Recently in Vauxhall Category

A review of the Vauxhall Ampera has been posted over at The Independent. 'The Ampera is technically a hybrid, but a hybrid of a sort so far not seen in production. It's a plug-in hybrid, which means that the battery that powers its electric motor can be charged from the mains as you would a pure electric car. Toyota has tentatively released a plug-in version of the Prius, but the Ampera goes a stage further in its electricalness. It is moved along purely by its 151bhp electric motor and not by an engine. It does have an engine - a 1.4-litre petrol engine. But this is never connected to the driving wheels - it's used purely to drive a generator. To paraphrase the nursery rhyme, this is the engine that drives the generator that charges the battery that powers the motor that moves the car that Vauxhall built.'

Reg Hardware have published their "test driven" review of the Vauxhall Ampera electric car. 'The interior is a pretty decent place to spend time even allowing for the slightly crumby pre-production plastics on display on the doors. The sporty semi-bucket seats hold you firmly in a low-slung driving position, and the trick LED instrument binnacle worked a treat even in strong sunlight. Being an automatic, Ampera gets going when you hit a start/stop button and push the big pedal. The Ampera is a bit of a looker too. In an era of increasingly similar designs - the new Astra could just as easily be a Hyundai or a Mazda if you removed the badges - the Ampera, with its boomerang headlamp clusters, high rear shoulders and sculpted flanks, stands out from the crowd and, for my money, is more handsome than it's Chevrolet Volt brother.'

Inside Line have published their "First drive" review of the 2010 Vauxhall Insignia VXR. 'The 2010 Vauxhall Insignia VXR is a derivative of the Opel Insignia OPC introduced in Europe earlier this year, itself the high-performance version of the Opel Insignia. The Vauxhall Insignia became the U.K.'s 2009 Car of the Year by a single vote over the Ford Fiesta. Built on the same GM Epsilon II platform familiar to us in the Buick LaCrosse and Chevrolet Malibu, the Insignia rides on a 107.8-inch wheelbase and measures 190.2 inches overall, 73.1 inches wide and 60 inches high.'

Trusted Reviews have published a review of the Vauxhall Insignia Elite Nav 4x4 2.8i saloon. 'As a brand new model, we had high hopes for the Insignia's infotainment rig, known in top spec as the DVD800. It's actually the latest customer system supplied by Bosch. Historically, Bosch infotainment systems have been a little behind the curve, but first impressions certainly suggest a well specified setup complete with a large central LCD display, BMW iDrive / Audi MMI-aping control wheels and a secondary information screen in the driver's instrument cluster.'