Currently reading: Vauxhall Insignia wins COTY
Vectra replacement takes COTY title ahead of Ford Fiesta

The Vauxhall Insignia has won the European Car of the Year award for 2009, beating the heavily favoured Ford Fiesta by a solitary point.

The competition, which brings together votes from 59 motoring journalists in 23 European countries, gave the decision to GM’s new family car by 321 points, to 320 for the Fiesta. The VW Golf, third of contest’s seven finalists polled 223 points.

The result was revealed this morning to Carl-Peter Forster, president of GM Europe, by Autocar editor-in-chief Steve Cropley, Car of the Year executive vice president for 2009.

"This is great news for GM/Vauxhall and its employees, suppliers and retailers," said Bill Parfitt, managing director of GM Europe UK. "Vauxhall has made great strides in recent years, particularly in design and dynamics, and the Insignia illustrates what we’re capable of achieving.

"It offers great quality and value in a prestige package that will provide an exceptional ownership experience to our customers.”

The closeness of the 2009 decision is further illustrated by the fact that while the Insignia won most votes from 20 jurors, the Fiesta was placed first by 19 of them.

“The Insignia and Fiesta are both brilliant cars,” said Cropley. "Commiserations to Ford for just missing out. I hope the strength of the support that its car received will be some kind of compensation.”

The Fiesta’s defeat is a particularly bitter blow for Ford, whose Mondeo lost in 2001 by a singe point to the Alfa Romeo 147.

The 2009 competition’s other finalists were the Citroen C5 (198 points), the Alfa Romeo MiTo (148 points), the Skoda Superb (144 points) and the Renault Megane (121 points).

The victorious GM Insignia team will receive the Car of the Year perpetual trophy at a special ceremony in January next year.

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julianphillips 19 November 2008

Re: Vauxhall Insignia wins COTY

We all know the X6 should have won!! As for the Fiesta being "a car that has really moved the game on in terms of driving, styling and economy" - I don't get it? The Mazda2 did the same and is much cheaper. The only game the Fiesta moves on is the game of fitting horrendously plasticky, cheap-as-chips looking centre console modules that look nice in photos and from a distance! I think the Vectra is a worthy winner.

wheats 19 November 2008

Re: Vauxhall Insignia wins COTY

One presumes Jelly7961 comes from another planet and only reads the yearly crap published by JD Power, as anyone living in the real world knows all to well that japanese cars being more reliable than their european counterparts is a complete mith created by some old chap in the early 70's in just the same way as people still talk about Lancias and Alfas being rust buckets, despite the fact they haven't used the affending russian steel for over 30 years (which was also used by Datsun/Honda and Toyota at the time, but because there were so few of them around then, no one took any notice when they rusted away too). Firstly, the premise that Jap cars are reliable is based on completely unreliable data provided by the old folk who drive them, most of which cover very few miles at low speeds, whereas european cars, driven by professionals, cover anything up to ten times the mileage at much higher speeds, therefore they are bound to develop more faults per year or require attention on a more regular basis, which unfortunatly is how these statistics are compiled, completley ignoring actual use. Secondly statistics don't take account of expectations, if one buys a BMW and it develops just one fault, then the owner feels it has let them down, whereas the Jap car owner is happy if it starts five times out of ten. In my 30 years driving I have owned more than 36 cars covering on average 40k miles per year, this includes 7 Rovers, 7 Vauxhalls, 7 Alfas, 5 Fords, 4 BMW's, 3 Peugeots, 1 VW, 1 Saab and 1 Mitsubishi, the only two which let me down were one of the 406's and the Galant. Vauxhall/Opel deserves this win as the best car in the shortlist, closely followed by Alfas Mito (a sports car for the masses) and VW's Golf Vl (which further moves this away from anything on offer from Japan).

minesaseat 18 November 2008

Re: Vauxhall Insignia wins COTY

Insignia wins COTY? Well that does not say much for the opposition. If Insignia is so good then why:

Is it so big - a full 9" longer than the Vectra - and yet interior and boot space is the same?

Is it so ugly - with huge overhangs front an rear?

Are they lauching with a poor range of engines? Thirsty/dirty 2.0 litre turbo, gutless 1.8 and second choice diesels (where is the 180bhp diesel at launch)?

Why can't you get a sunroof, along with other extras available on the opposition - incl Mondeo?

Why is it already being discounted (or so it seems), if the leasing companies don't expect it's resale value to fall thru the floor?

Why can Ford do no wrong? - well it's because of the Mondeo, although certainly not because of the dull Focus.

My outgoing Vectra SRi (a fine car actually), will be the last Vaux for a while.