Vauxhall Antara

The Vauxhall Antara jumps on the crossover bandwagon with nothing to distinguish it, although it’s basically competent.

• Comfort

  The Antara is more supple than many mini-SUVs, which, taken with the reasonable cornering manners, is a good effort. There's plenty of room too, but the 2.4 petrol version is noisy because you have to cane it.

  

• Performance

  The diesel is the one, because of its torque, although it's laggy in the very low rev range. It'll do 0-62mph in about 11 seconds, which is par for the course, no better. The cheaper petrol engine takes 12.4sec to do the same job, but the difference in economy and CO2 (229g/km petrol vs 198 diesel) isn't that big.

  

• Cool

  No, no. Vauxhall isn't a proper SUV maker and this isn't a proper SUV. It's a softy school-runner.

  

• Quality

  The interior trim is quite nicely done, apart from a terrible wood-u-like in the top version. Everything fits together well in the Antara, so a pat on the back to the Koreans who build it.

  

• Handling

  The Antara corners well for a tall off-roader, taking bends without much roll and with much of the deportment of a car. The steering is quicker-acting and more accurate than most other 4x4s.

  

• Practicality

  The Antara uses the same platform as the Chevrolet Captiva and is built at the same factory, but doesn't feature the Captiva's seven-seat option, which limits versatility. On the other hand all Antaras are at least 4WD, unlike the base Captiva. Oh and you can get Vauxhall's neat Flex-fit pushbike carrier.

  

• Running costs

  Vauxhall servicing isn't too bad, and nor is insurance on the Antara. But we worry about depreciation: with so many similar vehicles flooding onto the market and sentiment turning against them at the same time, you might end up taking a cold bath.