Test Drive: OPEL Antara 2.0 CDTi - 2009 - "New Cars Collection"

Almost half a decade since last having a 4x4 in their model range, Opel have returned to the SUV segment. This time, their new weapon is more of an urban crossover instead of an oldschool SUV with body-on-frame and decent off-road capabilities. Or at least that's the kind of marketing the Russelsheim-based company is using to promote this model.

Opel's connection with the SUV segment was first made official in 1992, with the launch of the first generation of the Frontera SUV. Not long after that, the larger Monterey was also entering the Opel SUV family. Its fate wasn't as prodigious as that of the Frontera little brother, which also received a second generation, unlike the Monterey, which was withdrawn in 1999.

Sadly, even though it was the better seller of the two, the compact Frontera didn't manage to pass the test of time to a third generation, thus ending the Opel SUV story in 2003. Both the Monterey and the Frontera were actually bastard children from the General Motors-Isuzu union back then. None of them has any major Opel R&D pumped into them.

In fact, the Frontera was a rebadged and slightly re-styled Isuzu Rodeo/Wizard, while the Monterey was nothing but an Isuzu Trooper underneath those few German touches.

Coincidentally, the new Opel Antara is also having a similar fate concerning its origin, since it's not actually an Opel except for a few minor features in the interior and an exclusive exterior design. Underneath all that metal skin you can pretty much find, depending on what you want, a Holden/Chevrolet/Daewoo Captiva/Winstorm or a Vauxhall Antara/Saturn Vue. All hail globalization!

If that doesn't scare anyone away, maybe you'd also like to know that the Opel Antara is not even built in Germany, but in South Korea, along a part of its rebadged brothers. Last year, a new plant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, also began to manufacture the Opel SUV for the European market. We took an Antara equipped with a 2.0 CDTi diesel engine to the test, in its 150 hp guise.

When the Antara GTC concept appeared in 2005 at the Frankfurt Motorshow, pretty much everybody thought that the production version would look at least 50% as good when it arrives. That wishful thinking usually happens when talking about other car manufacturers. Apparently, not at Opel, since the production Antara only kept the front headlights and the name from the concept. Which is pretty much like a Mona Lisa reproduction made by a three-year old with crayons - not quite the same deal.

Sir May B. Bach's Opinion

You know what I never liked about Opel? They have been Volkswagen's... ahem... b*tch ever since the guys from Wolfsburg launched that dreadful little car they call the Golf. The Golf spanked Astra's behind with each and every generation it came. Then came that awful-looking Passat which... ahem... spanked the Vectra in almost every market they compete on also. What is it with Opel guys anyway? Is it because they were under the... ahem... GM umbrella for so long?

Read more >>

As anti-climatic the exterior design is, especially compared to the concept, the interior on the other hand looks quite good. The materials used and the fit and finish are actually almost top notch, despite the fact that we didn't test the best-equipped Antara, but the Enjoy trim level, which is technically right in the middle. Sure, the whole center console and the dashboard are made from hard plastics, but all the buttons and knobs passed the "touch test". Also, we didn't notice any squeaks and rattles anywhere.

3D Interior Panorama

>> Click to view the interior panorama

On the whole, the Opel Antara isn't a very large crossover/SUV, even by modern standards. This, along with the rather high driving position and huge exterior rearview mirrors make for an excellent 360 degree view all around, which obviously is very helpful in traffic. Sadly, the car's rounded nose makes it a bit difficult to estimate all "corners" of the car when parallel parking.

Lou Cheeka's Opinion

Boy, this thing really looks like a special edition Nike sports shoe with wheels. I can't help but agree with Sir Bach this time, although I still can't stand him. The Antara is one fugly car. Still, if we compare it to some of its rivals it doesn't stand out as the ugliest. That SsangYong Actyon Man or whatever it's called wins that prize. Plus, the Antara's interior is actually quite nice. Read more >>

Despite the marketing effort put into making people believe the Antara is a city dweller by definition – a sort of urban cruiser – when looking at the mildly high ground clearance and the fact that it has an all wheel drive transmission actually made some of us think this might behave quite reasonably outside the city. Well, it turns out this is not exactly the case, from quite a few points of view.

Mary's Opinion

In case you haven't noticed by now, I'm into stylish cars. I like to dress up and I like to drive or at least be seen in fancy-looking automobiles so that I can better impress my peers. Does the Antara look like it could do that? Impress my peers I mean. Yes, apparently it might just as well do that. Read more >>

A bit understandable, especially after reading the previous test drive chapters, the comfort inside the Antara is pretty much its major high point. As long as it's not driven in a rally-like manner and the steering wheel movements are kept to a minimum - let's say, driving on a long stretch of road – the Antara is one of the most comfortable crossover/SUVs ever. Sure, the comfort zone inside the car would turn to nightmare as soon as some serpentine roads became involved in the equation, that unless the passengers actually are sea-sickness fans.

The wind noises are successfully kept away from the interior at higher speeds, which is not the same we could say about the diesel under the hood. At higher rpm, the not-so-noble sound it makes becomes one with the interior, which isn't very pleasant on the ears. Alas, as long as you keep your right foot away from pushing into the floor everything is going to be fine from this point of view.

Although not being very sumptuous, considering there was no leather trimming anywhere in the car except for the steering wheel and Opel interior designers aren't on very good terms with wood inserts on the center console, the quality of the plastics is pretty high. This, along with the decent interior space can make quite a pleasant ambiance for the passengers. People who would like a classier atmosphere can go for the optional leather seats.

As we mentioned before, the four-cylinder mill under the hood of the Antara 2.0 CDTi is of Italian origin. The company going by the name of VM Motori designed the RA 420 with vans and SUVs in mind. The DOHC engine delivers 150 horsepower and 320 Nm (236 lb ft) of torque with the help of a VGT turbocharger. The power levels aren't necessarily great, especially considering you can now buy two-liter engines with over 100 hp per liter from the competition, but it's not very low on power either.

Using a latest generation Common Rail system further improves the fuel consumption and diminishes noise levels; too bad that both performance and fuel consumption are counteracted by the immense weight of the car. And to think there's also a 127 hp version of this engine on the Antara...

The engine is also not exclusive for the Antara and is not even built by VM Motori, since its production is carried out under license by GM Daewoo and the Hyundai Motor Corporation. This basically means you're going to find it under the hood of about a dozen other cars. We wonder if it achieves its true performance on other vehicles, since under Antara's hood is a bit... constrained, to say the least.

The five-speed automatic gearbox was quite a nice suprise on the other hand, since it provided almost seamless shifts and didn't provide any noticeable lag moments between gears. Its fuzzy-logic processor isn't quite state-of-the-art but it does "learn" pretty quickly if you're a pilot or a Sunday driver when using the throttle.

Like most other technical bits on the car, the all-wheel drive system isn't designed by Opel, and is the same one found on its Vauxhall/Holden/Daewoo/Chevrolet/Saturn brother. But wait, not only on those cars, but also on the Toyota RAV4 since it was actually developed by the aforementioned Japanese and licensed to other carmakers. It works by using an electromagnetic coupling in the rear differential housing to transfer up to 50% of the power to the rear wheels only when needed. In reality, it either works seamlessly or we didn't quite put it to the test correctly, because we didn't feel the rear wheels pushing even once.

The Antara we got to drive was just the intermediate level of equipment (Enjoy), just between Essentia and Cosmo, which is the top model. Nevertheless, apart from a few so-called luxury items, the model was pretty well equipped. Here is a list of the most noteworthy-but-common gadgets we found in the car's interior: four electrically-operated windows, the equally snobby-but-helpful light sensors for the headlights and rain sensors for the windshield wipers, automatic single-zone climate control and three-stage heated front seats.

Naturally, these kinds of gadgets were to be expected on a car costing almost as much as two Volkswagen Golfs but that doesn't mean we weren't glad the car had them. A pleasant surprise came from the presence of a Bluetooth kit for mobile phones. The mp3-compatible radio CD-player is part of a decent audio system which doesn't stand out in either bad or good ways.

Apart from the aforementioned gadgets, we should also state that our test car had controls on the steering wheel for the audio system and for the on-board computer. As a downside, just like its Opel tinier siblings, the Antara also benefits from a very troublesome to use control of the on-board computer if being accessed from the center console, since there are about three different "OK" buttons which can be exclusively used depending on what page of the menu you find yourself browsing.

As far as safety goes, Opel Antara owners can rest assured about it. Although it hasn't been tested by any major crash-testing organization, its Chevrolet Captiva twin brother was. At the EuroNCAP, the Captiva scored only four stars out of five, but considering a few points you should know about our test car, we're going to give it a pretty good score.

First of all, what made us subtract points in dynamics and fuel efficiency is actually working in its favor when it comes to safety. The Antara 2.0 CDTi is one heavy automobile, weighing almost two tonnes without any cargo on board. One of the basic laws of physics tells as that when two objects collide the heavier one is pretty much having the upper hand in all circumstances. Considering most cars on European roads are quite a bit lighter than the Antara... well, you get the point.

Second of all, the Antara comes equipped with eight airbags in standard trim, which can protect the car's passenger's from impacts coming from almost any direction. If that isn't quite enough for you, learn the fugly crossover/SUV also comes equipped with anti-lock braking system, electronic stability control, cornering brake control and even a hill descent control for those rare moments when you're taking it down a ski slope. All in all, the Antara seems to be a pretty safe automobile.

To tell you guys the truth, we didn't start this test drive with the best thoughts about this car. We knew it's just another example of badge-engineering and globalization, which is not the best sign for what to actually expect from an Opel that's not actually an Opel. Well, apparently we were wrong on a number of preconceptions about the Antara, but we were also right about others. What's the best part about it? Probably its somewhat cozy interior (apart from the driver's seating position) and passenger comfort on longer trips.

As with other cars we tested, we were a bit undecided about choosing a single downside. Most of the problems had a single catalyst in our book: the gargantuan weight of the thing. Where did those extra kilograms (or pounds, if you prefer) actually went on the car we don't know. What we know is that the Antara 2.0 CDTi weighs way too much for having a body a little larger than that of an overgrown compact hatchback. It does help when it comes to the unfortunate event of a crash with another vehicle, but in every other area it's a very bad thing.

The ugly part about the Opel Antara? Well, we have to say it's the exterior design. Opel designers teased us with the Antara GTC concept/eye candy and then they came out with this "sports hiking shoe". Not a very good impression from this point of view, but obviously we're being very subjective. Some people might actually like driving footwear.