Inside-In’

Set down your breakables and ready the smelling salts: Vauxhall has released the first interior shots of its Vectra-replacing big saloon, the Insignia.

They really do seem to have all the bases covered. Look, they've remembered a steering wheel, gearstick, an indicator stalk and even a pair of circular analogue readouts informing you of both your current speed and also the number of revolutions that your engine is performing each minute. What will they think of next?

"This is a paradigm shift for Vauxhall," says Vauxhall's John Puskar. "We wanted to create interior environments for all our future vehicles that are warm, inviting and sporty."

In fairness, the Insignia's interior does look very nice and swoopy... and Vauxhall tells us that when you push the big button marked 'Sport', all the instrument cluster lighting turns from white to red. Neat.

For a while, we feared they'd forgotten to put a handbrake in, but turns out it's one of those new-fangled electronic efforts.

Rumours abound that the Insignia's cabin will even feature three floor-based pedals: one for fastness, one for slowness, and the other to disengage the friction plate on the clutch.

We can but hope.