West drive Opel Insignia hatchback since 2008 sedan

Insignia 4x4. Prepare Sani in the summer

In the 21st century, it was customary to supplement the car with a rain sensor, a USB interface and cooling of a glove box. This is progress. However, the past is an abnormally snowy winter for many forced to recall that such a nonal option as all -wheel drive was by no means excess for a passenger car. Among the D-Class sedans, the vast majority of such modifications do not have. It remains only among the VW Passat, Subaru Legacy, Skoda Superb, Saab 9-3, and last year Opel Insignia 4x4 was added to this row. Is it worth it to include it in the list of desired purchases for the next season, we found out in the early spring on the still snowy Khodynsky field.

Sometimes it is useful to meet with the car again a year after the start of sales, when you know not only all the features of the model marked during the first test drive, but also how the public accepted the novelty. Inxigia Russians are still buying sluggishly. Maybe this is not the best combination of motors, transmission and prices: the most affordable version with automatic is offered only with a rather powerful 220-horsepower 2.0 Turbo engine from 1,117,300 rubles. And the light gray sedans with a 2.8-liter engine (260 hp), automatic transmission, all-wheel drive and active Flexride chassis arrived on a snow-capped field are much more expensive than 1,526,800 rubles. Does Insignia deserve a dynamic sedan laurel that reveals all its talents on a slippery road?

From the first kilometers passed on a rolled snow track, it becomes clear: the all-wheel drive transmission did not add to the habits of Opel some kind of sports highlight when passing slippery turns. Having overdo it at speed, the driver feels exactly what happens to the front -wheel drive car: the car’s nose slides out of turn, and just gently letting go of the gas, you can return to the intended trajectory again. Sightly, but safe. If you are not interested in the technical filling of insignia on purpose, you can never know that it has a very advanced coupling of the fourth -generation Haldex, which even with a stable movement along the trajectory does not turn off the rear axle, giving it 10% of the thrust, and in the event of a slip, it closes rigidly. It is not easy to feel the action of another ELSD coupling in the rear differential, due to which electronics can imitate the lock for the sake of better handling. However, the anteroplative character of Insignia by today's standards is no exception, but rather a rule. Almost any crossover demonstrate exactly the same habits.

And how does the branded Opelian Flexride system manifest itself, allowing the fly to change the chassis settings? In the test on dry asphalt, we noted how successfully this idea is realized: if you want the car, you want to gently assembled. In the rolled snow, as it turned out, it affects controllability less. Small slides in snow bends do not allow these nuances to feel.

In fairness, we note that, in a certain set of circumstances, having tried and tricky, an experienced driver can put insignia in a turn sideways and under the enthusiastic views of others to go through a turn by a fan. The test participants succeeded. But the fact that the Opel sedan spurns to this style of driving is not about.

Leaving the turn and again gaining a move in a straight line, of course, with pleasure you note that the thrust directed to the rear wheels allows the engine not to flimmer the horsepower in vain to slip the front axis. This, of course, is the unconditional advantage of Opel over powerful monoprodic competitors. All winter, they upset their owners with the fact that they accelerate from a place no faster than a small -leaf. In general, if you do not expect some special drivership from a relatively powerful all-wheel drive sedan, then it will not disappoint. Opel relies not on emotions, but on confidence. For example, on a slippery climb or when traveling at an unprofitable courtyard.

So far, there is no reason to expect that the Opelians will somehow correct the main minus of their model: relative to monoprodic competitors modification of Insignia with the drive for all wheels remains too expensive. Like, however, both Subaru Legacy and the all -wheel drive VW Passat. Therefore, sales of these potentially very popular machines are calculated only a few hundred per year. For comparison: even in the crisis of 2009, the front-wheel drive Mazda 6 and Ford Mondeo dispersed 8,583 and 7322 pieces, respectively.

 

Source: Auto.mail.ru