Ford Galaxy 2.8

Quick point, there is no such thing as a Ghia X anymore. The X has been dropped and the Ghia now includes all of the extras. A minor point but…

Firstly a profile of myself: 34-year-old married man with three kids, 5 and under. Take frequent holidays both in the UK and abroad. Shop at least once a week. Like speed and danger provided I’m the only person in the car. Have driven numerous cars from a clapped-out Metro 1.3 to ...
...I love driving and the further I can go the better, generally covering about 15,000 miles a year, of which 10,000 is pleasure. The fastest I’ve ever driven is 136mph at 6am along a deserted dual carriageway. I have three points on my license for running a red light (‘twas an accident honest!). I drive at 30mph in 30mph zones; 40mph in 40mph zones; 70mph in 50mph zones and 99mph everywhere else.

I need a car that fits various ... more

Quick point, there is no such thing as a Ghia X anymore. The X has been dropped and the Ghia now includes all of the extras. A minor point but…

Firstly a profile of myself: 34-year-old married man with three kids, 5 and under. Take frequent holidays both in the UK and abroad. Shop at least once a week. Like speed and danger provided I’m the only person in the car. Have driven numerous cars from a clapped-out Metro 1.3 to a Merc C320. Covered everything in between as well. I love driving and the further I can go the better, generally covering about 15,000 miles a year, of which 10,000 is pleasure. The fastest I’ve ever driven is 136mph at 6am along a deserted dual carriageway. I have three points on my license for running a red light (‘twas an accident honest!). I drive at 30mph in 30mph zones; 40mph in 40mph zones; 70mph in 50mph zones and 99mph everywhere else.

I need a car that fits various criteria:

1. Needs to seat at least 2 adults and 3 children comfortably and safely.
2. Needs to be as safe as possible because of the valuable cargo (3 kids ;-)
3. Needs to be able to take us on holiday so comfortably hold 5 people, 4-5 suitcases, 2-3 buggies, 1-2 nappy sacks, and 3-4 holdalls.
4. Needs to be able to take all the family and a couple of Grandparents occasionally.
5. Needs all the extras including: SatNav, CD changer, fuel computer, cruise control, power steering, ABS, traction control, climate control, electric windows/mirrors, leather heated seats, central-locking, power steering, etc
6. But most of all…it needs to move ;-)

This car has it all, and much more.

Seven seats that can be removed and juggled around to give a number of seating patterns. Not as flexible as the Vauxhall Zafira, and the Galaxy seats are very heavy and awkward, however, the ability is there. There is climate control that can be controlled separately in the back and front. This, if you’ve never experienced it, is much better than air conditioning. When you have seven people onboard in the summer aircon just wouldn’t be enough. The seats are arranged as two at the front, three in the middle and two at the rear. The five forward seats are very spacious, whereas the back two are only really suitable for the kids – not that that bothers the kids.

Actual boot space is non-existent. If you leave all of the seats in then you may be able to squeeze a couple of boxes of cornflakes in. What we tend to do is remove the rear two seats and only put them in when the Grandparents are with us. By removing the seats there is plenty of room for all the suitcases, etc mentioned above. Another negative is the lack of a well in the boot. Basically the floor is level throughout. This means that shopping has to be stacked carefully otherwise you find cans of beans getting jammed under the break pedal. Initially it’s annoying but you quickly work out how to compensate.

The extras on this car are amazing – just about everything you could sensibly desire (and some things you wouldn’t have dreamed of). Everything about the current model is well built with none of the usual tackiness associated with people carriers. The first Galaxy I had, a P reg, had a number of trim problems but all of these have disappeared in the later models. The obvious highlights are the SatNav, CD changer, fuel computer, climate control and cruise control. All of them make a big difference to the driving experience. You can also get monitors installed into the headrests so the kids can watch videos or play games.

Engine power – lovely! 0-60 in 10 seconds and an official top speed of 128mph. Not bad for a van! Combining the engine power with the ABS, traction control and power steering you get a very nice drive. The early models suffered a lot from excess roll, but again this has been fixed in the latter models. A negative is the 60-90mph range which is somewhat sluggish. Not a major problem but annoying sometimes.

Finally, the cost of running it. Not as bad as you’d probably expect. It manages 20mpg with my aggressive driving and 30mpg with my wife’s style. Doesn’t use much oil and we haven’t had a problem with anything else over the last 20,000 miles and 18 months. It does cost £23,000 to buy but you can do some amazing deals if you’re willing to shop around.

Conclusion – I’ve tried all the other models in the range, also the VW Sharan and the Seat Alhambra and none of them touch the V6. It’s not a sports car obviously, and if I didn’t have a family I’d never buy one. However, needs must, so if it has to be a family car then I’ll get my pleasure from the engine and the extras. This car is excellent and if you’re a boy-racer with a large family get one – it’s worth the cost. And don’t worry about the scorn from you’re mates. This ‘van’ has beaten a Rover 420 and a Merc C320 at the lights – comfortably ;-)
 

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