Road Test: Vauxhall Antara 2.2 CDTi Exclusiv 5dr

Last year, Land Rover sold 15,492 Freelanders in the UK. A middling
year for sales (2007 was better), but enough to keep the Midlands firm happy. So guess how many Antaras Vauxhall sold in 2010? Just 380. Vauxhall’s a big company, and yet the Antara is nowhere, outsold 40 to one by its chief rival.

So now Vauxhall has heavily revised its SUV with a new nose, updated engines and chassis tweaks. So should you now head down to your Vauxhall dealer? In a word – no.

The 2.2-litre 161bhp diesel engine and manual transmission are nothing short of poor. We’ll allow it one good point, it’s quite quick, even in this lower-power-output spec (a 181bhp version is available), but the turbo entry point is nowhere near smooth enough, nor is the engine refined, nor is it even especially clean. Equally, the notchy gearbox is so slow and clunky that by the time you’ve changed gear, the engine revs have dropped so much that you’ve got to lurch through that turbo entry-point again.

Honestly, besides price we can’t think of a single reason why you’d buy the Antara. Don’t expect a sudden sales surge, Vauxhall.