's also an optional extra called FlexOrganizer which adds side rails, dividing nets and various fasteners to keep things safe in the boot.

As usual with most modern cars, there's no spare wheel. You'll have to pay an extra £110 for a steel emergency spare in place of the standard tyre inflation kit - but at least it's available as an option.

There are plenty of features we do like. Such as the two USB ports for passengers in the back (on SRi models and above) which are really handy if you have kids who need to charge their iPads or phones on a long journey. There are also air vents for those in the back, situated in the back of the centre console. 

The big central transmission tunnel makes it a squeeze for three in back but there are three Isofix mounting points across the back seats so it's ideal if you've got a growing family.

Another big plus for the Insignia Grand Sport are the ergonomic seats. They're incredibly comfortable and supportive, something you really appreciate after a long stint behind the wheel. They may not look anything special, but they clearly work. Other nice touches include a heated windscreen element, which saves you a lot of time on frosty winter mornings.

For all Vauxhall's talk of 'premium feel', the finish inside the Insignia is far from the class best and the plastics used in the lower half of interior are particularly unappealing. It doesn't feel as solid or as durable as a Skoda Superb, Volkswagen Passat or Mazda 5. 

Silver-painted plastics and a stitched rubber top try to fool you that the dashboard's plastered with metal trims and leather but, honestly, a pair of shiny pleather trousers do a more convincing job of looking premium. 

That said, the Vauxhall gets the basics right with a good driving position, simple to read instruments and clearly labelled buttons. 

Although there are rather a lot of them... we counted more than 50 switches before the drive started to feel too much like a maths class – it makes the Vauxhall look very dated compared to cars that have neatly integrated their almost all of their controls into an infotainment screen.

Sure, some models get a colour display in the centre of the instrument binnacle but it's smaller than the full-sized screens you get in the Passat and Superb and it can’t give you a full-map view like either of those challengers. 

Meanwhile, the GSi model’s volts, oil temperature and oil pressure dials, as well as its OTT (and horrific looking) sports seats, are a naff 90s throwback that seem at odds with the more sophisticated 2020s we live in now.

The standard touchscreen infotainment system is simple enough to use - although it's awkwardly positioned a little too far away for comfortable inputs from the driver, and weirdly directed towards the sky as if little thought has been put into its location. 

It works well with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, though, meaning you can use your phone for functions such as navigation and music and it can also be controlled using intuitive pinch and swipe gestures on the screen. It’s responsive when operated like this.

Unfortunately, voice controls prove more of a quandary. Unlike the latest systems, the Vauxhall’s infotainment can’t be jolted into life by saying a key phrase (“Oi, Vauxhall...”, for example) and while having to press a button isn’t a major hardship, the fact that it won’t understand what you’re saying – ever – is quite annoying. We made three attempts at setting a postcode before, defeated, we took a step back from the technical cliff face and resorted to pressing a button.

The Vauxhall Insignia is priced from £23,795 which buys you a SE Nav model, which is not found wanting for kit – the list includes parking sensors all round, climate control and sat-nav. 

This being a Vauxhall though, you’d be mad to pay full whack because brand new cars are readily available with thousands chopped off their sticker price. The further up the range you go, the more you stand to save (you’d need to get a significant discount before the top-of-the-range £39,000 GSi looks anything like good value).

Where you will find astonishing value is in year-old cars. We found a 2020 1.5-litre petrol with delivery miles and in sporty VX-Line trim for just £18,500. That’s a massive £7,000 saving – all the reason you need to dispense with the idea of buying the new facelifted car.

One of the 2021 Insignia’s most notable achievements is fuel economy improvements of up to 18% compared to the outgoing model, thanks in part to aerodynamic tweaks. A drag coefficient of 0.25Cd means the Insignia is, according to Vauxhall, the most aerodynamic of its type (although Vauxhall must have forgotten about the Mercedes C-Class which has a 0.24 rating).

New engines also play their part. The new 122PS 1.5-litre three-cylinder diesel is 50kg lighter than its old four-cylinder equivalent and it returns up to 60mpg under WLTP test conditions. This drops by about 5mpg if you fit the optional eight-speed auto.The 174PS 2.0-litre four-cylinder diesel’s fuel economy of a little over 55mpg isn’t affected by the optional eight-speed auto.

Importantly, both diesels are also RDE2 compliant so side step the 4% BIK surcharge.

If your days won’t be spent racking up huge miles on the motorway, you’ll be better off with a petrol model. You can choose from two 2.0-litre four-cylinder units producing 200 or (in the GSi) 230PS, both come with cylinder deactivation technology that can rest a pair of cylinders when their extra power isn’t needed. They return around 35mpg as a result.

Year-one road tax ranges from £175 for diesel models to £870 for the petrols, reverting to £150 for every year after. Watch out for new GSi models loaded with options, though – they’ll breach the £40,000 premium car tax and will cost you £475 a year for the first five years.

The Vauxhall Insignia range kicks off with the SE Nav model, but it’s not left wanting for kit. On the outside you get 17-inch alloy wheels, LED head and tail lights, as well as parking sensors all round. Inside, you get kit like sat-nav, climate control and ambient lighting.

SRi Nav models are almost identical to the basic car, only some exterior chrome and LED interior lighting distinguishes the two.

SRi VX-Line Nav models hike equipment significantly. On the outside they get 20-inch alloy wheels, sportier bumpers, a rear spoiler and multi-LED headlights that won’t blind other road users even when you’re using your full beam. This is also the first model in the range to get Vauxhall’s FlexRide adjustable dampers. 

Inside, you get a leather interior with heated front seats and a driver’s massage function, plus a heated steering wheel. You also get the uprated infotainment with a larger eight-inch screen, wireless charging, two USB plugs in the back seat and an uprated Bose stereo. 

Ultimate Nav models keep the same kit, but swap the 20-inch alloy wheels for 18-inch version and add a heated windscreen and heated back seats. You also get Alcantara upholstery in place of the standard leather. 

GSi models sit at the top of the tree and are easily spotted by their unique body kit and 20-inch wheels. They get their own suspension and steering setup, as well as four-wheel drive and Brembo brakes.