Ford Galaxy 115TDI Ghia Review

Good Points
Seats 7 in comfort, quiet & capable motorway cruiser, superb fuel economy (48mpg average), decent handling for MPV when loaded.

Bad Points
Endless stream of minor / medium faults ruin ownership experience and cost starts to mount up. You'll get to know your Ford main dealer well with this car.

General Comments
I bought this Ford Galaxy 115TDI Ghia new in September 2003 and sold it on in March 2006, having covered 51,000 miles. We pampered it and it was always fully serviced by Ford dealer. Useage was to/from work from country into city centre, regular trips from Scotland to Kent on motorways and summer / ski holidays to Austria on German autobahns with five adults and full luggage.



When the Galaxy is working well it is a superb family lifestyle car. It will even swallow three mountain bikes or washing machines etc with no trouble. We all loved it but......it was forever suffering from minor / medium failures. Drop-links failed at 10k (rattle from front suspension over uneven surfaces - very common problem). Booster heater failed at 18mths (engine does not produce enough waste heat so an extra heat generator is fitted, again this is a very common problem). It failed again at 30mths. Dashboard rattles in various places and external plastic cover at bottom of windscreen rattled at over 30mph. Auxilliary run-on water pump failed at 26mths. We believe aircon was on its last legs the week before the car was sold (again, very common on this model). One-touch front windows would sometimes work and sometimes not - no logic to this. Same with the on-board driver information computer which would go blank for a while and then reappear!



The TDi Galaxy is effectively a rebadged VW Sharan. All of the parts are VW including the engine. It can be a noisy unit from cold and in low gears. Town driving is tiring in manual gearbox mode. It's not bad on country roads for an MPV but suffers from hard suspension and a harsh ride when not fully loaded. This car excels on long, motorway journeys in sixth gear. It will eat the miles at 100mph+ on German autobahns and still return 40mpg+ even with full load and aircon operating.



Cabin is a pleasant place. Front seats swivel 180deg. and it is easy to convert the cabin to a small picnic area! All rear seats are removable but are heavy to carry. Standard stereo is good with 6CD changer in rear of car.



Servicing intervals are too short at 10k each. And the engine needs its service based upon drive experience. Timing belt change is 40k (some older models are 60k) and that's too short as well - not cheap £300.



Overall then: too much hassle and cost to maintain this car if you're a private buyer. As a used car purchase without a comprehensive warranty I wouldn't touch it - too risky (aircon can be over £1,000, booster heater £450 etc.). As a company car where the firm is paying for all servicing and repair bills it might be worth the risk.



Some folk seem to have a trouble free car but, from talking with associates who run this TDi model, the problems I've described are all to common.