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Cars you didn't know existed until very recently.


philibusmo

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vauxhall antara.....

 

vauxhall_antara_diamond_cdti_s_s_486368.

 

some sort of cross over SUV thing that must have passed me by, only seen TWO to the flippin' things on the way back to the digs this evening.

 

fine if you want to go to Tesco in your PJ's

 

doubt i would want to own one though.

 

They are horrible, crap, shit things, awful to drive, bland as fuck, nothing really to recommend them at all. Not even really a Vauxhall, it was built as the Chevrolet Captiva and badge engineered into the Vauxhall Antara, only a couple of things are Vauxhall parts bin items on the interior, like the stereo and dash screen, a couple of the buttons and the heater controls are Astra H/Zafira B based but different. Even the ignition key is totally different.

 

They made them for a good few years, Ive seen 57 plates, and they were still being sold brand new when I bought my Corsa brand new in 2015 because they had a few new ones outside. 

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Rover Metro Cabriolet.

 

Had no idea it existed until one turned up a couple of weeks back at the Brill Festival car show (on a Q plate too which lead me to wonder whether it was a home brew conversion of an escaped prototype for a while).

 

No...it was actually a thing apparently.

 

Shame a cabriolet version of the Mk I Metro didn't exist...that I'd be more interested in (properly braced of course!), let you hear the lovely noises from the gearbox all the better!

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They are horrible, crap, shit things, awful to drive, bland as fuck, nothing really to recommend them at all. Not even really a Vauxhall, it was built as the Chevrolet Captiva and badge engineered into the Vauxhall Antara, only a couple of things are Vauxhall parts bin items on the interior, like the stereo and dash screen, a couple of the buttons and the heater controls are Astra H/Zafira B based but different. Even the ignition key is totally different.

 

They made them for a good few years, Ive seen 57 plates, and they were still being sold brand new when I bought my Corsa brand new in 2015 because they had a few new ones outside.

Is the steering wheel not part bin GM?

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They are horrible, crap, shit things, awful to drive, bland as fuck, nothing really to recommend them at all. Not even really a Vauxhall, it was built as the Chevrolet Captiva and badge engineered into the Vauxhall Antarctica.

 

They made them for a good few years, Ive seen 57 plates, and they were still being sold brand new when I bought my Corsa brand new in 2015 because they had a few new ones outside.

They were probably unsold stock sat around for years.

 

An Antera was the only work car the lease company ever accepted back as not fit for purpose.

 

Hopelessly unreliable as well as shit.

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I saw what turns out to be called the Kangoo Compact running about recently. I've worked with the regular length version before and they aren't big vans. The proportions are very odd.

 

Renault~Kangoo~Van~(2).jpg

Renault_Kangoo_II_Express_Compact_side.j

kangoo-maxi.jpg

 

 

Isn't it cute? I wonder if you can buy any other van that is this short that isn't based on a car.

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Rover Metro Cabriolet.

 

Shame a cabriolet version of the Mk I Metro didn't exist...that I'd be more interested in (properly braced of course!), let you hear the lovely noises from the gearbox all the better!

To add to Eddie Honda's contribution, here's one I saw in the wild from the passenger seat of Mike's old GT6 back in 2014.

 

post-5335-0-75333100-1505960182_thumb.jpg

 

post-5335-0-45006000-1505960189_thumb.jpg

 

post-5335-0-86569800-1505960194_thumb.jpg

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My brother-in-law has had 2 Antaras. The garage he bought the first one from couldn't make it work and eventually persuaded him to trade up to a newer model.

Years before he bought a new 3rd generation Astra with some kind of 'green' engine. The thing failed and after much pissing about was replaced with a normal engine. Perhaps someone here can expand on this dismal episode. Say what you like about the durability of their cars, Vauxhall salespeople must have skin like a fucking rhinoceros.

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I saw what turns out to be called the Kangoo Compact running about recently. I've worked with the regular length version before and they aren't big vans. The proportions are very odd.

 

 

Isn't it cute? I wonder if you can buy any other van that is this short that isn't based on a car.

 

They seem very rare, I've only seen a few about.

The Mk2 Clio van was quite popular so I guess this is a replacement, but people would rather have the extra space than a Kangoo shrunk in the wash.

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I saw what turns out to be called the Kangoo Compact running about recently. I've worked with the regular length version before and they aren't big vans. The proportions are very odd.

 

Renault~Kangoo~Van~(2).jpg

Renault_Kangoo_II_Express_Compact_side.j

kangoo-maxi.jpg

 

 

Isn't it cute? I wonder if you can buy any other van that is this short that isn't based on a car.

Maybe popular with security companies? Van, so commercial benefits but not large and expensive. A similar use case I guess to the other small Clio, Ka, etc vans.

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Is the steering wheel not part bin GM?

 

Nope, not even that is the one fitted to all Astra H/Zafira B/facelift Vectra C etc. or the later one found in Astra J/Insignia/Mokka/Zafira Tourer/Meriva B, etc. or the current one fitted to pretty much all current Vauxhalls.

 

Id like to think its because this car was developed at a time when Vauxhall still fitted different steering wheels to each different model with perhaps only models sharing the same platform using the same wheel like Corsa C/Meriva A/Tigra B, Astra G/Zafira A, Vectra C/Signum prefacelift but i suspect its because it just really isnt a Vauxhall at all.

 

IMG_1378.JPG

 

My brother-in-law has had 2 Antaras. The garage he bought the first one from couldn't make it work and eventually persuaded him to trade up to a newer model.

Years before he bought a new 3rd generation Astra with some kind of 'green' engine. The thing failed and after much pissing about was replaced with a normal engine. Perhaps someone here can expand on this dismal episode. Say what you like about the durability of their cars, Vauxhall salespeople must have skin like a fucking rhinoceros.

 

They are really good at waffling bullshit, the one I bought my Corsa from told me finally Vauxhall had produced a Corsa that was better than the Fiesta and cheaper too (he was right about cheaper, but there was a reason for that as I discovered) so I said, the Corsa D was a massive seller, if they were that bad, how did you convince them to buy them over a Fiesta when theres a Ford dealer visible from where we are sitting inside the showroom, he simply said "we told people they could have a Corsa dirt cheap, inferior car to a Fiesta, but what would they rather have, a vastly cheaper car or a better car but pay £3/4k more?, and all the people we sold Corsas to bought them because theyd rather a cheaper car than a better car. 

 

It made me think these guys wouldve been the sort who were selling Skodas, Ladas, Yugos and FSOs back in the days. 

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I can see that Kangoo compact being quite a useful little thing because it has a decent cube at the back while still being small enough to fit anywhere a small car can fit.

You have to watch the payload with some of these, it can be so small that filling up the back with anything other than feather boas makes them overloaded.

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