Vauxhall has released details of the Insignia Sports Tourer ecoFLEThe Vauxhall Insignia is a very good car. As, in fact, is virtually every car in Vauxhall’s stable. But the Insignia is perhaps the most stylish, and in Sports Tourer guise it is a match for anything else out there, particularly the VXR Sports Tourer, which is a cracking car.
But performance is not quite the Holy Grail it once was for car makers. Times are more constrained, and more headlines get attached to the ‘Eco’ versions than the performance versions. So when Vauxhall announced the Insignia ecoFLEX back in April, it got as many – if not more – column inches as the Insignia VXR did (if not with quite the passion!). So it wasn’t going to be too long before we got the Insignia Sports Tourer ecoFLEX.
Vauxhall has released details of the Sports Tourer ecoFLEX this morning, and as you would expect it’s more of the same eco-news as the ecoFLEX Saloon. Not surprisingly – as the Insignia is a popular company car – Vauxhall are highlighting the big reduction in company car tax for the ST ecoFLEX. With CO2 emissions of just 139g/km it drops four bands to 18% compared to the CDTi Sports Tourer. It also improves economy by over 12% to 53.7 mpg, giving a range of around 825 miles on a full tank.
But the ecoFlex Sports Tourer has not been too anaesthetised by the eco tweaks. It still has the 2.0 litre CDTi lump producing 163bhp and managing 0-60 mph in 9.3 seconds. But it’s been modified with longer ratios to aid economy (although it’s not too sluggish with its decent lump of torque). There have been aerodynamic tweaks and the ride height has been dropped by 3mm at the front and 14mm at the back. There are also low rolling resistance tyres fitted, which in our experience are a bit noisier but otherwise have no impact on handling.
