My First Galaxy?

[AdrianM]

After writing-off my wifes car a few weeks ago we will soon have a cheque to spend. With three young kids, a dog, and grandparents to cart around we've decided on a 7-seater. We're tempted by a Ghia X 2.3 auto, leather trim fully loaded, 48K miles, W reg,

[Tigger]

If you have no problem with spending loads of time at the petrol pump ? Go for it.

 

Why petrol? with so many good TDi.s around?

[Ivor_E_Tower]

Purchase price may be the limiting factor. Petrol 2.3s are usually significantly cheaper to buy than the diesels because the diesel is so much better. Depends on mileage you do, the type of driving (round town or on the open road) and your own driving style. Usually there is not much difference in insurance costs between 2.3 and diesels, but the Ghia-X is usually a group more expensive to insure than GLX or Zetec.

Things to look out for on a car of that age are the indoor swimming pool under the front passenger seat, check all electric items work, full service history, check tyre wear is even. I'm sure others will add more things to look out for.

Good luck and welcome to the clan!

[iainkirk]

The speaker grilles will all be broken! Ther only way to remove them IS destructively, as they are glued on.

 

Don't buy your speaker grilles on Ebay for

[Tigger]

If you want a retro look get them another colour to the ones you replace. Check there is no knocking from the front when going over bumps! Check drivers door locks without a gritty feeling when turning the key. regards engine and gear box sorry i'm a oil burning manual man! :rolleyes:

 

Also remeber why they are cheap. When you want to resell! Go for the oil burner. :lol:

[HJT]

Hi Welcome to the forum.

Make sure the aircon is working. It's horrendously expensive to fix if it isn't and with car with this much glass you need it.

Agree with the previous, if you can go for the diesel you won't regret it, I get about 40 mpg around town with the climate control on.

 

Good luck

 

Howard

[AdrianM]

Thanks for advice - quite true, the speaker grills were all broken. Walked away from the Ghia X - although very nice, it's an import. This is probably nothing to worry about but it did make us feel uneasy, and as we're in no rush.......so still looking.

[iainkirk]

A fair proportion of Galaxies are probably imported from Belgium or Germany anyway!! Also, reputedly one of the cars of choice for British Army soldier purchases whilst in Germany...and we all know they sell them when they get home!

 

I read somewhere that the number sold by Ford UK was WAY, WAY below the number shown as being egistered by DVLA.

[bushm]

Hi AdrianM and welcome to the forum.

What part of the country are you from?

There have been quite a few Galaxys for sale in the local Norwich paper recently.

Max

[Taliska]

Please enlighten me as to the problem with owning an import.

 

I felt that a heathy few grand discount (was it 3 or 4k?) puts paid to any import worries.

 

Taliska

[Ivor_E_Tower]

Imported Galaxys usually have only 24 months warranty rather than the 36 months of "genuine" UK cars. Also, if anything untowards happens that may not be covered by warranty, or just outside warranty, Ford UK will give consideration to making a contribution to UK-sourced cars, whereas imports will not be looked upon in such a favourable light - the same holds true for almost all manufacturers with regard to UK cars versus imports.

[Taliska]

True that the warranty is shorter, but the cost of an additional year's warranty comes nowhere near the price difference!

 

The dealer quoted 250 quid for the extra year's warranty - granted that this would not be a pucker Ford warranty, but I'd look into it closer when I've seen how reliable the Gal is when the two years are (nearly) up...

 

I was under the impression that the 3rd year of warranty is actually a 'different' warranty - i.e. possibly a Ford UK warranty as opposed to the Pan-European warranty of the first two years.

 

Taliska

[AdrianM]

Finally got one. It's an R reg, Ghia X, with only 40k miles and is in truly immaculate condition (ie not most trader/dealers idea of immaculate but my wifes version!) - it could almost have been sat in a Ford showroom for 7 yrs. A bit older than we would have liked but for the condition and price it represented great value (I hope). We collect it next Saturday so I'll let you know how we get on with it.

 

Thanks to all the replies - to answer a couple of questions......bushm, we're down on the south coast so Norwich would be a bit of a trek for a secondhand car, but thankyou for your interest.

 

Taliska, I'm sure there is no problem with an import and certainly if you are importing it yourself and saving your hard-earned, then it's the right thing to do. My concern with the one we saw was that it had been imported from Japan and was being sold by (one step up from) a backstreet trader. In all likelihood the trader is straight-up and just working hard to make a living - but there are plenty of cars out there so I see no reason to pick one that I feel less than comfortable with. I certainly meant no criticism of those who own imported cars.