Vauxhall Insignia review: Old favourite keeps on…

Vauxhall Insignia review: Old favourite keeps on delivering, big time

Full disclosure: I had a Vauxhall Insignia for years.

I even had a Vectra before that. It's not because they were pretty, fast or luxurious, it was because they were downright practical.

Big enough to get the shopping and accommodate the odd trips to the skip, I even had enough room for a change of clothes, gym kit, sleeping bag, odd bits of food and a football in the boot.

I could conceivably live from my trusty Insignia it if I wanted to.*

(*note: I didn't live in my car).

And still there was room for me and four of my pals to travel 200-plus miles to the football in relative comfort.

It had enough tech to keep you interested and not infuriated. The ride was comfortable, economic and it responded if you really put your foot down to get yourself out of trouble.

You couldn't see through the back window if you were reversing - but then you can't have everything.

Fast forward a couple of years and I was looking forward to getting the keys for the Insignia Grand Sport SRi 1.6 - and thankfully nothing has changed.

Well, except one thing. You can see panoramic views through the windscreen... because this car is B-I-G.

But despite the increase in size - it's nearly five metres of car - it still looked good, with the lava red bodywork supported by some sporty VX styling.

It may have been an automatic (one thing wasn't used to in my old Insignia days) but it was responsive and even a little nippy when you needed it to be as the Turbo-charged engine kicked in.

The boot was characteristically large, 490 litres worth in fact. Although I didn't pack a 'just-in-case' sleeping bag this time.

And it all the tech you may need from front and rear parking sensors, to traffic sign recognition and lane departure warnings with assists.

There was a lot more buzzing and chiming on that dashboard than I was used to and in one way it was the complicated, but another simplistic.

Everything was worked from the same screen from the sat nav (which was one of the better ones out there) to radio, media and car set-up functions.

It's all touch screen and pretty straightforward - although it takes a while to get to something like the climate control the first time you attempt it.

There's even a useful little heads-up display projecting on the windscreen to help you with speed and upcoming directions as well as automatic emergency braking.

The actual dashboard is sharp too, giving you all the information you need in LCD quality.

Drive-wise, it's as simple and precise as I remember. Like the dashboard there's nothing too complex with suspension that makes short work of speed bumps.

But this isn't a car for the inner city (I'll be honest, the turning circle isn't great as it's a big old car).

On the motorway however it excels, quiet, comfortable and roomy - unless you happen to have some 6ft-plus pals in the back because despite the size, the roof does slope a bit.

Yes, it's still a great all-rounder

Vauxhall Insignia's never change - nor should you want them to.