I still like it. (Ford Galaxy Ghia in general)

Member Name: JonRose

Product:	Ford Galaxy Ghia in general
Date:	10/08/00 (704 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: space, comfort

Disadvantages: ford reliability!

I bought our Ford Galaxy Ghia X 2.3 almost a year ago and am still quite happy with it. We have had quite a few problems with the dealership and some with the car, but I am rtying to give the car a fair review. I will mention the dealer problems but they are expanded upon in another review in the Motors -> Suggested Items area.

The Galaxy is comfortable to drive, it is a nice spacious compfortable family car. I have two very young children (still in car seats) and there is loads of room in the back for all the push chairs and shopping and room in the back seats for an adult to sit comfortably with the kids in the back seat.

We have removed the back two seats though to give us plenty of room in the back. This is fairly easy to do but the seats are not light! I am strong and they weigh quite a lot.

The front seats are very supportive and can move in most directions and can be rotated to help you in and out. The streering wheel can be adjusted as well. Electric everything for the mirrors, windows and sunroof. Heated mirrors are great when it is frosty, because you always forget to clear them. Plus the heated windcreen is a dream, clears in about a minute from a frost and clears condensations almost instantly.

There are loads of other features that I find really good, such as the rear parking sensor - it is a wide long vehicle and it has saved us from several prangs. The heated front seats are just luxury on a cold day. Dual air conditioning does sometimes seem a little bit hard to control - the fan speed does not always have much relation to how high you have set it. But it does workquickly when you need to to and does keep the car a constant temperature. You can set different temerature zones for the front and back seats, so the children can be kept a bit warmer if they are asleep.

The CD Changer is nice - but the stereo is not the best designed one I ahave ever seen. Cruise control is useful and makes long jou
rneys a lot less tiring.

It can be a bit thirsty on the petrol especially around town, but on long journeys if you don't go too fast then it does go a lot further.

The road holding is very good and the car handles a lot better than you think it is going to. I was expecting it to drive like a van but it is much more like a mondeo in it's feel. But putting your foot down often results in noise first and then speed a distant second, there is no real kick in this model.

We have had some problems though. 3 recalls for brakes, compressor and something else(I forget). There were further problems with the brakes. The windows were unwindng themselves and the doors were unlocking. It also took along time to get the correct trim and the mats for this car. But the servicing has fixed problems as they have come up quite quickly and without quibble. This is obviously the benefit of a three year warranty.

I like the car but I have gone off Ford. I would not buy another Ford in a hurry. Even though there have been problems the car meets our requirements and so we are happy with it.

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