Presented to the press last December, the new Insignia has since stripped its range and features. Now that we know its prices, let's take a few minutes to look at this big sedan that is coming in "right on time" when PSA bought Opel and Vauxhall. Opel, which had regained credibility with the first Insignia, hopes to do as well with the second.

End of breed

The flagship of the range, the new Insignia should be the latest in a long line of Opels designed with General Motors. As we now know, the German brand, which GM had owned since 1929, was acquired two months ago by our French group PSA. Likely, the next major innovation should be the Corsa, which will retain a GM platform, but with urgent adaptation of PSA engines. Before that, the Crossland X and Grandland X will have been released, but they are already designed with French platforms and engines, following previous agreements dating back to 2012. But this article is about the Insignia, so let's talk about it. This second generation replaces a first one which, in the end, was a success: car of the year 2009, and 940,000 units sold since 2008. It is true that at the time, his arrival was greeted by the press and customers alike. As a result, she had managed to make us forget the semi-failure of the duo Vectra 3/Signum that preceded her. The new range is almost the same as the old one: the 5-door sedan, the Sports Tourer station wagon and the Country Tourer elevated wagon. The only difference is the disappearance of the 4-door version. This will not make much difference on the French market, where this variant was no longer sold anyway. On its domestic market, Germany, the pill may be more difficult to swallow. However, the 5-door sedan adopts a "coupé sedan" profile that may well win all the votes. After all, it worked well for the Audi A5 Sportback, Volkswagen CC (and now Arteon) or BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe. And in addition, aerodynamics benefits from these sculpted lines (Cx : 0.26). The most obvious thing about the new Insignia is its weight loss: -150kgs with equivalent engine for the sedan, and even -200kgs for the station wagon. The Epsilon 2 platform of its predecessor (now called E2XX) has been significantly reworked to allow this result to be even more satisfying as the length of the car increases by 5 centimetres. As a result, consumption drops by 3 to 10%, according to Opel. Inside, the enthusiasm subsides a little. While all the competition is struggling to compete for design and technology, the Insignia leaves a rather lukewarm impression. The technology is there, however, as the great Opel has nothing to be ashamed of in this respect. But the presentation is a little sad, while the touch screen is a bit small arms with its size of 7 or 8 inches. At least we will be satisfied with this refined atmosphere, which contrasts with the old Opel dashboards, which are full of buttons. Opel had announced it: prices will be placed from -32 to -42% compared to its rivals of premium brands, with engines and equivalent equipment. This is verified with a base price placed at 27.150€ with a 1.5L turbo 140hp BM6 gasoline engine in Edition finish already richly equipped. For the Sports Tourer station wagon version, count 1.300€ more. Below is the price list, and the equipment corresponding to each finish. You will soon notice that the Insignia is very, very well placed. The Insignia will of course be sold in Great Britain with the Vauxhall coat of arms (which PSA has also bought). It will be found again in the United States and in China at Buick where it will be called Regal (it will be manufactured locally in these two countries). And in Australia, under the Holden brand, it will abandon the Insignia name to take over that of Commodore.