Vauxhall Antara (07 on) - Review

Review by Dan Harrison on
Last Updated: 13 June 2011
The Antara is a five-seat 4x4 in the same mould as the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V and is essentially the replacement for the long-running Frontera which stopped being sold in 2003. It's neat styling, decent equipment levels and modern cabin give it plenty of appeal but unfortunately the Antara lags behind other similar off roaders in too many key areas. The vague steering and wallowy handling do it few favours while the five-speed gearbox is poor. Elsewhere, the 2.0-litre CDTi diesel is noisy and crude which only adds to the feel that the Antara is dated before its time. In early 2011 the Antara was given a number of updates. The aesthetics were given minor updates with some exterior design refreshes as well as small changes to the interior. The more substantial changes included a tweaked chassis, new gearbox and cleaner and more efficient engines.
3 out of 5

Other Vauxhall reviews

3 out of 5

Running costs

As a new buy, the Antara is on a par with many similar alternatives, but it's not as good and so seems expensive. That said, even the base model is well specified with all the equipment you should need, while S and SE have the gadgets you want. It should hold its value well, but is let down on the road tax front where the petrol attracts the top rate, while the diesel falls into the group below, which is still pricey. Vauxhall parts and servicing are good value and it's reasonable to insure. The diesel offers average fuel consumption 37mpg, which is acceptable for a vehicle of this size, though not outstanding. From 2011 fuel consumption was improved thanks to new engines. The 160bhp engine in two-wheel manual guise is the best performer achieving 44.8mpg while the four-wheel drive 181bhp option returns a claimed 42.8mpg in manual or automatic.

* based on most recent data

Estimated fuel cost for 10,000 miles per year

Unleaded

£1,918 - £2,116 *

Diesel

£1,393 - £2,003 *

The estimated fuel cost figure is a guide to how much this model will cost to fuel each year, so you can compare between cars. It's calculated by using the model's average mpg (calculated from both town centre and motorway driving) and the average fuel price. It's based on the following cost-per-litre: petrol 135p and diesel 141p. Prices are updated daily.

Summary Running Costs

Servicing period

10,000 miles.

Warranty

Three years/60,000 miles.

Road tax (12 months)

£170.00 - £460.00

Vehicle excise duty (VED) varies according to the CO2 emissions and the fuel type of the vehicle. For cars registered after March 1st 2001 VED or road tax is based on the car's CO2 emissions. For cars registered before March 1st 2001 it is based on engine size.

Full running costs data

3 out of 5

Green credentials

  • A
  • B
  • C
  • D
  • E
  • F
  • G
    160
  • H
  • I
  • J
  • K
  • L
    229
  • M

CO2 emission figure (g/km)

Fuel economy rating

The arrows indicate the best and worst CO2 bands for this model.

Emissions summary

The Antara performs fairly badly on the eco front and the CDTi engine emits 198g/km of CO2 while returning 37mpg. Compare this to the 2.2 D-4D Toyota RAV4 (with almost identical power) - which emits 154g/km of CO2 and averages 49mpg - and it looks very poor indeed. Things improved dramatically on the ‘eco’ front with the changes in 2011. Emissions dropped from 196g/km on the previous diesel engine to 167g/km on the 160bhp with two-wheel drive and 175g/km for the 160bhp and 181bhp with four-wheel drive. However, this is still some way off its competitors.

Find the exact engine and CO2