Opel Insignia:

In the first sight, Insignia is a vast improvement from Vectra. Its exterior design is both stylish and upmarket, something half Audi and half Infiniti. Its swoopy roofline has some Jaguar XF in it, which appears to limit rear seat head room (we shall see that later). However, Insignia does not look as sporty as Ford Mondeo owing to a rounder and softer profile. Opel?s design chief Mark Adams prefers a softer design theme than his predecessor Martin Smith, who styled Astra and Corsa before moving to Ford and designed Mondeo. It does deliver a lower drag coefficient (0.27), and looks more elegant thanks to the use of extensive chroming throughout its body. Inside, the dashboard design looks quite stylish and inviting. Materials and build quality are at least as good as Mondeo?s ? perhaps slightly better ? although it can?t disgrace a new Volkswagen Golf.

What the Insignia isn?t so great is space efficiency. While its overall length is 50 mm longer than Mondeo, its wheelbase is 113 mm shorter than its rival, or in absolute term, 2737 mm. This explain why it looks large outside yet feels small inside. When the front seats are set to accommodate 6-footers, rear passengers of the same size will find head and knee room unusually cramped by the standard of this class. It feels at least a class smaller than Mondeo, so how can it steal sales from the executive car class ? The lack of space will be even more disappointing if you know how heavy Insignia is ? a base 1.6-liter model carries 68 kg more than an equivalent Mondeo, while a flagship 2.8 V6 turbo AWD tips the scale at nearly 1700 kg ! Compare with Vectra, Insignia gains around 140 kg, but those weight did not translate into more interior space, sadly.

The Insignia, the all-new family car from Vauxhall / Opel, has been voted 2009 Car of the Year ? by the narrowest possible margin. The Insignia polled an impressive 321 votes to beat this year?s other favoured contender, the Ford Fiesta, by a solitary point. The Volkswagen Golf, on 223 points, was third.

 ?This is the closest COTY competition for years,? comments Ray Hutton, president of the 59-strong jury of senior motoring journalists drawn from 23 European countries. ?Car of the Year has often been decided narrowly, but it is eight years since another Ford, the Mondeo, was beaten by a single point by Alfa Romeo?s 147.? To underscore the closeness of the 46-year-old competition, the Vauxhall / Opel Insignia received most votes from 20 of the international jurors, while the Fiesta was placed first by 19 of them.

?We are delighted to be able to deliver good news at such a tough time,? says Steve Cropley, editor-in-chief of Autocar, COTY?s British-based sponsoring magazine, ?The market is the toughest we?ve seen for 20 years, but nothing alters the fact that the Insignia is a great car. However, this result is undoubtedly something of an upset. The Ford Fiesta seemed to many a winning contender. But in the end, the Insignia deserved to triumph and it did.?

Points allotted to the other COTY finalists were VW Golf  223, Citroen C5 198, Alfa Romeo MiTo 148, Skoda Superb 144 and Renault Megane 121. The competition?s first stage was in October, when jurors chose seven finalists from a field of 37 contenders. To be eligible for COTY, a car must be launched within the past 12 months and must be available in at least five European countries.

The COTY jury is made up of 59 senior motoring journalists from 23 countries. Their objective is to choose the most outstanding new car to go on sale in the past 12 months. Jurors vote twice: first to select a short-list of seven from the new cars launched in Europe, then again to choose the winner.

Autocar is one of seven leading publications from around Europe which organise the COTY contest. Each publication takes it in turn to organise the vote, publicise and promote the contest and hold the prize-giving ceremony.

The jury is completely independent of the Organising Committee in matters connected with the award itself, the selection of eligible cars and the voting.

All Cars (28)
Audi A4	BMW 3 Series Sedan	Buggati Veyron	Caterham 7 Classic
Chevrolet Spark	Eliica - an Electric Car	Ferrari Enzo	Flextreme
Ford Fiesta	Ford Ikon	Gold Porsche	Honda City
Hyundai i20	Linea Sedan	Mahindra Xylo	Maruti A Star
Maruti Ritz	Mini CAT's Air Car	Nano	Nissan Versa
Opel Insignia	Reva NXG / NXR (Electric Car)	Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe	Skoda - Small Car
Solar Car from Toyota	Terrafugia Transition (Flying Car)	Toyota Corolla	Volvo (Accident-Proof Car)