The First Win - Ford Galaxy Trial

This prize was the inspiration for me to start this blog, let's hope my luck continues!  I hope you enjoy reading my trials and tribulations.

Imagine my happy surprise/delight when I found out I'd won, (courtesy of http://www.mumsnet.com/)  not only outdoor cinema tickets to see Toy Story at Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire (we didn't go it rained torrentially) but also a nibbly food hamper and then to top it all a 3 day trial of a Ford Galaxy!! WOOT (says the owner of a rather old and cronky Citroen, which to give it a big up, has done over 100,000 miles now and is still working!)


The lovely Ford Galaxy

The car was delivered on Thursday, with a full tank of gas (as our American friends say, but actually it was Diesel)  the lovely people at Ford, said we only needed to leave a quarter of a tank in when we handed it back! so the fuel came free too, WIN. 

The tec spec says it's a Ford Galaxy 2.0 TDCI (IV) Zetec 6SP 140PS.  Alas in my excitement I've not written down all the spec type stuff, as I didn't really think about blogging my luck until after the event.  I can say that it did 41mpg whilst we had it, and was only £155 to tax (as opposed to my 1.8 petrol Citroen, which is £180 per year) .   The colour was a kind of greeny brown, it seemed to depend on the light as to which colour?! My husband and I were both insured to drive it, so naturally I got first go on the delivery day, when I took it for a trip to my friend Meridians, where we loaded it up with her family and mine and went for a whizz!  7 seats are GREAT!

This was prior to loosing sight of it for two days, as my dearly beloved decided it was best to test the car going to and from work.  You'll be pleased to know he reported it fine in traffic around town and great on nippy country lanes on the way there too.  I found out it had gadgets, when I got it back to test myself on the Sunday, Husband had been making full use of the voice controls whilst he had it, and thus he merrily kept leaning over, pressing the button and asking for temperature and radio channel changes (which as the driver I quickly grew wary of, but I can see their use, when you don't have an over excited male in the car.)

The driving seat

As you can see from the photos, the piloting seat is much the same as most other cars.  For me it was odd not having a digital speed reading, as I've gotten used to that in the Citroen.  The handbrake reminded me of something from an aircraft, but was easy enough to use and wooo 6 speeds on the gears, I only managed to go fast enough to get into 6th twice!  The car handled brilliantly, the power steering was lovely and light (Please take note Citroen) and boy did the car accelerate nice and quickly (no, I didn't thrash it! I'm saving that for my next hoped for win from Ford! a day at Donnington, you know you want me to have that guys!).  I quite liked the amount of compartments on the central divide, (once I'd gotten used to having no where to put my handbag!) in face the storage was well thought out on the whole car, with further compartments on the central dash, and lots of places to put drinks through out the whole car.  Also included are interior lights everywhere you need them, mirrors (lipstick girls) and the obligatory sunglasses holder.

The kids loved the space in the rear, taking up residence on the back two seats for the duration of the Galaxys stay.  The grandparents were impressed by the car too, having a C-Max themselves, they could compare and contrast the models and were impressed with what they saw.  The car was great for our larger numbers and saved us £3.00 in parking charges on the Sunday trip out, as we were all in the one vehicle!

The 2nd row back

Alas you can't see a picture of the final row of seats, as blogger is for reasons only known to itself, not happy with my photo? but you get the gist of the space available in the car from what you can see.
There is space behind the final two seats for two large suitcases and they're all really easy to collapse, should you wish to use the vehicle for moving larger items than the kids. (Ikea furniture anyone).

All in all a fantastic car, I've recently driven (in the last two years) comparable cars, the Renault Espace, my Citroen Xsara Picasso and the Toyota Corolla Verso.  If I was looking to buy a reasonably priced 5/7 seat car, it'd be between the Galaxy and the Toyota, although the Galaxy could just take it, on the minimum spec gadgets.  I have to say, when Ford came to collect it on the Monday, it was hard to give it back......

Thanks to Ford and Mumsnet for providing this fantastic competition and prize.