A control apparatus for a vehicle includes: an inter-vehicle distance control unit that performs an inter-vehicle distance control with respect to a preceding vehicle; an engine stop-start unit that stops the engine when an engine stop condition is satisfied and starts the engine when an engine start condition is satisfied; a vehicle stop state maintenance unit that maintains a braking force for stopping the vehicle; the engine stop-start unit stops the engine, by activation of the vehicle stop state maintenance unit in the case where the vehicle is stopped by the inter-vehicle distance control unit; and an engine operation control unit that, in the case where the inter-vehicle distance control unit is set to be active in the vehicle stop state, maintains the operation state of the engine before the inter-vehicle distance control unit is set to be active.