[essixash]

Should we all get together, list our names and locations and each of our Insignias followed by a list of the faults in each one, and followed by a description of the POOR service and LIES told by Vauxhall and all contact Top Gear in Unison LOL how cool would that be, each appear on there with our cars in tow gobbing off at VX and showing everyone the real story behind the new Insignia lol.

It crossed my mind as i picked mine up tonight with a face like thunder on me lol and then i thought, what a cool idea lol

not that i spose it would really do a lot of good. And im only semi serious lol but wouldnt u love to get the upper hand on these VX dealers haha

The cheek that my local dealer said that there had been NO signs of problems with the Insignia AT ALL, yeah right and im Mother Teresa...........i was and still am so tempted to send a link to this site and then tell them to say the same statement to me after seeing it

[Murph]

Sod Top Gear - try Watchdog! :D

[hackjo]

Wouldn't do that if I were you - it will create a poor reputation for the car that will impact on desirability and residual values. That's only going to affect us as owners.

It's frustrating to have problems on a new car but unfortunately, these sort of issues are all to common on new cars from all manufacturers. Have a look at the BMW 1 series forum for example, where you will find loads of complaints about rattles, electrical faults and poor build quality.

That doesn't make it acceptable but I wouldn't suggest attempting to publicly destroy Vauxhall over the matter would be that helpful in the long term.

It looks like the dealers are the main problem. Try a mass meeting with Vauxhall senior management or similar.

My dad had major problems with an Astra and once he kicked up a fuss, the company were very reasonable with him.

[essixash]

chill out people i wasnt serious. God lol

[essixash]

Wouldn't do that if I were you - it will create a poor reputation for the car that will impact on desirability and residual values. That's only going to affect us as owners.

It's frustrating to have problems on a new car but unfortunately, these sort of issues are all to common on new cars from all manufacturers. Have a look at the BMW 1 series forum for example, where you will find loads of complaints about rattles, electrical faults and poor build quality.

That doesn't make it acceptable but I wouldn't suggest attempting to publicly destroy Vauxhall over the matter would be that helpful in the long term.

It looks like the dealers are the main problem. Try a mass meeting with Vauxhall senior management or similar.

My dad had major problems with an Astra and once he kicked up a fuss, the company were very reasonable with him.


Yes im well aware of that, and that its the dealers individually and that there are always problems with new cars. I wasn't being serious i was just speaking in general ...................a kind of "what if" thought lol

[essixash]

Sod Top Gear - try Watchdog! :D


Think i might try Scrap Heap Challenge at this rate

[chris66]

chill out people i wasnt serious. God lol

I think you've got a point mate. i don't have an Insignia but reading some of you lots stories, Vauxhall needs some kind of kick in the backside. People waited months on these cars just to be jerked around by one of the largest companies on the planet! pointing them in the direction of the site was a fantastic idea. would give them an insight into what the man on the street was going through and what he was willing to do to fix the problems by going to the media. They won't want that kind of press looming over them. this is only a small club and look at the comments on here. how many other people have issues that they have no one to talk to about them or a place to air their views.
Stand up and be counted vodc bruvvers. i think the threat of going to the media might be of some use....(-

[cameron66]

Some good opinions expressed, my own take on Vx is that the Insignia for whatever problems VX/Opel have had over the last 12 months due to financial restraints have fallen far short of what faithful customers to the brand should expect. IME its been absolutely attrocious how new purchaser's of the model have been treated.

Do you really think I wanted to sell my Insignia after just 13 weeks of ownership incurring a big financial loss... of course not! I should have had a big smile from day 1, but sadly due to shortcomings of both VX and its dealers the whole experience was a nightmare from the start.

TBH despite reading that a few others were having major problems, I still thought that I was just unlucky with this particular car. However the failure of dealers to quickly remedy numerous faults slowly dampened and certainly erased any goodwill that had been earned by my previous vx cars.

I'm sure all manufacturer's have their problems even BMW which as you know I now have after the Insignia saga, but I can honestly say that the way that BM treat customers is totally different to VX, certainly as far as dealers go anyway. Okay... you pay for it, but their customer care is second to none, even phoning twice (after 2 days, and then 2 weeks later) after a service or warranty work to ensure your happy with the job done. Okay it's a minor thing.. but it is re-assuring from the customers point of view, nothing seems to be too much trouble, but above all... things are fixed quickly and efficiently.
Most important of all, spares are available quickly, and in the event you need any warranty work doing they go to extreme measure's to ensure customer satisfaction. I honestly cannot speak highly enough of the way we have been treated from day-1.
IOW their after sales customer care is like their cars, absolutely superb.

I apologise if I sound like I'm bulling up BM simply because I have one, but thats simply how I feel, just wish I'd bought one years ago.
Some will say ah.. but the BM cars are more expensive, in most cases yes, but some of the models of the Insignia can be well over 20k, and IMO if I could not afford a new one I would rather have a 1 or 2 year old BMW than a new VX Insignia everytime.

Until VX start to sort out their quality control issues which still appear to be flawed, and to setup a proper spares network for the Insignia it's a car I cannot recommend.
Hopefully the new Astra when it starts to appear on our roads will fare much better, and possibly the fact it's being made in the Uk may help resolve the pathetic spares problems that has afflicted the Insignia so badly, though I think I also read somewhere that its also being made in Poland too, but not 100% sure.

One thing is certain after 5 brand new VX cars this is one ex VX customer who is unlikely to ever buy another.:(

[essixash]

No Cam i agree, u dont sound like you're favourotising because you own a BMW. Before the Insignia i owned a BMW Mini Cooper and they were SO much better than the service i have received from VX.

[essixash]

No Cam i agree, u dont sound like you're favourotising because you own a BMW. Before the Insignia i owned a BMW Mini Cooper and they were SO much better than the service i have received from VX.

Saying that i still own it but my brother now uses it. Its racked up nearly 110k miles now and NEVER has it EVER failed on me ive not had one single problem. Just had to pay out for wear and tear such as tyres and brakes.

[cameron66]

Saying that i still own it but my brother now uses it. Its racked up nearly 110k miles now and NEVER has it EVER failed on me ive not had one single problem. Just had to pay out for wear and tear such as tyres and brakes.

I had a BM mini when my car went in a few weeks ago for some smart paint chip repairs on the front bumper, and I must admit I really enjoyed driving it.
It probably knocked 20 yrs of my age...lol, cant say I was too keen having the speedo in the centre instead of the usual position, otherwise it was excellent, but probably prefer something just a little larger.

Those small stone chips btw which I mentioned above I had not seen when I inspected the car when buying. When you buy a second hand BM from a proper BM dealer they tend to virtually look like new, but when I came to give it a good clean/polish I noticed a few chips on the front bumper which though not bad needed touching up. (I admit I'm fussy) I phoned the dealer where I had bought it and he said to take it into any BMW dealership as he was 140miles away and just tell them to invoice us the bill which is exactly what I did. In fact they totally resprayed the front bumper and the bill to the the dealer was £273 which I actually thought was cheap, though I'm sure dealers have their own pricing between themselves...lol I also mentioned that one tyre was down to 3mm, and again they picked up the bill, apologising for not noticing it... cant be bad.

The thing is.. the dealer in Lancashire phoned me a few days later just to ensure I was pleased with the job the Worcester BMW dealer had done, and then a week later a woman rang too from the local dealer to ensure I was happy with the work carried out by them... talk about overkill...lol.

The thing both my wife and I have noticed is that they have a policy where the customer is number one, and nothing is too much trouble. What the staff really think is another thing of course, but at least they dont show it to the customer, as you probably gather I've been well impressed so far.

Hell... at my VX dealer I even had to pay for a cup of coffee if I wanted one, we all know at the end of the day the customer ends up paying for it all regardless whatever the service is like, but at least the BM dealerships I've encountered come across as though they care even after they have taken your money, where as the VX dealers could'nt care less, and in some cases have been downright arrogant and unfriendly.

[essixash]

I totally agree, they wait on you hand and foot at BM i actually remember taking my Mini for its first service and my jaw dropped, i actually phoned people with my sheer suprise and said how wonderful taking a BMW for a service was lol.

But totally the same situation with VX, they were rude, they were arrogant, unfriendly and totally unhelpful.

Plus they didnt call me once and my car was in over two thirds of a month, whereas my Mini could be in for servicing for a couple of hours and theyd call about 3 or 4 times.

VX clearly have no clue on the concept of customer service

[lewisburglin]

My VX dealer hasn't been rude really at all to me and given me a Insignia replacement car but I'd rather they just fix the blimin thing!lol

[essixash]

My VX dealer hasn't been rude really at all to me and given me a Insignia replacement car but I'd rather they just fix the blimin thing!lol


The sales and rental team were brilliant to deal with, proper top notch, the service team werent even a little bit bad though, they were absolutely horrific. Rude, arrogant, unhelpful and completely useless

[essixash]

The sales and rental team were brilliant to deal with, proper top notch, the service team werent even a little bit bad though, they were absolutely horrific. Rude, arrogant, unhelpful and completely useless


There was one particular mechanic that was really helpful and good and wish i had got his name, it was more the people on the service desk than the actual mechanics that were terrible

[cameron66]

My VX dealer hasn't been rude really at all to me and given me a Insignia replacement car but I'd rather they just fix the blimin thing!lol

Sounds like your vx dealer is better than the one I bought mine from Lewis, but they are obviously unable to fix it until they get some spares to do the job.
Its probably not quite so annoying and frustrating to them as it is to you but I'm sure they dont want all this hassle either, no dealer would, simply not good for customer relations.

My VX dealer in Hereford were absolutely rubbish, it was the first time I had bought a new car from them, their mechanics had'nt got a clue, one even admitted they knew little about the Insignia and it was a new learning experience all over again, on a couple of occasions causing a problem while fixing another, and even after 3 or 4 attempts to fix something they still were unable to fix things. I often wondered if they had even looked at it never mind actually done anything, and their contempt for their customers was plainly obvious.

Only time I had a free coffee was when I paid over my 15k+ for the car, you have to pay for drinks and the dam machine does'nt give change either... load of tight gits.

[hackjo]

My Vauxhall dealer in Bedworth has been absolutely excellent through two cars, bar the odd little blip.

The Renault dealers I have used for the Clio we have (and a previous one I had) were absolutely abysmal.

If Vauxhall want to move towards a more "premium" position they need to change the mentality of their dealers big time - in many cases the staff and buildings don't match the quality and image of the newer products, particularly the Insignia.

They still seem to think they're selling 80's Belmonts!

[Melbury]

Should we all get together, list our names and locations and each of our Insignias followed by a list of the faults in each one, and followed by a description of the POOR service and LIES told by Vauxhall and all contact Top Gear in Unison LOL how cool would that be, each appear on there with our cars in tow gobbing off at VX and showing everyone the real story behind the new Insignia lol.

It crossed my mind as i picked mine up tonight with a face like thunder on me lol and then i thought, what a cool idea lol

not that i spose it would really do a lot of good. And im only semi serious lol but wouldnt u love to get the upper hand on these VX dealers haha

The cheek that my local dealer said that there had been NO signs of problems with the Insignia AT ALL, yeah right and im Mother Teresa...........i was and still am so tempted to send a link to this site and then tell them to say the same statement to me after seeing it
Ah! so you'r only winding us up, well then what about yours? since you just got it.
Any problems? No doubt some have had the run around with the problems and the dealers but I tend to believe we hear more about the bad events than the good events because people are not rushing to give praise where its due.
So now, having said that, I have to say, my local dealer was very good, very friendly,
as much free coffee tea and biscuits as you want, a full tank of petrol and even a nice Vauxhall umbrella for good luck. Then of course they gave me £10 for saying that (lol)

[essixash]

Ah! so you'r only winding us up, well then what about yours? since you just got it.
Any problems? No doubt some have had the run around with the problems and the dealers but I tend to believe we hear more about the bad events than the good events because people are not rushing to give praise where its due.
So now, having said that, I have to say, my local dealer was very good, very friendly,
as much free coffee tea and biscuits as you want, a full tank of petrol and even a nice Vauxhall umbrella for good luck. Then of course they gave me £10 for saying that (lol)

Well if u notice while eveyone else was pulling their hair out about their insignia i was doing nothing BUT praise mine. Then the clutch went after 6 days of owning it and the dealership handled the situation terribly and treated me really badly so i disagree that people forget to mention the good bits lol. Im still really pleased with the car now i have it back but not too impressed with the dealer. Ive sent a letter complaining about the service department BUT before u say people forget to praise lol....... i also spent a lot of time in the letter saying how wonderful the sales team and rental department had been lol

[cameron66]

Well if u notice while eveyone else was pulling their hair out about their insignia i was doing nothing BUT praise mine. Then the clutch went after 6 days of owning it and the dealership handled the situation terribly and treated me really badly so i disagree that people forget to mention the good bits lol. Im still really pleased with the car now i have it back but not too impressed with the dealer. Ive sent a letter complaining about the service department BUT before u say people forget to praise lol....... i also spent a lot of time in the letter saying how wonderful the sales team and rental department had been lol

I too had the odd weakness and praised the car on more than one occasion in past posts.
I assume you have had no problems other than the clutch which does seem to be a weakness on the Insignia, but would you feel the same way if your experiences had been much worse. Check out my list below, and I can sincerly state no exagerations have been made.

29th May. Day-1
1. New car had 72 miles on speedo clock, plus there were several stone chips on the front of the car down to the base white colour. There was also a noticable bad scratch on the mat black radio surround trim. Also a small gouge mark one one alloy wheel. So not a good start from day-1. I should have simply walked away. Dealer agreed to order a new trim which arrived about 5/6 weeks later and fitted. 2 months later VX finally agree to pay for front bumper respray.

2. Climate control display keeps going intermittently blank. over next 10 weeks car goes in 4 times for this to be fixed.

3: Both rear and front bumpers poorly fitted, dealer re-aligns rear bumper so its much better, however despite 3 attempts they fail to improve the front bumper which has a 4mm gap betwen the body and bumper joint, it also sticks out 4mm beyond the body line. Almost 3 months later VX release a rework fix involving fitting extra clips to secure front bumper.

4. From day 1 the car made a rattle noise when first started, sounding like a sticking starter motor, dealer unable to fix after 3 attempts. almost 3 months later VX release a rework fix to prevent oil draining back when left standing. Fault is caused by a hydraulic cam ajustment pulley being sloppy when car first started.

5. Continual creaks from numerous area's especially the centre console which was very audible everytime you went round a bend. Dealer failed to fix this although they had it in 3 times for it.

6. Fuel consumption was extremely poor from day-1, only returning about 23 mpg and had bad flat spots around 3k rev mark. Dealer managed to do some adjustments and eventually got the fuel consumption up to around 33mpg, no apparent cure for the flat spots according to dealer.

7. In the 11th week of ownership I started getting a little noticable clutch slip. Dealer orders a new clutch, meanwhile I'm still using car. 1 week later extreme difficulty selecting gears. Dealer states it requires another gearbox.

8. In the 13th week car is sold back to VX, when my patience finally runs out.

I actually had a diesel 160 exclusiv Insignia before that last 1.8 petrol Exclusiv, and in the 2 months I had it, I had no issue's at all, it was passed to one of our employee's for the company use, and it too has been off the road now for close to a month waiting for a replacement DMF.
Hopefully it should be fixed next week I'm told.

Its a shame really because I was quite keen on the Insignia initially, TBH considering my experience with the Insignia I think I've been more than generous in my comments about the car.:)

However almost a year after starting production, UK customers are still having to wait excessive amounts of time for spares. Having a company car off the road for a month waiting for a DMF surely cannot be acceptable.
Whats more VX refused to pay for a courtesy car beyond 3 weeks, in my book that's un-acceptable too.

[lewisburglin]

As seen as were starting something here heres my 2 pennys!.lol,

1) Recieved car 15th Aug 09 on a 59 plate. Inspected the car throughrly, the car arrived on a trailer with only 10 miles on the clock. Both exterior and interior were flawless apart from a slight scratch on the piano black interior surround, mush like Cam's.

2) Took it for a spin, first 20 miles made up with the car....the the problems started. After going up an normal mountian road in Wales (horse shoe pass) the engine started hesitating. Getting quite nervey after a while.

3) After a while all seemed ok again....then the Engine Management light came on.

4) Next day drove to the dealers it kept cutting out quite badly.

5) Dealer waited for a new EGR valve to come from Germany, fitted the new part (although I suspect it was taken from a Insignia in the car park) and the car was ok again.

6) I noticed as Cam did as well when the car is cold theres a rattling by drivers left leg somewhere, ignored this hoping it would go away...it never did but doest matter right now....lol.

7) Car was ok for nearly 100 miles then guess what the hesitating returned, just going through the City this time.

8) Returned the cars to the dealers (2nd time), this time they didnt change the EGR valve but insteaad did a software upgrade on the ECU, they though it was something to do with the DPF on the car.

9) Car was good again and I actually thought the car was fixed until in a multi story car park, guess what no power up the ramps!! EEEKKK!

10) Got the car out the carpark to drive it straight to the garage as by this time I was Pi*/-d off!lol. Got about 5 miles and the car turned into being totally undrivable with NO power under 4500k rev's! EEK again. (almost causes a accident pulling out of a roundabout)

11) After stopping and calling the AA they helped me to the garage (45 min wait!), the dealer (who to be fair not really their fault just VX not knowing whats going on!) were in disbelief but when we got there the service manager took the car and couldnt even get around the car park in it.

12) After having the car now 2 weeks and counting they have decieded to take the car to their technical department in Luton. Probably because my Fleet company have threatned to Reject the car if it breaks for anything else once again. (Of which if it does im going to order a A3 instead!.lol)

Its a real shame to be honest because I do love the car and i've had 2 Insignia hire cars now ok just basic Sri's but they are great cars (when they work) even the 130 Diesel is good. Just wish they fix mine!

So thats the story of another poorly Insignia (Sri Nav 160).

Lewis

[lewisburglin]

After my last report....

13) Dealer rings me today, their not sending it to Luton now as they have just had a part come in....
Apparantly not the standard EGR valve, he said it looks completly different (larger) and has a new part number.
SO hopefully this may be the replacement for the old type ones!!
Wondering now if their recall them for this part....probably not too expensive!lol.

He's said to collect my car tomorrow but keep the insignia hire car for a week as a backup!.lol.
Fingers crossed........again! (3rd time lucky)....i'm really looking forward to praising the car again.

[cameron66]

He's said to collect my car tomorrow but keep the insignia hire car for a week as a backup!.lol.
.

Hope its sorted this time matey, but it sounds like the dealer is not 100% confident...lol Not a bad policy though.... buy a new car from us and we'll give you free a second one in case the first one breaks down..lol(-

Its a pity they have to fit all these emission control measures to diesel engines, as it always seems to be these parts that give the problems. The basic simple diesel engine itself being virtually indestructable. As time goes on they are just getting so complicated its beginning to affect their reliability reputation.