7th report - Sensory deprivation

By Guy Bird 

You can learn a lot about a car in unusual weather, so the major snow in March was useful for that reason, if nothing else. Carmakers spend thousands of hours testing prototypes in extremely hot and cold locales because, the reasoning goes, if their cars can cope there, they'll be fine everywhere else. What about in less extreme, but more real-world conditions though? 

First the good news: when the cold snap was extreme enough to warrant wearing seriously thick driving gloves, the Insignia's infotainment touchscreen didn't mind a bit. I was pleasantly surprised to find my gloved finger worked the sat-nav icon just fine, as long as I pressed the screen firmly and a fraction longer than usual. 

Now the bad: when residual snow on the car's exterior started to melt and refreeze, something peculiar happened to our Insignia (several times over to different drivers). To take one example, we were static at the lights, minding our own business when the sensors started bleeping like crazy. I've had sensors go sensitive near bollards or parked cars when on the move - just like BusinessCar news reporter Sean Keywood's experience in the Renault Koleos - but in this case, the car wasn't even rolling, nor was anything or anyone near us. 

Closer inspection of the front left sensor the next morning revealed ice partially covering the round sensor below the headlamp, which we believe could have slipped - or attracted sticky new snow - and resulted in the car's sensors thinking the vehicle was close to crashing into something. Since cleaning the ice, the bleeping freak-outs have mercifully stopped. So the moral of the story is that, beyond clearing snow from the windows so you can see, cleaning it off all your sensors, front and back, before driving is probably a good idea, too.

6th report - The hot button issue

By Guy Bird

Take a look at the accompanying photo to this test report. See anything remarkable? Just an air-conditioning knob, a few climate-related buttons and a digital display telling the passenger how hot the car's cabin is, or will get soon. So far, so normal, right? Wrong. 

Unfortunately, there has been a worrying trend in new production cars of late, where the designers have sought to clean up the design of interiors by getting rid of almost all physical buttons and switches. Along the way, they've forgotten to do an ergonomics test to see whether the now mostly digital controls can be easily operated while on the move, or if they've actually gone too far and sacrificed solid function for superficial form. Our last Renault Megane was a good (or bad) example of this, where even a function as basic and everyday as the fan intensity up-down control was hidden deep within layers of touchscreen faff, and could only be increased or decreased by frantic and multiple presses of a 2D nature. This is long and needlessly complicated.  

The Insignia's designers did not fall for such tomfoolery. Below the small, but decent colour infotainment screen, with mapping that can be pinched and moved, sits a sensible array of key physical buttons that make sure temperature can be taken care of immediately and directly. In the recent unseasonable cold weather that's seen major snow across the UK, this has been a real boon. The procedural order for me goes something like this: 1) get in swiftly and shut the door; 2) press heated seats buttons to full blast, as denoted by three red lights - a slight toasting only requires one light; 3) press separate front-and rear-screen heat buttons to demist or defrost; 4) adjust driver and passenger temperature levels individually with a turn of colour-coded knobs; 5) drive off. Simple and sorted.

5th report - Into the light 

By Guy Bird 

When it's dark and there are no more street lamps on either side of the road, you know you're in the 'deep countryside'. It's at this point you'll also understand just how good (or bad) your headlamps are. Our Insignia Grand Sport has optional Intellilux LED matrix headlamps, each of which houses 16 individual LED lights (32 in total) that replace the usual dipped and main beam functions. These are in the 'cut above' category. In conjunction with a front camera, they activate and deactivate based on what they can see ahead and by taking into account ambient light conditions, vehicle speed, steering angle and whether you've turned an indicator on. 

The attention to detail is excellent. For instance, the system knows when the car is travelling under 34mph and senses street lighting - typically in urban areas - so it automatically keeps things in 'dipped beam' mode. It can also 'see' when it's on a dual carriageway or motorway and reduce light distribution on the right, minimising glare for oncoming drivers while lengthening the beam on the left side. This tech can even be adjusted quickly through the settings of the central touchscreen, to react in the opposite way if you are, say, on the train to continental Europe. Neat. 

On my dark and extremely wet night's testing in deepest Essex, that manual change wasn't necessary. In auto mode, high-beam assist - where the high (or full) beam functions as the main driving light - comes on by itself above 31mph (and turns off below 22mph) but the 'assist' part, that works out which LEDs to light according to conditions, remains active, even when the car's switched off and on again. If you want to activate high-beam assist in other scenarios, a press of the extra button on the indicator stalk will do the job (a green 'A' with a beam icon illuminates between the driver dials to confirm). Matrix LEDs may be a shiny £1,295 extra, but if you do a lot of 'deep countryside driving' they could well be worth considering.

4th report - Practicality plus style

By Guy Bird

The great thing about a well-designed large hatchback versus a conventional saloon is the practicality that comes with its style, and the Vauxhall Insignia Grand Sport is a great example. There's something grown up and business-like about a saloon, compared with a smaller hatchback, but all too often the compromise is a lack of functionality in the storage department. Furniture moves, family holidays or visits to the dump are tough with a vehicle that has a small rear aperture, even if the luggage space inside isn't that bad.

The Insignia Grand Sport's exterior looks smart and sporty, while carefully hiding a huge hatch that opens up to reveal a wide, tall and super-accessible 490 litres of luggage space with the rear seats up, and 1,450 litres with the second row folded. This capacity trumps the Audi A5 Sportback twice over (it has 480-980 litres). Even the Insignia's boot-opening mechanism is carefully considered. It's enabled by pressing the Griffin badge, which allows the hatch lip to shut flush with its surrounds.

Recently, I slid a tall wooden shelving unit straight into the Insignia without breaking sweat or, for that matter, having to push forward the front-row seats to accommodate it. Try that in a BMW 3 Series saloon. The BMW's 480-litre rear-seats-up boot space isn't bad, but access is poor and it's much harder to use any seats-down space.

 Of course, you could consider a 3 Series Touring but that only offers five more litres of space than the Insignia with the seats up, at 495 litres, and 50 litres more with the seats down at 1,500, while costing a whole heap more. Or you could opt for a 3 Series GT, which has storage space in abundance at 520-1,600 litres, but looks like a 3 Series saloon that's eaten too many pies. 

There are of course bigger-booted rivals - from Ford, VW and Skoda - but, for the first time in a long time, I'd argue that the Vauxhall Insignia is more stylish, and achieves the best balance of form and functionality. 

3rd report - Hello handsome

By Guy Bird

Well I never. Vauxhall has gone and made a really good-looking car. In that most mature of markets, the large family saloon or hatchback segment, it's hard to create an impact, but the second-generation Insignia - now with the added moniker Grand Sport - feels on the money.  

Key to the changes, as so often is the case with car design, are significant proportional alterations. It's longer by 67mm, wider by 7mm, lower by 75mm and has a stretched wheelbase 92mm longer. Compared with the Mk1 Insignia, these shifts create a greatly improved profile and stance. That's the maths bit. Visually, you really notice the differences when focusing around the rear three quarters of the car, where the side window graphic has been pulled backward - to a sharp point rather than a gentle curve - combined with a more sloping roof and rear window that now dominates what is a huge and practical rear hatch. In striking white, the Insignia has something of the Audi A5 Sportback and VW Passat CC about it, more four-door coupe than dull hatch. It's nice work, and we can thank a Brit called Mark Adams for it, despite the car's shared Opel and Buick connections.