Ford Galaxy

[Sam_374394490]

Hi

I am looking for some very helpful advice, from you lovely people again please.

We have finally made a decision and have decided to buy a Ford Galaxy 1.9 td Zetec, diesel engine. What we wanted to know is, is the manual or automatic gearbox best for towing? Does anyone know where I can find any info about it's nose weight and finally for any of you that own one I would really appreciate any feedback. Is this the best model to own????

Thank you

 

[Icemaker]

i take it you are talking about the old style galaxy as the new one is either 1.8, 2.0 or 2.2 tdci, i had a galaxy 1.9 tdi 115 bhp and to be honest i found it a bit lacking towing our coachman vip 520/4 at the time, we swapped it for a seat alhambra 1.9 tdi 130 bhp (exactely the same car as the older galaxy)and this vehicle was absolutely superb and even towed our coachman laser 590/4 with absolute ease.

do not under any circumastances go for the auto its rubish, you can only get it in 115 bhp guise and the box robs even more power off you likewise the petrol version is pretty poor, very heavy fuel and un refined.

the seat alhambra is geared more towards a sporty drive so it was better able to handle our heavy vans than the galaxy due to stiffened suspension etc but the galaxy was still a very good tow car.

off my memory i think the nose weight was 85 kgs and max tow was 2000 kgs, kerbweight of our car was around 1800 kgs in top spec and the car returned low to mid 40's round town and low to mid 30's towing so fuel consumption was more than adequate for such a large car.

and dont worry at all about it being front wheel drive, we have been caravanning now for allmost 15 years and on the one time we got stuck the site owner towed us off, ive not been on a site yet where the owner hasnt got either a 4x4 or a tractor to help you out.

 

[Sam_374394490]

Thank you

We did look at the Seat Alhambra and I did like it.

Maybe that is another option for us ........ thank you.

I will definitely look into it.

 

[DeliDave]

we have the 130 manual and we are very pleased with it,there is not a lot of difference in the torque figures the MAF sensor often fails causing a power loss.We get between 25 and 28 but strangely where its legal to do 60 we get better economy on the guage (which I know is not really accurate).There is loads of room and use 75kg for nose weight,it looks pretty straight.We always remove the seats that we dont need they are very heavy esp.the integrated child seats.

 

[Garfield]

Just to echo Icemakers comment, my father in law has just got rid of his Galaxy auto, it needed a complete new gearbox at 30k, the times I travelled in it it was horrible, constantly searching up and down gears on hills and changing gear when you don't want it to. He averaged low 30s mpg whilst our manual Sharan gave low 40s.

Essentially the old shape Galaxy, Sharan and Alhambra are basically the same car built in the same Portuguese factory, Supposedly the Alhambra has sports suspension as standard which will be better for towing.

Reliability was below average but better than the new shape Galaxy (faults tended to be a large number of small, easily fixable things).