In one of the closest contests ever Vauxhall's Insignia has emerged on top - but only just. With a score of 321 it beat the new Ford Fiesta by one point. The latest car to come from the Luton-based manufacturer received 20 first place votes out of 59 compared to 19 received by the Fiesta.

This year 37 cars were put forward for COTY, with just seven short-listed for the ultimate award. Each contender must be on sale in at least five European countries. The Insignia is the first Vauxhall to scoop the award since the Carlton/Omega in 1987. The news couldn't have come at a better time for GM in light of its ongoing financial troubles, which have resulted in the company meeting with the German government to discuss plans for a bail-out.

Is the Insignia actually released yet??

Ive not seen any at all thank god..

yeah, the Insignia has now been released

Click Here to view Insignia on Vauxhall website

i dnt like the loks of this car its far to square in the front and the rear to me looks like a cross between a bmw 5 series and a chysler and being a vauxhall no doubt the interior is cheap and very plasticy

i quite like them, yeah they could've done something different with the interior

its just like them putting the Corsa C interior into the Tigra B - oh yeah too late, they already have

they are getting better though - more so in some models than others


what were they thinking when they released the Agila ??

It hideous looking, because it is an American car, designed by bean counters. Ford and GM are going through hard times and have to design pretty bland cars at the moment. I saw one the other day and didn't give it a second look, purely because I didn't want to fall into a coma.

Tigra shares the same floorpan with the Corsa, they're the same car. They did this with the previous Corsa/Tigra, and the Cavalier/Calibra. If you look in Daewoos/Chevrolets (A GM owned company), you will see old dashboards and interiors, the Nexia used an 15 year old interior from the mk2 Astra (they were the same car again). It's all about cost cutting and nothing is going into design for the mass produced models.

GM cars are now built to a high standard and have done so for 20 years, I actually worked in QA for a Vauxhall contractor (Faurecia in Deeside) and the if anything was slightly off or 'rattly' it went back.
I have to say the interior in my 17 year old car isn't cheap and plasticy.

There have been brilliant write up's on the new insignia, how it's new dash is up there in build quality witht he likes of BMW and Audi, i like it and the fourthcoming VXR version is gonna be a stonker

Meh, its still a Vauxhall, boring to look at and will probably be on every driveway this side of Birmingham...

Corvettes, Vipers and Imprezas are awesome cars as well...