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Well I've had my Antara SE Nav 184 Auto Silver/Black, for a week now and I thought I'd post a few notes on how I've got on.
I haven't done a long trip in the car yet, just a couple of runs of 50 and 70 miles on a mixture of A and B roads and the rest of my miles have been around town.
I filled up the tank this morning with the trip computer on 319.1 miles since the first fill up last week.
It took 48.5 litres to the brim.
The trip computer was saying my average consumption was 29.5 mpg.
The brim to brim calculation gave me a figure of 29.9 mpg.
These figures are on a par with my old Volvo XC70 for similar driving.
So for a heavy car with an auto transmission to lug around, I think those figures are pretty good. Especially when the car is still new and everything is tight. I would expect those figures to improve over the next few months. I've done more town driving this week than on the open road. I normally don't do as much town driving each week as I have done this week, so I would expect my normal driving routine would give a figure above 30 mpg.
As to the car it's self.
Given there was lots of talk and reports of problems from other owners before I got mine, I had a few worries as to how the Antara was going to perform. Now that I have it, I can honestly say I've not had any major problems with the car. No sign of a DPF regeneration - yet.
The car looks good. The driving position is marvellous. The interior is first class, no rattles or squeaks - yet.
The engine is very powerful and is almost as quick at accelerating away from a junction as my Volvo was. There's plenty of punch when it comes to overtaking, although you need to give it some welly if you are trying to overtake up a hill.
The brakes are man enough to handle such a heavy car, and have no problem bringing the car to a stand still for an emergency stop. It certainly keeps the car under control and makes you feel the car is good enough to keep you safe.
The driving experience is very good. The seats are firm but still comfortable. They have good lumber support and you don't get thrown from side to side during cornering. On the couple of longer journeys I've done so far, I've felt very relaxed. The car is quiet with very little external noise.
I find the car very stable in corners. There is not as much body roll as I would have expected from such a tall car. You really feel planted to the road.
As for all the little gadgets, I'm still trying to get to grips with them. The menu systems don't seem all that intuitive, but I'm sure I'll get used to them in time.
Couple of things I don't like. (Not in any particular order).
The parking sensors don't mute the music when you are approaching an obstacle, so you can't really hear the beeps. Not sure if I'm missing a setting there though. Also I'm not clear if it's possible to have the front sensor on all the time. At the moment I have to turn it on just before I'm about to approach an obstacle. Need to have a read up on that section.
I really wish the folding mirrors had been made to fold/unfold automatically. I've lost count of the number of times I've driven off with the mirrors still folded.
I'm not impressed by the Climate control. It's not dual zone. It takes some time to get up to temperature, not helped by not having any indication of what the internal temperature is. The buttons are not the easiest to operate, especially when you are moving.
The orange coloured display at the top is totally black to me most of the time. This is down to me wearing Polarising sunglasses when I drive. The glasses must be blocking the light coming from the display and I have to move my head around or briefly take the glasses off if I want to check out the display.
The cruise control works OK, but I would have liked it if it showed a numerical value for the speed you have set. As it is, you just have to eyeball the speedo to verify your speed.
None of these things are really faults with the car, just a little annoying.
So my brief first impression is of a car that meets my needs and has performed well in the environment I will be using it in. It's comfortable, powerful enough to keep you out of trouble and certainly performs ten times better than any of the professional reviews I've read would have you believe.
I will be taking it out tomorrow for a longer run. Probably up to John O'Groats and back. That's about a 200 mile round trip for me. It's mainly on the A9 and through a few small country towns. There are a few very steep hills so should get an idea of how well it handles those. Not expecting a great MPG for the trip, as a lot of the road is narrow, winding and hilly. But it will give me a better idea on how the car, and me, handles a longer journey.
Wish me luck.Edited by: Inchindown
I haven't done a long trip in the car yet, just a couple of runs of 50 and 70 miles on a mixture of A and B roads and the rest of my miles have been around town.
I filled up the tank this morning with the trip computer on 319.1 miles since the first fill up last week.
It took 48.5 litres to the brim.
The trip computer was saying my average consumption was 29.5 mpg.
The brim to brim calculation gave me a figure of 29.9 mpg.
These figures are on a par with my old Volvo XC70 for similar driving.
So for a heavy car with an auto transmission to lug around, I think those figures are pretty good. Especially when the car is still new and everything is tight. I would expect those figures to improve over the next few months. I've done more town driving this week than on the open road. I normally don't do as much town driving each week as I have done this week, so I would expect my normal driving routine would give a figure above 30 mpg.
As to the car it's self.
Given there was lots of talk and reports of problems from other owners before I got mine, I had a few worries as to how the Antara was going to perform. Now that I have it, I can honestly say I've not had any major problems with the car. No sign of a DPF regeneration - yet.
The car looks good. The driving position is marvellous. The interior is first class, no rattles or squeaks - yet.
The engine is very powerful and is almost as quick at accelerating away from a junction as my Volvo was. There's plenty of punch when it comes to overtaking, although you need to give it some welly if you are trying to overtake up a hill.
The brakes are man enough to handle such a heavy car, and have no problem bringing the car to a stand still for an emergency stop. It certainly keeps the car under control and makes you feel the car is good enough to keep you safe.
The driving experience is very good. The seats are firm but still comfortable. They have good lumber support and you don't get thrown from side to side during cornering. On the couple of longer journeys I've done so far, I've felt very relaxed. The car is quiet with very little external noise.
I find the car very stable in corners. There is not as much body roll as I would have expected from such a tall car. You really feel planted to the road.
As for all the little gadgets, I'm still trying to get to grips with them. The menu systems don't seem all that intuitive, but I'm sure I'll get used to them in time.
Couple of things I don't like. (Not in any particular order).
The parking sensors don't mute the music when you are approaching an obstacle, so you can't really hear the beeps. Not sure if I'm missing a setting there though. Also I'm not clear if it's possible to have the front sensor on all the time. At the moment I have to turn it on just before I'm about to approach an obstacle. Need to have a read up on that section.
I really wish the folding mirrors had been made to fold/unfold automatically. I've lost count of the number of times I've driven off with the mirrors still folded.
I'm not impressed by the Climate control. It's not dual zone. It takes some time to get up to temperature, not helped by not having any indication of what the internal temperature is. The buttons are not the easiest to operate, especially when you are moving.
The orange coloured display at the top is totally black to me most of the time. This is down to me wearing Polarising sunglasses when I drive. The glasses must be blocking the light coming from the display and I have to move my head around or briefly take the glasses off if I want to check out the display.
The cruise control works OK, but I would have liked it if it showed a numerical value for the speed you have set. As it is, you just have to eyeball the speedo to verify your speed.
None of these things are really faults with the car, just a little annoying.
So my brief first impression is of a car that meets my needs and has performed well in the environment I will be using it in. It's comfortable, powerful enough to keep you out of trouble and certainly performs ten times better than any of the professional reviews I've read would have you believe.
I will be taking it out tomorrow for a longer run. Probably up to John O'Groats and back. That's about a 200 mile round trip for me. It's mainly on the A9 and through a few small country towns. There are a few very steep hills so should get an idea of how well it handles those. Not expecting a great MPG for the trip, as a lot of the road is narrow, winding and hilly. But it will give me a better idea on how the car, and me, handles a longer journey.
Wish me luck.Edited by: Inchindown