Good looker, smooth and not at all vannish.

You'll remember the advertisement, where the Galaxy takes you on a ride through the clouds. And indeed, sitting up behind the wheel for the first time, you do feel above the clouds, certainly the clouds of exhaust from the lesser vehicles around you.

It looks big too, though in fact the ground cover 'footprint' is pretty well the same as the Mondeo. Cars like this simply make more efficient use of vertical space, and this is where the room comes. And the feeling of room is accentuated in the Galaxy's case by the way the large windscreen slopes far in front of the driver, leaving a large expanse of dashboard top.

Stylistically, the car is curved and elegant. And while we're talking about it, you'll see some of them with VW badges ... the Galaxy and VW's Sharan are the same car, produced as a joint venture as many of these 'niche' vehicles are, to save on development costs for what might be a relatively minority market.

The 2.8-litre V6 Ghia, comes with six instead of seven seats, each of which has its own pair of foldable armrests. The front seats swivel around to face the back (NOT while driving!) and the middle ones can have their seatbacks flipped to form tables. So a coffee or lunch break with the family in the middle of a Curragh Plains can be a comfortable affair. Or a board meeting for a small company on the move.

Engine options include a 1.9td and a 2-litre. The V6 is powerful, and very peppy, but for a reason that might have a downside ... the Galaxy is very low-geared, and at cruising speed it is revving quite high. Though not at all obtrusive, I suspect the economy is not what it might be.

There's one other downside - luggage space with the two rear seats installed is minimal ... this is a common problem with MPVs. And there's a need for a cover of some kind to hide anything in that luggage area. There ar
e two 'glove' boxes in the dashboard which are quite large, and two more cubbies with lids over the rear wheels, so cameras and stuff can be hidden, but not a computer bag, for instance.

On the road, the controls are pretty good, and room for resting the clutch foot adequate. The gearshift is good, though I'm of the opinion that all of these things should be automatic. And the low gearbox meant that I rarely used any more than three of the five gears.

The engine, as I've said, is zippy. A little throaty when revved hard, but quiet on the run. Handling was fine, taking account of the higher centre of gravity.


Our galaxy cost £23,500,but prices continue on upto around £32k for the big daddy.

** Rose's Husband **