Vauxhall Antara SUV

Drive

At launch there were two engine options available – a 2.0-litre diesel and a 2.4-litre petrol. Poor sales have put an end to the petrol model so later Antaras are only available with the diesel unit. Unfortunately, it's not great, but a facelifted model due to be introduced in December 2010 promises to fix this. As it stands the engine is noisy and lacks the kind of punch that would make the Antara easy to drive around town. It accelerates from 0-62mph in 11.1 seconds, though this increases 12.8 seconds for the automatic. Neither gearbox is great, with the manual making it hard to select gears easily and the auto taking far to switch cogs. On the road, the Vauxhall struggles to deliver any sort of driving thrills, with its loose steering and soft suspension which causes the body to roll in the bends. Unfortunately, it's not great off-road either. 

Comfort

On-road comfort is a bit of a mixed bag with the Antara. The soft suspension soaks up potholes and bumps well, but the way that it's set up causes the body to bounce up and down longer than it should do so you find yourself bobbing around quite a bit. Making matters worse is that noisy diesel engine which sounds incredibly unrefined and revs loudly at motorway speeds too. 

Reliability

There's been no major faults to report with the Antara since it was launched and the fact that it's covered by Vauxhall's lifetime warranty should put your mind at ease when it comes to reliability. The Chevrolet Captiva is essentially the same car underneath and that car boasts an impressive reliability record too. The quality of the Vauxhall's cabin does feel better than the Captiva though, with more soft-touch materials and a classier design. 

Practicality

For a relatively big car the Antara doesn't have a particularly spacious boot. At just 370 litres it's substantially smaller than the Volkswagen Golf's 550 litre boot. On the plus side the rear seats do fold flat to boost carrying capacity. The rear seats are also spacious too. 

Value for money

There's some good deals around on Antaras, with dealers offering plenty of money off new models. In fact the facelifted model, due out in December 2010 sees a price-drop of around £3,000. The most basic E models are quite well equipped but it might be worth shelling out a bit extra for a higher specification which includes automatic air-con and cruise control. 

Running costs

Your running costs will vary quite substantially depending on the gearbox you go for in the Antara. The manual gearbox for example claims CO2 emissions of 198g/km and an economy figure of 37.2mpg. On the other hand, in the automatic these figures stand at 238g/km and 32.8mpg respectively. The good news is that the Antara is covered by Vauxhall's lifetime warranty which runs all the way up until 100,000 miles.