Vauxhall Insignia's interior revealed

The Griffin has landed! Feast your eyes on the exclusive first interior pictures of the all-new Vauxhall Insignia, set to soar into showrooms at the end of this year.

As you can see, Vauxhall's new saloon doesn't even bear a passing resemblance to the Vectra it replaces, and these images show just how far the Insignia will go to entice Mondeo Man out of Ford showrooms.

Not only does the Insignia sound a death knell for the Vectra name, it also signals an entirely new design era for Vauxhall as owner General Motors seeks to send the brand upmarket - right into the heart of BMW 3-Series territory.

Vauxhall bosses hope to establish the car as a 'premium' volume seller, and it looks promising. The 'blade' theme of the exterior features heavily, with the unique swage lines on the exterior doors mirrored on the grab handles and steering wheel fascia.

The cockpit also debuts another design hallmark and Vauxhall buzzword that will feature in all future cars wearing the updated Griffin badge - the 'wing' theme, seen in the circular sweep of the upper dashboard, as well as in details such as the round-bottomed button cluster in the centre console.

To improve cabin ambience, Vauxhall's traditional yellow facia lighting has been replaced by warm red and white tones. The lower level lighting will glow red, while the instrument cluster will be white - until 'sport' mode is activated, that is, in which case the dials glow red too!

And in keeping with the premium feel GM has in mind for the Insignia, Vauxhall will introduce an optional iDrive style multi-media interface which will add an intuitive rotary dial mounted in front of the centre arm rest.

Three trim levels will be available: Elegance, Cosmo and Sport, which utilise a range of colour and trim combinations to emphasise either comfort or more sporty characteristics.

Don't miss next week's edition of Auto Express to get in-depth details and analysis of Vauxhall's most important car for decades.