Ford Galaxy, diesel - your views please :-)

[fusar]

Hello,

I need to purchase a larger car - preferably a seven seater. Unfortuantely, I don't have a huge budget. I have seen a Ford Galaxy diesel, with 78000 miles on the clock, first registered in 2000, It looks a nice clean car and is being sold through a garage at £4995. Can I ask all of the car experts on this site, whether this is a good deal, or should I try and haggle?

Has anyone had a Ford Galaxy before and are they reliable?

Many thanks!
Sarah

[rdwarr]

They're pretty good but the Seat Alhambra is the same car, often better specified and a bit cheaper. Certainly haggle though. We recently bought a Ford marked up at £4495 for £3250!
Toyota Estima is worth a look too. We had one of those for seven years.

[peterg1965]

Used MPV have usually led hard lives. particularly if they have had hoards of kids in them. My Galaxy, which I have from 96-99 was pretty fragile in terms of interior fittings. Make sure they are all intact in the one you are buying, if not get them fixed as a condition of sale. I reckon the used diesel Galaxy would be a good used bet otherwise. Just make sure the service history is up to date and that cambelts have been changed in accordance with manufacturers guidelines. Post the same question on www.parkers.co.uk forum and see what response you get.

[teeb]

They're pretty good but the Seat Alhambra is the same car, often better specified and a bit cheaper. Certainly haggle though. We recently bought a Ford marked up at £4495 for £3250!
Toyota Estima is worth a look too. We had one of those for seven years.

We had the Seat Alhambra for 6 years - just got rid of it last month.

Yes, it may well be slightly cheaper.

Other points : one, if you do need to remove the seats [if it's a massive boot you want, for example], they have to be lifted out and they are effing heavy! No fold-flat options like you'd get on newer cars.
It's, unexpectedly, good fun to drive, though I appreciate that's probably not what you're looking for in an MPV.

We had a petrol model and unless we were using motorways for any length of time we'd be lucky to get over 22mpg. I'd say go for the diesel.

[chrisw]

Check it hasn't been clocked - that's quite a low mileage for a 7 year old diesel.

[june1970]

i have a t reg alhambra and i have had it since it was 1yr old and it only has 86000 on the clock, you are better off with a diesel

[fusar]

Hello,

Many thanks for your replies. I am definitely going to look at the Seat Alhambra too!

May I ask how you tell if a car has been "clocked"? Where do I look? Sorry, I am a complete novice and don't know much about cars!

Also, has anyone any tips on knocking the price down at garages? The car I have in mind is advertised at £4995. How much do garages normally put on for their own profit and what would be a realistic selling price? if I could get it doen to £4400, or even £4000 I would be over the moon! Any tips would be great, I think the extra confidence gained from this site will prevent me from turning into a stuttering mess when negotiations start!

Thanks all!

[teeb]

Also, has anyone any tips on knocking the price down at garages? The car I have in mind is advertised at £4995. How much do garages normally put on for their own profit and what would be a realistic selling price? if I could get it doen to £4400, or even £4000 I would be over the moon! Any tips would be great, I think the extra confidence gained from this site will prevent me from turning into a stuttering mess when negotiations start!

Firstly, carry ammunition with you. Not literally, of course!

But have quotes from things like Glass's price guide, or whatcar.com, which will show you roughly what the car should be [really] worth. You can use theses as leverage on the garage.

Secondly, don't be scared - garages will expect some kind of haggling. The worst they can say is "no".

Third, if you're still worried, take a friend or your OH with you. Even better if they're a mechanic! :p A second opinion never hurts.

[DavidHM]

I think I've found the car in question on the Trader. It's not a bad price although at that money it's the "old shape."

Trade price on the car is £3,500 or so so I'd be happy to get it retail for £4,500 - it's 10% off, which is to be expected.

Fuel economy on the diesels is very good - it should be near 45mpg on a motorway run. Check to make sure that the car has service history - it should have had an annual service and a stamped service book. The timing belt should also have been changed - if there is any doubt, have it changed by a garage after purchase and use this to haggle the price down. (It'll cost around £300 to do at an independent but that's better than £2k for a new engine).

As far as making sure the car hasn't been clocked, just make sure that the steering wheel isn't too shiny (it could be worn smooth, or just polished) and that the seats aren't worn (they look pristine in the photos though). The paint should be shiny, all the panels should line up properly, the bonnet shouldn't be peppered with stone chips (although one or two are no problem), the seatbelts should return to their holders quickly, and generally the car should feel almost like a new one.

[plane_boy2000]

We have a sharan which is also the same base car. We really like ours, its surprisingly quick - we have the 130 TDI - and very car like to drive. Yes, lifting the seats in and out can be a pain, but at the budget you have I dont think you will find any MPV with fold flat seats - they are a relativly new thing. We get about 42 MPG from ours which we are happy with and that is in a mixture of driving. Ours is still quite new, but we have done 23K in it in a little over a year and have had no problems - the only cost has been 1 service, and 2 new front tyres.

The space is really practicle and if yo only have the 5 seats in teh boot is huge. Even with seven seats in we can still get 2 stick style folding puschairs in the boot.

People will tell you that the Sharan is the same, but more expensive, but in our case we got teh sharan for less than an alhambra or galaxy so it pays to look at all 3 models to see what you can get at the time.

[plane_boy2000]

Forogt to add - if you can spend a little bit more you may be able to get a facelift model which I think was 2000. The styling looks better, but you get more spec and improved handling. Many of the post 2000 diesels have 6 speed gearboxs as well which will help with economy