The new Ford Mondeo was very well received when it was released last year (see our reviews here and here). Our road tester hailed it as the best car in its class and “the best car Ford has produced for a decade”.
But now its rivals have the Mondeo in their sights and we’ve just driven the latest, the new Honda Accord.
The Renault Laguna and Citroen C5 have also been updated recently and, like Honda, Renault has followed Ford’s lead of paying more attention to improving the quality of the interior, to tempt buyers away from the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes C Class.
The next car to try this approach is the Vauxhall Insignia (formerly the Vectra).
Do you own any of these cars – or are thinking of buying one? Which is the best family saloon car?
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12 months with an Insignia…previous car Audi …insignia equal in all dept’s but looks better…Vauxhall have no problems with this car …just the badge snobs to contend with…but they never buy them anyway…
Im laughing at there “Marketing Controlled Brains” lol
Dave, I’d like to know why you have decided to brand the whole range of Vauxhall cars as being “rubbish?” Can you expand on this comment please?
The Vauxhall Insignia won European Car of The Year, poor cars simply don’t go around winning awars like that.
It looks good for me. But not from the whole. I think ford is better
I’m due to hand back my 55 Vectra 120 SRI CC in January and am thinking Mondeo or Insignia … ?
Keen to confirm how the new insignia SRI looks in the flesh I tried to hunt down a demo or just a viewing.. no luck here with my fleet team, it seems there is a large waiting list to test drive.
There must be 100′s of company car employees about to choose a new car, at least Vauxhall could do is plop one in show room attached to the plant in Luton, I just want to just to see one !!
The Insignia is by all accounts a great car. A good choice of efficient and powerful engines, comfortable, refined, economical and well balanced. It’s Achilles heal may well be the very people who bring it to market. As nice as the Insignia will be, it is only a mass produced fleet car. But Vauxhall will treat it in in the same way as Ford treated the Mondeo in 2007, as if it was the latest effort from Bugatti or Ferrari, a specialist car for special people. Nice idea but unfortunately a dream, it’s a car for Ken Smith, and his boot full of samples. Ford let the Mondeo slip into a situation where production was stiffled, a 6 month wait was the norm for a family hatch with a 2 ltr diesel under the bonnet. You could get an F430 quicker and people have voted with there feet. There are now hundreds of Mondeos parked in compounds going nowhere because the bubble burst and the honeymoon period came and went while Ford stiffled. Don’t go the same way Vauxhall, it’s just the next family hatch, let it go.