Vauxhall Antara: Facelift and price cut

The facelifted Vauxhall Antara

Vauxhall has given the Antara a facelift for 2011 with some cosmetic tweaks inside and out and a new, Euro 5 engine. And a price drop.

Hot on the heels of the 2011 Vauxhall Corsa facelift comes another Vauxhall facelift to graft the family nose on to the 2011 Vauxhall Antara. And it does look better for it.

The front end of the Antara gets Vauxhall’s new grill with logo – just as the 2011 Corsa does – whilst the SE models sport a new set of fog lights. There’s some new 19″ alloys and a couple of interior tweaks too – an instrument update and some new trim materials. And that’s about it for the cosmetics.

But there are changes to the oily bits, with the 2011 Antara getting a new 2.2 litre diesel. The new engine comes in two flavours – 161bhp and 181bhp – and is needed with Euro 5 coming in January. Vauxhall say that the “…revised Euro-5 compliant engine line-up offers increased performance as well as significantly reduced fuel consumption and emissions”. But they don’t give us any figures. Oh, well.

The 161bhp Antata comes with either 2WD (manual only) or 4WD (manual or auto), and the 181bhp Alantra is 4WD only and comes with a manual box as standard – but you can opt for the auto option. The chassis gets a rework with new spring and damper settings and the 4WD system automatically diverts drive to the back if conditions require it.

Despite the cosmetic tweaks and the new, more powerful and more economic engines Vauxhall has managed to reduce the entry-level on the Antara to under £20k – the Antara 5-door SUV Exclusiv 2.2 CDTi 163PS FWD comes in at £19,995 OTR.

Which is a lot better than VW has managed with the 2011 VW Eos price.

2011 Vauxhall Antara Models and Prices

Prices inc vat at 20%