Vauxhall Signum 3.0 CDTi V6 24v > Reviews (1)

How many of you, I wonder, share my opinion that the Signum, is a really rather odd kind of car. Certainly it is difficult to categorise, but maybe that was what Vauxhall were aiming for, a niche all of their own.

For those of you not familiar with this particular Vauxhall, I will explain just what makes it an odd kind of car. To start with, it is based on the decidedly lacklustre current model Vectra. From my previous experiences with Vauxhall's family saloon and hatchback range that is not a good start! Does that make it odd? Well it should do quite the opposite; the Vectra is about as normal (read average or mundane) a purchase as you can make on four wheels in 2005. No, what makes this thing odd is that, whapping great car that it is, it only has four seats! At 4636mm long it is the same length as many of the current seven seater MPV's, identical in length in fact to the most popular of that breed the Ford Galaxy.

Vauxhall have attempted to market the Signum as a premium "executive" car, ok even if we stretch the imagination and assume that this particular car appeals to an executive, how practical is it with only four seats?

Enter onto the scene Mr and Mrs Richada. Sorry folks, but I am your "bog standard" average executive. Last year I covered 16,000 business miles, on top of an equal pile of 'social and domestic' mileage. For over four years I ran, as a company car, a Vauxhall Omega. Not being a badge snob, the Omega proved to be the perfect executive car, taking me to business appointments all over the country in extraordinary comfort and until it passed the 100,000 mile barrier, in perfect reliability too. That car, for me at least, was the perfect executive car. It also happened to have five spacious seats, three of which 95% of the time remained unoccupied.

However, at the end of the working day, or week come to that, I return home, remove my business suit and tie and become ordinary Joe. OK, I have a Polish wife who has, by English standards anyway, a fairly large family. We drive to Poland twice a year, her parents and young sister fly to England alternate years. Outside of the 9 to 5 (if only!) I like to think that we have some social life. A family and I need a five seater car! 5% of the year I do need all five seats, most "executives" I think would tell you the same thing.

Oh yes, the Signum does look, on the outside at least, rather better than the Vectra. Certainly you would know at 100 paces that it has more than just a passing resemblance to that car, but due to its rarity it is definitely more distinctive. Vauxhall have also carried out some attractive little detailing "tweaks" that help too. Yes, but is it good looking? Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder, and if I have to be brutally honest this is a car that I would really rather not behold!

So here my wife and I are at Company Car in Action staged at the Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire, it is the summer of 2004, the rain is falling hard and there is a gale blowing.

I had no intention of trying another Signum this year. At this same event in 2003, the year that Vauxhall launched this range, I had been surprisingly impressed with the 2.0 petrol Turbo version, and puzzled that Vauxhall could put the pathetic 2.0 Diesel unit into such a big heavy car. My wife had not had the experience of travelling in a Signum and wanted to try one, purely for sheer novelty value.

Fortunately, this year, they had a V6 CDTi available, albeit with an automatic gearbox. This was the "Design" model which had an unfortunately cheap looking interior. All Signums now come as standard with satellite navigation system and blacked out rear windows but the trim levels stay the same. The ambience of the two Elite models driven last year certainly makes an overwhelming difference to the interior of this car.

The cynic inside me tells me that Vauxhall have had to throw expensive items like sat-nav

at this car in order to get them through the showroom doors, it has been on the market for two years now and you still see remarkably few of them out on the road.

However, and it's a big one - this brand new 3.0 litre - common rail (that is the diesel fuel injection system) 6 cylinder engine is superb! Whilst I would still favour, in any car, a manual gearbox, (the Co2 level drops 200 with this engine and a manual 'box), the torque characteristics are superbly matched to the very capable GM automatic box. This is a relatively old fashioned gearbox too, it does what the majority of automatic car drivers would want i.e. to change gear entirely on its own, but without the fancy 'paddle shift' or tiptronic semi-manual controls now so popular.

I happen to think Vauxhall are wise here, most people I know that choose to drive an automatic do so in order to not touch the gear selector once on the move anyway. Many companies have thrown great amounts of finance and engineering resources at coming up with the do it all, all singing all dancing manually overridden automatic systems. Some are genuinely good things to use (Citroen C5 V6's for example), but why bother? Lets face it most drivers who really want to DRIVE a car prefer a manual gearbox, with an engine as good as this 3.0 CDTi unit you do not spend much time stirring the gearstick anyway because the engines huge torque does all the work for you.

When you actually drive one, the Signum turns out to be a surprising car. It really is so much better to drive than to look at, especially with this particular engine - you would never believe that it could be based on the lack lustre Vectra. As I discovered last year behind the wheel of the 2.0 Turbo version, this car makes light work of the hill route, it has all the torque you need to haul out of the sharp bends in second gear.

That's the second time that I have mentioned the magic "t" word in relation to this car's engine without actually telling you how much of the flexible stuff it serves you up. It pays to remember that with a diesel engine flexibility - torque - is everything, not only the sheer size of the number (a huge 273lbs per ft in this case) but also the flatness of the torque curve i.

e. the width of the rev band across which it is produced. Thanks to this being a six cylinder (V6) engine it produces a fat wadge of that 273lbs of torque from barely above tick-over speed to around 4000rpm where, in common with most diesels, you can actually feel it starting to run out of puff. Not only is the torque impressive, but this car has also for a diesel, a mighty power output of 177bhp, produced at 4000rpm.

Obviously I have no way of actually testing the performance figures, but having driven it, have absolutely no reason to doubt Vauxhall's claims for it. This is a fast car, considerably faster than my previous 2.5 V6 (petrol) Omega. They say that it will do 138mph maximum and get to 60mph in 8.8 seconds.

The question is would you want to and in this car?

However we are jumping ahead here, I have not described what the Signum is like at low speed and under town driving conditions. To start with, in common with the Vectra, with which it shares the "cliff face" dashboard, this is actually one of the most intimidating cars to drive in close quarters that you will find. Visibility in most directions is compromised; smaller drivers will hate it, even with the driver's seat set to maximum height that feeling of peering over the top of the dashboard never fully goes away. Rear three quarter visibility is terrible, the small rear window, huge rear three quarter pillars, raising waist line and blacked out rear glass all contrive against you, the driver.

Reverse park radar is no gimmick on this car, it's a necessity!

This engine really serves to remind me what it is that I miss in my otherwise superb Diesel Honda Accord - finesse. However good a four cylinder engine is, and the one in my Honda is brilliant, be it petrol or diesel, another two cylinders will always provide a more stimulating drive. It has absolutely nothing to do with performance, but everything to do with refinement and aural pleasure.

The "Alpine" course at Millbrook is actually the perfect place to listen to a car's "soundtrack". With the steep hills and hairpin bends I am clicking the automatic gear selector backwards and forwards and listening to that wonderful engine - a subdued growl, both up and down the rev range, magic! And in a Vauxhall!

Importantly here, due to the severe downhill gradients you can never rely entirely on the brakes, there is nothing wrong with the Signum's brakes, it is just that here you must drive any car 'properly' and make full use of the engine braking, selecting the same gear to go down a given hill as you would to climb it in the opposite direction. The days experience on this particular visit teach me that the bigger and more powerful the engine, the more capable its "engine braking" ability.

Another surprise in the Signum, unlike the Vectra, is the ability to ride very comfortably and also provide the driver with a real dose of fun through the corners. If Vauxhall can do this for a niche market car why on earth can they not do everyone a favour and make the 'everyman' Vectra a better car to drive and ride in?

Out onto the speed bowl and whilst the automatic transmission blunts ultimate acceleration, it gathers speed deceptively rapidly and naturally has no difficulty in holding a very refined 100mph. Unlike the new Astra, the Signum is rock steady at this speed too, as stable indeed as anything driven here today.

So a real curate's egg of a car then, the Signum 3.0 V6 CDTi, what it is very good at, it's very, very good at, what it is bad at, I simply could not live with.

I'm going to reinforce the above statement by telling you just how much a NEW one of these is going to cost to run, if you are easily frightened or maybe just a little parsimonious, I suggest that you miss out the next bit!

Purchase price: £23,715. A lot of money - but at lot of car at £20,000 after discount.

Insurance Group: 12. Very reasonable for a car of this performance and price.

Servicing: Very reasonable, it's a Vauxhall! Mind the dealers though, some are terrible!

Fuel Consumption: Average 38.7mpg. What? You must have mis-typed that!? No it's true!

I can hear you all thinking: 'Richada, we are very disappointed; you promised us a scary bit!'

OK here it is. The Signum, in common with all large Vauxhall's suffers massive depreciation. The bigger the engine, the faster the value of the car plummets. Buy a new one for that £20K mentioned above and you will drive out of the showroom with a bargain, yes?

NO!

Buy a two year old one for £10,500 - THEN you have a BARGAIN!

Yes the first owner will have lost well over 50% of this cars value after a mere 18 months and 24,000 miles. If you put a big mileage on it, above 30,000 per annum the way I and many other "executive" drivers of my acquaintance do, then well before the end of the second year your £20K bargain is going to be into four figures.

Yes, we could drive to Poland in considerable comfort in one of these, but as I would never consider buying one, even very cheaply second hand, we will not get the chance!