The Vauxhall Insignia could very well be one of the best spy cars ever made. It is known in the UK as the Insignia, whereas in other markets like China and North America, it goes by the name, Buick Regal. In certain parts of Europe, it’s hailed as the Opel Insignia.
In Chile, the Insignia was originally due to be marketed as the Chevrolet Vectra. We shudder to imagine what this car will be called if it were sold locally.
This car, of many aliases has just been inferred a new powertrain, which has been dubbed the “Whisper Diesel”. The mill will replace the outgoing 2.0-litre engine with the new 1.6-litre CDTi ecoFLEX that’s developed originally by General Motors. Performance figures for the new ecoFLEX engine is rated at 135 hp. It does the century sprint in 10.9 seconds with an eventual top speed of 210 km/h.
New to the Insignia range is the GM-derived OnStar system that is equipped with Wi-Fi hotspots that connects up to seven devices, supports hands-free calls and comes with satellite navigation – just to name a few. In the event of an accident, an emergency response notification will be sent to call for help should the airbags deploy. OnStar is also armed with stolen vehicle recovery technology, a system that’s able to track the vehicle’s whereabouts in real time.
Aside from OnStar, the Insignia gets a Navi 900 IntelliLink system that integrates the Apple CarPlay technology which bestows fast access to entertainment apps for music and news for iPhone users. All of this is displayed via the eight-inch LCD touchscreen. IntelliLink also enables audio streaming, incoming text messages read aloud and voice control.
The navigation system also features maps of more than 30 European countries and it can be displayed in either 2D or 3D, according to personal preference and can be controlled by voice command.
Priced from £19,534 to £26,114 (est RM116k to RM155k) the 1.6-litre CDTi (134 hp) ecoFLEX version is graded with a fuel consumption rate of 3.8 litre per 100km, which is almost as good as the hydrogen powered Toyota Mirai. Not bad for an oil burner.
IMAGE GALLERY
