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I know, I know, I could copy-paste the Captiva article and do my Opel Antara norm. But it would be like going to a free concert and asking for your money back because you’re not happy with the performance. Or the presence? Or presidency?

 You could say that the Chevrolet Captiva and the Opel Antara are like alcohol and spirits – the same thing, but bottled differently. The Chevrolet Captiva is that spirit that runs on the premise of “cheap, lots and decent” and the Opel Antara purports to be the more premium version of the Captiva in the same way that the Moet purports to be more premium than Smirnoff for example. What Moet doesn’t know instead is that when you are 17 years old and have 1.5 euros in your pocket, Smirnoff will beat Moet any time of the day and especially at night. Same with the Captiva and Antara. Chevrolet Captiva is 1000-1500 euros cheaper than Opel Antara and when you want to buy a second-hand entry-level SUV, 1000 euros means almost a complete overhaul and suddenly the interest in Opel Antara decreases more than the interest of the state for it’s citizens.

And then the situation worsens when you find out that the Chevrolet Captiva came with a 7-seater option, while the Opel Antara only came with 5 seats. So why buy an Antara and not a Captiva?

1. The Opel Antara was intended to be a more international car than the Captiva. The interior is a bit better quality and so on, at least as arguments for us Europeans. If you go outside Europe instead you will find that the Antara has many more engines available than the Captiva and even has hybrid versions.


2. If you go to a parts store and ask for the Chevy Captiva, the answer is usually “we don’t have any”. But if you ask for the Antara, which is the exact same car mechanically, then they have whole warehouses of parts ready in stock.


3. We are Europeans so automatically we must be snobs. Just as Skoda is the poor man’s VW, so Chevrolet is a kind of poor man’s Opel, since Opel is the poor man’s VW. Basically, our entire androgynous, gorilla, black, white sexually aggressive emotional civilizational civilization revolves around VW. So you’re paying for both slightly superior interiors but you’re mostly paying for the badge.

Opel Antara Engines

Petrol

• 2.4 MPI of 167 horsepower  – The oldest engine in the Opel Antara, the oldest and most reliable. Launched in the 3rd century BC as a collaboration between Chevrolet, Hyundai, and Mitsubishi, this 2.4 V6 was decent in the Hyundai version, good in the Chevrolet version, and delicious in the Mitsubishi version. The only real downside to this engine is that it often comes with front-wheel drive instead of 4×4.


• 3.2 V6 of 230 horsepower – I could say something about reliability being inversely proportional to the amount of tax, but then I realized there are probably 5 Opel Antara 3.2 V6 petrols in all of Europe so good luck finding one.

Diesel

• 2.0 VCDi of 150 horsepower – I could probably just pass on this engine and go home. Honestly, this is the most realistically bought engine for the Opel Antara. It shouldn’t give you any jitters until around 350-400,000 km but that’s about the threshold, after which you can replace the engine. And if you don’t change the oil on time or put the wrong norm, you can change the engine even earlier.


• 2.2 VCDi of 160 and 180 horsepower – Pass. Unfortunately, it’s only the diesel you’re left with once the facelift version comes out (not that you’d know the difference between them) and you get turbo issues and a manual gearbox so short-geared you’ll wonder why they didn’t just give you a sequential gearbox.

Opel Antara General Issues

• One of the main issues with the Opel Antara and the Chevy Captiva is the transfer case that explodes more than the real estate market or the price of Del cheeses explodes when the mystery of the disappearance of these cheeses is unraveled. All we know so far is that we are dealing with an economic guerrilla terrorist attack orchestrated by some businessmen who are from a country that begins with the letter “I”. But beyond that we’re tired and we’re not seeing anything.


• Diesel engines have the classic issues of dual mass flywheels, injectors, and EGRs that fail every 500 meters of urban driving. However, being a GM product, the engines have been tuned by GM and therefore have problems with the regeneration cycle of the particulate filter, but I talked more about this problem in the Insignia article.


• The ABS and ESP sensors will go on strike with every second wheel movement so either go like this and God help you, or you’ll have to work forever. Your choice. We don’t know, we’re just asking questions.


• The rear parking sensors are another problem in common with the Captiva but if you’re a true driver you’re just going forward anyway.

Opel Antara Verdict

Is it worth paying 1000 euros more than the Chevrolet Captiva? If you have any expectations in life, probably yes. The difference in interior quality is quite big, but you lose those 2 rear seats instead. Still, 1000 euros. The money for more sturdy maintenance than certain body parts when I see a picture of Roxana Ionescu or Salma Hayek. I mean, 1000 euros. To spend 1000 euros more than a low-cost SUV to get the slightly more premium version of the same low-cost SUV, says interesting things about you, to say the least.

What engines do you recommend? For petrol you realistically only have the 167hp 2.4 V6, but the biggest fight will be in the diesel area, and there I have to give the crown to the 2.0 and 150hp diesel, that is if you don’t want Euro 5 because then you’ll have to get the chewy 2.2.