THE Vauxhall Insignia is breaking new ground by becoming the first model in the British car maker's line up to be fitted with the company's new OnStar connectivity system.

The equipment will be fitted as standard on certain models and is arriving at the same time as Vauxhall is introducing its so-called ‘whisper diesel' engine to the Insignia range.

The new engine will replace the current 2.0-litre diesel engine and is claimed to give the car fuel economy of up to 74.3mpg.

Priced from £19,534 to £26,114 the 1.6 CDTi Insignia ecoFLEX version achieves a top speed of 130mph and 0-60mph in 10.9 seconds from the new 136ps engine.

Emissions are rated as low as 99g/km which makes the car free from road tax for private buyers.

The OnStar system will be available on the Insignia in Elite, Limited Edition and VXR trims and as a £395 option on other models.

OnStar technology is to be rolled out across the Vauxhall range and enables drivers to turn the car into a wi-fi hotspot for up to seven devices.

It also enables emergency response notification if the airbag deploys and stolen vehicle recovery technology as well as connecting drivers directly with a call centre advisor to provide owners with a personal assistant at any time.

Vauxhall says that as an example drivers can call up a Destination Download facility by calling an OnStar advisor in-car who will pinpoint your desired destination and send the address to the vehicle's navigation system.