speedymonkey

Have a little one on the way and are looking at buying a 'reasonably priced' 4 door family saloon.
The wife's dad has the petrol Sri equivalent and every time I've been in it's secretly grown on me and I think it ticks nearly all the box's for the sort of car we need right now (okay not exactly a performance motor) but never the less a great all round family car.

The diesel is more expensive to buy, but is slightly quicker and appears to be very economical with combined driving styles.

I've heard horror stories about modern diesels so have a pang of hesitation, but am going to look at this at the weekend (should I be worried with 70k+ on the clock)

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...29xz?logcode=p

Any comments welcome

Captain-Sticky

Good cars, nice and sensible ;-)
Sri's have stiffer suspension and firmer ride

speedymonkey

Have to admit I've sold it to myself as a 'safe' choice but as it has an Sri badge, I'm kidding myself that the boy racer in me still exists

Its more the scare stories of £1.5k replacement clutches and other big problems if they go wrong that I'm worried about!

I had a Diesel VW passat sport for 2 years that was pretty nippy and everyone told me how great they were....I however seemed to have purchased a lemon and it was nothing but trouble
Kinda scared me off diesels and I'm worried I'll get another zesty fruit of a car rather than a long lasting one that's relatively cheap to run

Matteeboy

Looks like a good buy to me - cracking VFM!

djr

Ford mondeo??

500

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-520D-M...item20d2fffa6d

500

Forget about the 'safe' choices, get somthing you still want to drive, even if it is economical. I'm sure there are better choices than an insignia

tarmac terror

iTrader: (2)

I drive insignias for work, petrol, diesel, saloon and estate - utterly poor car in my opinion, I go out of my way to avoid using them; I find it impossible to find a comfortable driving position (Except VXR) despite Vauxhall having made great claims about the ergonomics of these vehicles - I am not an odd sized individual - I'm 6ft tall of average build weighing in at 13 stone.

I was recently told the 2.0 diesel engine, was developed from the 1.9 Alfa Romeo engine, this has to be one of the most unreliable diesel engines of the last decade, although I have no reason to claim these cars are unreliable. Only around 30K on ours presently though.

The rear view is very limited, this is one of a few cars which I find difficult to park.

The saloon version of the car is poorly designed at the rear, when you open the boot lid, water will run off and soak your legs, as well as a lot of it getting on the parcel shelf.

The indicators don't make any audible noise - I was surprised that I actually listen for this when driving to confirm I am indicating. I find myself looking for the light on the dash which causes me to momentarilly take my eyes of the road.

Steering on the diesel cars feels overly light.

This is really a 4 seater car, the centre seat in the rear is not really usable, due to the roofline sloping at the rear.

All our cars are on run-flat tyres, I find these noisy at cruising speeds, but I find they sharpen the handling of the car, probably due to the stiffness of the sidewalls.

Having said all that - I do like how these cars look on the outside. If I had no choice but to buy an Insignia, I would opt for the estate.

For a family motor, I would look at Skoda Octavia or Superb diesel. I will be testing a Skoda Scout in the coming weeks as a works car, on first look they seem quite good with the benefit of VW 4WD.

I own an accord diesel, which while reliable, economical and well equipped, it is uninspiring to drive. However for space and comfort, I would struggle to find something better in the same price bracket.

SRSport

I dont think it was a lemon in the way you understand it (being a one off). This is just VW rebranding. Ive read and had first hand experiences with many a Lemon Golf, Lemon Passat and Lemon Polo.

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Yep I had a diesel passat lemon too.

If you have to have the vauxhall go for the petrol, I doubt you'll be mile munching in the family run around, and a mate has the petrol for almost 4yrs never changed the oil in over 2yrs till I told him to, does an 80 mile round trip every day and sees 38mpg average, non of the diesel woes and it goes ok too, diesels only become viable at around the 30k per year mark, and they only break even at circa 100k over the petrol equivalant.

Littleted

yeah I had a Brand new SRI NAV for 14k Miles was fully loaded VXR body kit 20 inch wheels etc.

It was nice, but my back Killed in the seats, Id personally get the Elite, it holds its price better.

I did Blow the Injectors housing with a DTUK kit, wont do that again.

I probably wouldn't get one again, I did however buy the wife a zafira Touring, which is much easier to Live with a kid, much larger boot fr the Big Pram, and just generally a better thing to live with.

I got her this exact one