Tow cars.(Vauxhall Antara)
I was thinking of purchasing a vauxhall antara as a towcar.do any other members own one and what are the pros and cons of the vehicle.any other suggestons on a similar towcar would be appreciated.
Regards
Robert clark.
Comments
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hi, my dad has had two and loves his Antara. Had a 2007 2.0cdti and now has the later 2.2. Had both from new only problem he had was a wiper motor on the earlier car.
quite thirsty but they are heavier than most in its class and he said it tows his Sterling Wayfarer 2014 twin axle brilliantly. Hope that helps
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Do not own one but know an owner. I am told they tow very well and he has had no problems. They are a bit heavy on fuel though and if buying new depreciation is heavy.
There shouldn't be too many new ones on offer any more as the last Antara was built almost a year ago. Its successor, based on the Buick Envision, won't be available until next summer. It will be the first Vauxhall/Opel to be built in China.
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For the love of all that is holy DO NOT BUY AN ANTARA!!! There, hope that is clear enough! The person who had issues was me. It was the worst car EVER! Always broke down, climate control was awful, meaning the windows were constantly steamed up when it rained,
the ride whilst towing was simply awful, although it did pull our caravan well. The fuel consumption was bordering on insane. I used to stick £25 of diesel in after a 20 mile trip and I live in the countryside, FLAT countryside with no traffic, it was that
bad.I could go on and on but I won't, had my Volvo V70 over a year and done 24,000 miles and it hasn't missed a beat, not one, AND I've towed our twin axle caravan all over England without breaking down or leaving me at the mercy of articulated lorries on the
A303 at 30 mph in limp home mode.Did I mention it was a terrible car?
As for Vauxhall dealers, well they (All four in four different parts of England) were worse
than the car!
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I was thinking of purchasing a vauxhall antara as a towcar.do any other members own one and what are the pros and cons of the vehicle.any other suggestons on a similar towcar would be appreciated.
Regards
Robert clark.
Yes I have one (as per my Avatar) and 6/7 months in amd very happy with it. I pull a 2015 Swift Challenger 640SE. The one big downside to it as has been mentioned is fuel consumption which is heavy to say the least. However I did a lot of research before buying one and was fully aware of this and the potential for issues with the DPF well before I bought it. I wanted as new a car as possible with a manufacturers warranty and cars like a Discovery and big Audi's were out of my reach. I bought a six month old demonstrator SE Nav 4x4 with a full leather interior at a good price as they are now at the end of their model run and dealers were shedding what stock they had in the summer. Faults so far have included an annoying rattle from the passenger door and a small oil leak from the sump gasket. Niether have been bad enough to book the car in to rectify so I am waiting till it goes in for a service next month.
It has some annoying quirks like the lights on Auto function meaning the headlights are on 24/7 to functions as DRL's and the doors dont auto lock as you drive off and whoever decided that the sat nav screen should be that low down needs their bumps feeling, but nothing I can't live with. It is a stable and capable tow car (But as already said 'juicy') but doesn't perhaps have the image of a Disco or Q5/7 but I am happy with it. They do suffer high depreciation so again you need to factor this into your buying decision (I did).
I am aware of people who have had a less than satisfactory or poor experience of Antara ownership but equally if you trawl intrenet forums you will find disgruntaled owners of just about any make or model, some very much so, I just bore this in mind when I was making my decision.
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Other suggestions? I was thinking about changing my Hyundai Santa Fe, the new ones gets good reports and mine has been terrific and is now knocking on the door of 100,000 miles, does 35-40mpg and has never conked out.
Kia Sorento is the twin of the Santa Fe, the newer 2.2 engined 2012 onwards are the ones to go for evidently.
I have heard too many bad stories from friends in the motor trade (I used to be in the trade, so know a lot of people in it) about the Antara to make it a sensible choice for me.
Jeep seem either too small, too expensive to run, the Cherokee a bit 'camp' (I don't know why, but they do!), or just too 'American' for me. But I know lots of people that like them.
Duster and Nissan Cashquai engines are too small. Earlier Nissan Pathfinder 3.0 engines go bang.
Nissan XTrail 2.2 is good though with many reviews giving them a good rating.
Honda CRV is an estate car on steriods. Mainly front wheel drive, it has proven popular and reliable as well.
But when you boil it down, I would suggest looking at the Santa Fe, Sorento 2.2, Xtrail, CRV. In that order.
BMW X3 is a nice car but you get more for your money with the Korean cars.
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If considering alternatives to the Antara people need to take a careful look at the weight of their 'van and the vehicle they are considering. Although some are 4x4 and you would expect them to be really heavy when you dig a bit deeper you find that the kerbweight of some of the newer models is quite low for the class of vehicle, certainly in comparison to an equivalent vehcile first produced 9 years ago like the Antara. With manufcaturers striving to bring down fuel consumption vehicle weight has been a prime target along with engine design. If we chose to our 'van at it's MTPLM would be laden to 95% of our Antara's kerbweight which is do-able and legal of course but not ideal. Lot's of 4X4's we looked at actually had a kerbweight exceeded by our 'van's MTPLM which I wasn't happy with even though we don't load the 'van to the limit. Engine sizes have reduced too which needs to be bourne in mind.
The Antara is a heavy car (contributing to the poor MPG) and when the time comes to change ours I suspect I will have issues finding an affordable replacement of sufficient weight.
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...Earlier Nissan Pathfinder 3.0 engines go bang.
That's OK so long as they go suck, squash first, followed by blow.
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Thanks everybody for taking the time to reply.lots of food for thought there.
Regards robert.
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Ihave a Antara and agree with everything said, Ibought it for mainly two reasons 1 the towing and 2 easy access for my partially disabled 87 year old mother,as the seat hight is more or less the right hight for her to get in/out without any difficulty. The
Antara has got issues but non that cannot be lived with and for the purchase price is good value. If Iwas looking for a new vehicle Iwould be looking at SSang Yong Korando and Rexton models as well as thosr mentioned above but as I like and can live with my
2013 Antara I will be keeping it for 2 or 3 more years.0 -
I have recently purchased an Antara 2.2 cdti se nav and what a pleasure to drive after my santa fe, returned to manual gearbox and already getting better fuel economy, while towing averages 30mpg my vans mtplm is 1500kgs all in all very pleased glad to
be back behind the wheel of a Vauxhall, not everyone s cup of tea but I have never had a bad one, even back to my nova days, thats before towing.0 -
I purchased a 3yr old Antara (62) plate. Had a few problems but this was mainly due to a lack of dealer servicing prior to delivery. As a tow car it serves its purpose well for me. Just been to Scotland and back a total of 700mls towing and it did a great job. On the motorway 5th gear and cruise control at 60mph with no problems. Caravan is a Bailey Unicorn III. The Antara is the 4x4 model so consumption was in the 21-25 range.
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