Safety is a big concern for automakers these days, hence the Ford Motor Company’s obsession to demonstrate that the Mustang is worthy of three stars, not two, from the Euro NCAP. In the same testing session, the car safety performance assessment program also crashed the hell out of the Opel Insignia. Or Vauxhall Insignia, whatever you want to call the thing.
A mid-sized sedan that’s also sold in the U.S. and Australia as the Buick Regal and Holden Commodore, the Insignia goes home with the maximum points for passenger safety. It was to be expected, though, for the Insignia is the automaker’s flagship. By the end of the current decade, an Insignia-derived sport utility vehicle will become Opel’s new flagship.
The variant the Euro NCAP got its hand on is the Grand Sport (sedan) in 1.6 CDTi flavor, a 1,460-kilogram family car bristling with standard equipment. In the safety department, highlights include things like the active hood, autonomous emergency braking for city and inter-urban scenarios, lane assist, and speed assistance, among other bits and pieces.
“The top marks from Euro NCAP demonstrate that the individual safety components of the new Insignia form a total system,” commented managing director of sales and aftersales Peter Kuspert. “But safety first at Opel applies not only to our flagship; the youngest members of our product portfolio, the Crossland X and Grandland X also offer front collision warning with Automatic Emergency Braking, as we want to offer all our customers the latest safety technologies,” added the official.
Priced in its domestic market from 25,940 euros, the all-new Insignia is also available as a Sports Tourer for the family-oriented buyer. The engine lineup is made up of four-cylinder turbocharged mills, with the top-of-the-line plant coming in the form of a 260-PS (191 kW) 2.0-liter mill. GKN-developed all-wheel-drive and an eight-speed automatic transmission are also available, as is a lifted variant of the wagon called Country Tourer.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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