Review
Compact "soft roaders" are all the rage these days, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that Vauxhall has jumped onto the bandwagon with the all-new Antara.
It's an unashamedly road-biased SUV, intended to spend its life on urban tarmac rather than rough country tracks. But with its combination of inoffensive styling, excellent build quality and competitive pricing, it poses a serious threat to the Toyota RAV 4 and Honda CR-V.
Don't let the Vauxhall badge fool you, though. The Antara is actually built in Korea, and is sister car to the new Chevrolet Captiva. Styling is similar, but we reckon the Vauxhall version looks more upmarket than its dowdy half-sister, with the solid build quality also impressing.
The cabin lacks space when compared to some rivals, with the fat central console reducing the driver's legroom. Switchgear and instruments have mostly come from the Vauxhall Astra, but they don't look out of place in the well-constructed cabin. Rear seat passengers enjoy a decent amount of space and the boot is up to class standards. The Antara also enjoys a very high level of standard equipment compared to rivals, including stability and climate control, 17 inch alloys and heated seats on even the most basic versions.
Two engines are available from launch, a 2.4 litre petrol motor and a 2.0 litre CDTi turbodiesel. The petrol powerplant is likely to be of minority interest in the UK, but the diesel gives respectable performance and is refined by class standards. Driving dynamics are composed and inoffensive, with good levels of grip and benign behaviour as the limit approaches. The only significant dynamic complaint is with high levels of wind noise at more rapid cruising speeds.