Almost everything about the Opel Antara was Korean instead of German

To be quite honest, it wasn’t Opel itself that stuck a toe in the compact SUV pond, but mother General Motors. More precisely, its Korean branch, a continuation of Daewoo. There, an SUV was developed that was supposed to bring success on different continents. Before that, GM gave a wonderful piece of badge engineering, because the model sold here as Opel Antara, and in the UK of course as Vauxhall Antara, was elsewhere called GMC Terrain, Daewoo Winstorm, Chevrolet Captiva, Holden Captiva, Chevrolet Equinox or Saturn Vue.

Captiva? Didn’t we have those too?

The name Captiva raises questions, because didn’t we also know a Chevrolet with that name? Yes, and it was largely identical to the Opel Antara, but slightly longer and therefore also available as a seven-seater. Now a role as a world car is commendable, but not if the intended model thus becomes a collection of compromises. In other words: the Antara was anything but a thoroughbred Opel, but just like its Kia and Hyundai examples, a Korean car that was sent to Europe to run with its new family.

Antara lacked finesse

Difficult, because he didn’t even speak the language, so to speak. Anyway, the Antara turned out not to be a bad boy, but it did lack the finer points that the picky European buyer certainly expected from an Opel. This was apparent, for example, from the choice of materials for the interior, the moderate seating position on a chair that we thought would slide off, a very stiff chassis and here and there a somewhat sullen operation. The 3.2-liter six-cylinder was burly enough for the heavy SUV, but also a bit rough in handling and afflicted with a strong thirst. Anyway, these are aspects that we still wanted to smooth out with love, if only because the SUV was still considered a semi-off-road vehicle and didn’t have to be a sweet-voiced entertainer, like now. The Antara was not a good one, but it was an important dress rehearsal for what would turn out all right for Opel later, with the Crossland and Grandland.

Opel was not the only European manufacturer to approach Asian brands for a mid-range SUV, Renault did it at Samsung for the Koleos, PSA at Mitsubishi for the Peugeot 4007 and the Citroen C-Crosser. Not only the Outlander was Frenchified, also the ASX for the Peugeot 4008 and the Citroen C4 Aircross.