[Victor]

Yup the Antara is only a soft roader isn't it and I don't think the tranfer box and the gearbox for that matter are very heavy duty. The actual rear diff with its electronic clutch is a Toyota design built by Aisin (I believe) so shoud be robust enough but very pricey if anything goes wrong. I went for the 2 wheel drive but I'm sure the on-demand 4 wheel is a good safety thing to have for wet or icy conditions solo.

How important is the 4 wheel drive for you caravanners?

 

[swinton]

I have had a couple of 4wheel drive . Sorento and now antara .and never used the 4wheel drive to tow caravan .
Had no need .pulls fine with front wheel drive

 

[Dulac]

4WD isn't generally necessary for towing from A to B, or for the larger caravan sites with facilities. However, I nearly always use the small five caravan max sites (operated by both the Caravan Club and the Camping and Caravan Club) which are invariably a farm meadow or within the grounds of a house with land. In wet weather I have been stranded a few times on different sites with a 2WD Peugeot and have had to be towed off because of the soft ground - usually wet grass over clay. Never had a problem since buying the Antara AWD and I have just returned from 11 days away (including a rock festival) where it rained for 10 of them on and off.

 

[Victor]

Just wondering, Swinton, when the 4 wheel drive on the Antara kicks in, do you get the dash light coming on or does that only come on when there's a fault with the system? Could the 4 wheel drive be coming on without the driver even being aware of it?

 

[Dulac]

I put in an Internet search as 'transfer box problems'. From the results it is clear there are problems across all of the main manufacturers and this is borne out by the multitude of spares and repair 'shops available.

 

[swinton]

Don't have 4wheel drive on my antara .did not get the 4wheel drive like I said I don't need it so why pay for what you don't need

 

[Victor]

OK then, I'll need to ask you, Dulac. Does the warning light come on when the all whell drive kicks in or is it only if there's something wrong with the system?

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[Dulac]

The instrument panel light illuminates only if there is a problem with the AWD. Otherwise, you don't know when it is operational (which has always struck me as odd).

 

[GemUGE]

Thank you, having read all of your comments, particularly regarding the wear of the tyres I have checked my vehicle this evening and there is no difference in all four tyres. I find it hard to believe that would have caused our fault.
I have now raised my complaint with Rory Harvey so lets see what happens.
I am keen to know if there are any other consumers that are going through this at the moment and to see how they are getting on. As we are fully aware that 3 have been done in our local area recently which seems a lot considering the amount of Antara's on the road!

 

[GemUGE]

Hi, we're still fighting our argument over the transfer box and am interested if anyone wouldn't mind getting in touch over this.
It is clear to see that GM have recognised a fault here yet Vx won't. I am happy to fight this all the way as I'm sure anyone in our situation would agree that paying £4000 plus for one part is absolutely ridiculous and unreasonable for such a young car.
Please get in touch if you would like to support this

 

[Victor]

Hi, we're still fighting our argument over the transfer box and am interested if anyone wouldn't mind getting in touch over this.
It is clear to see that GM have recognised a fault here yet Vx won't. I am happy to fight this all the way as I'm sure anyone in our situation would agree that paying £4000 plus for one part is absolutely ridiculous and unreasonable for such a young car. Please get in touch if you would like to support this

It's hard to see how you would win a court case on this, especially now that GM has sold Vauxhall and Opel to Peugeot. There's so many issues surrounding transfer boxes and, as Dulac has already said, a web search will show transfer boxes are an issue with other manfacturers including Land Rover and BMW.

 

[swinton]

It looks like the morell of the story is don't buy a auto .
Sorry I don't like them .

 

[chrisg]

Thought it was only 4wd that was affected. Manual and auto.?

 

[Victor]

Thought it was only 4wd that was affected. Manual and auto.?

Yes, it's only the 4WD that's affected, doesn't matter whether it's manual or automatic transmission, only the 4WD has a transfer box fitted. 2 WD Antaras don't have a transfer box..

 

[Bigjohnsparky]

Yup the Antara is only a soft roader isn't it and I don't think the tranfer box and the gearbox for that matter are very heavy duty. The actual rear diff with its electronic clutch is a Toyota design built by Aisin (I believe) so shoud be robust enough but very pricey if anything goes wrong. I went for the 2 wheel drive but I'm sure the on-demand 4 wheel is a good safety thing to have for wet or icy conditions solo.

How important is the 4 wheel drive for you caravanners?  

Depends on where you take your caravan if you are mostly on concrete tarmac or even gravel 2 wheels drives ok but like if your on some CL sites or small sites which are grass on clay then in the rain that wet stuff makes the ground very slippery pulling about 1000kg upwards then you can not beat a 4x4.
I've just come back from Cornwall and the first site we were at was a slopping field and yep only the bottom pitch was available. Pitched up and the sky's opened up for the time we were there only a few days as visiting family.
The van owner the next pitch up had a 2 wheel drive SUV and couldn't get out. Mmmmm
Got the bread crates bases out so he had more grip started to move but no joy because as soon as he come off the crate bases just started digging in. Tried with my antara and off we went pulled his van up to a more dryer area

So I would say 4x4 is the answer if your towing a caravan to sites that do not have hard standing bases or you could end up getting the farmers tracker to pull you out

because that'll be the only 2 wheel drive that works on very wet grass on clay as Dulac has already said
All wasn't bad though had over a week of great sunny weather just outside Bude

Edited by: Bigjohnsparky

 

[chocco]

himy transfer box has just decided to go and i have a hole in the sides there any way of converting to 2wd and removing box or is this not possible.
been quoted £6000 for a car worth £7000 ?


thanks dave

 

[Charlie Brown]

Scrapping my 2012 Antara today...transfer box blown and too expensive to repair.
It's only done 36k miles, never off road and only had one owner from new.

Gutted to say the least.

Vauxhall should admit they used cheap parts and award some compensation.

 

[Andrewberry]

Are you the only owner or 2nd, can't believe how common this is getting now, I bought a 2WD because of the few negative reports back in Feb 2014, got a brand new exclusive with lifetime warranty, have you exhausted all avenues with vauxhall, I contacted Rory Harvey who is the head of uk and he was superb, if you have to scrap it is it better to break for spares??!!

 

[Charlie Brown]

I bought the car new so only one owner .... me

 

[chocco]

it must be worth more than the £2600 it will cost to repair, i am still waiting for vauxhall to see if they can help me if not i will get repaired myself then part x it