Opel Insignia Country Tourer in the test: the station wagon is that good

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Chasing sports cars with an Opel in the Alps

Opel Insignia Country Tourer in the test: the station wagon is that good-country

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Opel Insignia Country Tourer in the test: the station wagon is that good-insignia

WELT author Jan Kuveler with the Opel Insignia Country Tourer on the San Bernadino Pass

Source: Jan Kuveler

In the Swiss Alps, the slightly jacked up Opel Insignia Country Tourer lies like a board on the road and can easily keep up with expensive Ferraris. At least when things go downhill.

B.t the hunt for the Ferraris up on the San Bernardino, the Opel starts me to slowly grow to the heart. Even at the bends up to the pass it was as if the big Insignia Country Tourer had shed the leisurely Clark Kent costume that he had worn for the last 1000 kilometers.

I don’t want to seriously compare the station wagon from Russelsheim with Superman. But nevertheless the extremes are sometimes strangely close together, megaprol and pensioner millionaire for example. In fact, the development of the Opel Ascona, the insignia of the ascending middle class, once culminated in the Opel Manta, for whom civilization was willingly exchanged for animalism and casually hoisted foxtail.

Today we go to Ascona, and because, as I said, up there on the Bernardino shortly behind this unearthly beautiful sparkling lake at 2000 meters, two Ferraris appear, one of which is even a Testarossa, we let the foxtail hang out for the sake of the old days.

Opel Insignia Country Tourer in the test: the station wagon is that good-country

Up to 1665 liters fit in the Opel Insignia Country Tourer

Source: Jan Kuveler

Our full name is the Insignia Country Tourer 2.0 BiTurbo Diesel 4X4 (from 42,850 euros), so it has all-wheel drive, 210 hp and an impressive 480 Nm of torque, which pays off especially in the small gears of the eight-speed automatic . Towards the back it is noticeably lame, from 190 kilometers per hour it feels like nothing more.

We never managed the top speed of allegedly 231. With a lot of attempts, 205 were there. But even on German autobahns, not to mention Swiss ones, will never work any more, because every three minutes someone reliably pulls out at 140 to overtake the man in front who is driving 135 km / h. The brakes of the Opel, that much can be revealed at this point, are completely okay.

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Opel Insignia Country Tourer in the test: the station wagon is that good-test

Driving report

The Mazda6 has unprecedented standard equipment

Up here on the Bernardino Pass, however, no Honda Civics are bothering us, just the Ferraris, and the sight of them is to be endured if one likes cars. Maybe they’re just driving relaxed, although the departing cyclists are frightened when our strange trio shoots past, two roaring cars, followed by the boring safety car on their bumpers.

Although we speed down the narrow bends, it would have been even faster if the sports cars hadn’t braked like that in front. Even my girlfriend, averse to any macho culture, cheers enthusiastically.

The five-meter length whirls quickly around every corner, the steering wheel, which is flattened at the bottom and covered in leather, turns easily, the acceleration leaves nothing to be desired, the brakes are sharp here too, but the four-wheel drive is the best. Two electrically controlled multi-plate clutches distribute the torque depending on the situation to the rear wheel on the outside of the bend. We lie in the street like a board.

Of course it’s ridiculous to race yourself with these bullets in an Opel, but we’re here to test cars. And if you think about it, while the spruce trees whiz by to the left and right, it might not be so inappropriate after all.

The Country Tourer comes decades after every class battle quark. Today everything is leveled out, not just society, but also driving. The only thing that the Ferraris are spared are perhaps the assistance systems, which beep frantically just because someone is parked in the driveway behind the curve.

Opel Insignia Country Tourer in the test: the station wagon is that good-test

Opel has cleaned up. The cockpit of the Insignia appears much clearer than before

Source: Jan Kuveler

Those who keep telling me in the Insignia that the left is free and overtaking is possible. I can see for myself. But at least the technology is easy on the neck, because looking down is no longer necessary, since all the essential information such as GPS and speed are holographically brought into view.

Down in Airolo we wave to our new friends Arrivederci. We play Adriano Celentano via Apple CarPlay because everything suddenly feels so Italian. We just don’t stop for a while to save ourselves looking at the menu, it comes early enough: Pizza Margherita, 27 francs. The sound, on the other hand, is absolutely fine, and the accompanying panorama was seldom better.

Envious of the red Mazda MX-5 RF

Back on the autobahn, it’s like the almost 1,000 kilometers since we started in Berlin: nice, absolutely okay, a bit boring. There are three programs for setting the suspension, normal, tour and sport. Tour makes everything a little cloudy, bumps when driving fast are swung out, so to speak, that’s what it feels like. As you can see immediately, sport is crisper and the setting of choice for steep mountain passes. The 18-inch tires look great and don’t make things that much more uncomfortable.

I was really jealous of other cars only once, when a red Mazda MX-5 RF, i.e. the one with the Targa roof, behind the Austrian border near Dornbirn, sailed by. It’s all a matter of taste, but I would have preferred to go up the Bernardino with him. Otherwise, the insignia for our purposes – long distance to Lake Maggiore, where I am supposed to report on the Locarno Film Festival – is impeccable.

Opel Insignia Country Tourer in the test: the station wagon is that good-country

The Insignia is equipped with bi-halogen headlights as standard. Opel charges a surcharge of 1690 euros for the IntelliLux LED matrix light

Source: Jan Kuveler

When at the beginning of the trip, on the A115 near Potsdam, it poured from buckets, so much so that even with the most violent windshield wiper level it usually doesn’t work much, the perspective was brilliant. Opel has apparently coated the windshield, which slopes down at an acute angle, with a special coating; With smaller rainfalls you can save yourself the windshield wiper completely, the drops roll off so oily and disappear.

Parking works well, in Locarno as in Ronco sopra Ascona, where we are staying in a small hotel with a view of the lake. Erich Maria Remarque is buried nearby, and he would not have retired anywhere where there was little to do. It’s good that we didn’t go the other way around.

Country Tourer has 20 millimeters more ground clearance

In Berlin-Mitte I would have much less desire to park; if the parking spaces were only four and a half meters, the reversing camera, which is very practical in principle, would not be of any help. From the outside, the Insignia looks like every second station wagon, maybe a bit bigger. The fact that it is slightly higher than its normal siblings is hardly noticeable, but the underrun protection made of gray plastic could be nicer, but it is functional in any case.

We notice this especially when we pay a visit to friends who are as nice as they are wealthy and who have set up with their extensive family for the summer in a villa on Lake Como. The garden gate from the embankment opens onto a dusty gravel path that rumbles hundreds of meters down to the villa in turns of almost 180 degrees.

Opel Insignia Country Tourer in the test: the station wagon is that good-opel

Our test car was a 2.0 BiTurbo diesel with 210 hp, eight-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive. Price of the test car: 54,320 euros

Source: Jan Kuveler

The employees wisely only drive it with their own golf carts. This is where the country tourer shows its off-road strength, which is just appropriate for such a micro-debris drifting away from under the tires. The other guests in their 5 Series BMWs or, horribile dictu, Nissan Micras from the Milan car rental company, moan more.

After dinner on the lakeside terrace, we start our return journey, over almost caricature-like narrow streets with sudden turns and constantly honking traffic. That can’t harm us, we drive very relaxed because the generous dimensions of the Insignia have long since become second nature to us.

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13 thoughts on “Opel Insignia Country Tourer in the test: the station wagon is that good”

  3. Poor, those who have to limit their automotive happiness to the "hunt for Ferraris" and similar activities. Driving a car can be fun – in spite of all the green people – but the horsepower figures are not the decisive factor!
    Perking up a, pardon, old-fashioned vehicle like an Insignia is not difficult. But even with 500PS it would remain a visually good or souped-up insignia.
    Take a Peugeot, MB or mini convertible up and down a few mountain roads – and you know how fun is even without having caught a “super sports car” or hanging out a foxtail!

    Reply

  4. Chasing Ferraris, with an empty weight of 1.8 tons, yes no, of course.
    It would have been much more interesting to go into this article about how you can build a station wagon these days that consumes 7.8 liters of diesel according to the NEDC? In reality, that is close to 10 liters, and that is close to being a scandal!

    Reply

  5. That’s the joke about modern diesels, the horsepower figures are just one side of the coin, the torque is the other, the more impressive. A few years ago I had a Volvo XC 70 D5 with a 6-speed manual transmission. The performance, especially when accelerating from low revs, was simply a pleasure. You think you’re sitting in a gasoline engine with a lot of displacement! But the diesels are also economical at the same time!
    Supercars like the Ferrari mentioned are just unwieldy on narrow streets!

    Reply

  6. Hello Horst
    If you want to find out more about the relationship between torque and power, please google for ‘the torque lie’. You will then know that the power (HP), and not the torque, is what counts

    Reply

  7. Oh, did someone drive a little faster for the first time in their life?
    The report is absolutely insubstantial.

    One thing is true, however:

    They can all drive fast on the straights, especially when it is not allowed. There "wins" then not the technically best driver, but simply the one who disregards the rules the most.
    But technically clean, fast cornering? Less than 2% of drivers.
    It is sometimes amusing to see drivers of expensive sports cars / expensive, sporty vehicles carrying their cars through the curve like guilty girls, but then again on the straight "let the pig out". I always ask myself whether with a purchase price of> 100,000 euros, 1000 euros would not have been possible for driver training…

    Reply

  10. " although the departing cyclists are frightened when our strange trio shoots past"
    Anyone who drives in such a way that other road users are frightened has not understood how to behave on public roads, whether in a Ferrari or a Dacia. In any case, test drive is no excuse for this.

    Reply

  11. A beautiful car that has received a lot of influence from PSA. It is a shame, however, that the chrome strips were pulled up to the rear lights. Extremely ugly and inharmonious. The all-wheel drive system has yet to prove itself, the previous one in the Insignia is very susceptible to malfunctions. The adaptive all-wheel drive system based on Haldex comes very close to Subaru’s level. On a gravel road, however, from "This is where the country tourer shows its off-road strengths" I consider talking to be presumptuous and inappropriate!

    Reply

  13. @ Friedrich F: Great, right ?! My box can even go 234km / h, but what really gets better with it?

    Reply

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