2 babies and 2 Labradors. Current car won’t really do so looking at something like a galaxy. Around 2012 year.

2.0 140bhp is the stand out engine for me.
Has Anybody tried the 1.6? Id imagine its a bit flat with a full car?

Not seen them in the flesh yet but judging by the pics on Autotrader they have a pretty big boot area with the 2 rear most seats down …. Would it fit a folded up pram/pushchair behind the middle seats and leave room for 2 dogs?

Are all 3 middle seats isofix?
Wondering if it would be possible to remove a seat (centre or a window one) giving the option to stow the pram/pushchair in that space…

Balls … Wrong forum ….

Although it would carry bikes too when not doing family business

SMax here which is pretty similar if slightly smaller.

All three middle seats isofix on SMax.

You can fold the three seat separately rather than removing.

Good for bikes snowboards etc.

2.0 140bhp diesel Galaxy owner here. Love it! All five rear seat are isofix and fold to create a flat floor, but for bike loading duties I have completely removed the back 2 seats from the car and fold down two of the middle ones. I can then get two bikes in with the front wheels off and three passengers in the car very comfortably. Not sure if that helps….

Test drove a galaxy and an SMAX.
Galaxy was noticeably larger, but much more wallowy and rattly (but that could have just been that it was a bit older)
SMAX drives soooo much nicer, but boot is a touch smaller, so would depend on how small your buggy is when folded down.

The thing that swung it, for me, was that I didn’t want people to think that I’m an Addison Lee driver 😉

One week short of a year in, and just short of 19000 miles done – very happy dog owner/mountain bike transporter.

P.S. Well worth looking at hatchbag.co.UK, whichever model you go for.

I just picked up a 2013 titanium from these guys:
http://www.silverdalecc.com/
They did what it says on the tin. They drove up with my new car. Took away my old car all with the minimum of fuss. I would use them again. A couple of minor niggles have been sorted with no problems.

They don’t have all the cars in stock. Tell them your budget/age/model and they will do the rest. No money changed hands until I saw the car and checked it over.

My next problem is finding a bike carrier for one.

They did what it says on the tin. They drove up with my new car. Took away my old car all with the minimum of fuss. I would use them again. A couple of minor niggles have been sorted with no problems.
They don’t have all the cars in stock. Tell them your budget/age/model and they will do the rest. No money changed hands until I saw the car and checked it over.

Thanks … But I’m not really looking for a dealer recommendation

Thanks everybody else so far.

Peanut … Would you say the rear space (with the two rear seats down) Offers more space than a regular estate car?i guess you should really go and see one !

Galaxies are Massive in the back, we could get the contents of our house in ours I recon, Lol

If a Galaxy or SMax is too small for you then your next option is a Transit. Really, they are huge and voluminous. The rear seats fold down completely flat so you’ve a perfectly flat floor. Galaxy and SMax are essentially the same car but the Galaxy has a squarer back end so useful if you want to use the 6th and 7th seats regularly for adults – the SMax the seats are lower to the floor to give enough headroom in the back for adults, which means their knees are quite high, so not particularly comfortable for long journeys – however the Galaxy has higher 6th and 7th seats.

For bikes I can carry unto 3 bikes vertically with the front wheels removed and the forks attached to an internal rack on the rear of the back seats (not a standard fitment) – however saddles have to be lowered on the dropper posts or removed if no dropper post. The rear boot is huge when the middle row of seats are in use, but you can slide the middle row of seats forward to free up another 6 inches or so of boot space. Also the three seats fold down individually so if you have 4 in the car you can fold down the 5th seat to create a more room for stuff.

So they are a really huge car with a lot of flexibility and what I liked about them is that as they are based on a Mondeo Estate Chassis they drive really well.

S Max might well be big enough, and they drive better than the Galaxy.

Have a 1.8TDCi S Max and it feels underpowered. I quite often stall it hilariously pulling out of junctions, as every diesel I’ve had pulled like a train in 2nd and I’ve got lazy…

With only 5 seats in use they are pretty big in the boot. With 3 kids and camping gear we are squeezed though, so will probably move to a van this year.

It is a car interior – so carrying bikes is possible space wise but you need to be careful about marking/damaging interiors. I fitted a tow bar and use a Maxx Raxx 4 bike (the youngests gets broken into bits and spread around the luggage area!)

Ah Ford Galaxies.

S Max might well be big enough, and they drive better than the Galaxy.

Figure if I’m doing it I’ll go the whole hog and get the Galaxy. The extra roof space would be a benefit.
Dare I say it but I also prefer the look of a galaxy over an S Max.

Galaxy also has opening windows for the 3rd row, and a beefed up A/C system over the Smax.
Smax takes forever to cool down due to the huge interior space, and never really feels cold due to this.
I have an Smax for the record, originally wanted the Galaxy, but decided this was a touch more practical for day to day duties.
Been reliable bar needing the turbo replaced due to being coked up, thanks to short journeys by the previous owner.

The SMax A/C in auto is a bit limp wristed, but manually over-ride it to max and it chills down nicely. But I know what you mean, sometimes it doesn’t seem man enough, but does have the capacity to cool the whole space down.

A friend has the SMax, and I have to say the boot seems smaller than I was expecting – we have an Octavia estate and I was expecting the SMax to seem noticeably, usably bigger, but it didn’t. Someone will be along shortly with the boot capacity figures to prove I am wrong, however.

Certainly when we have looked at the idea of something like that, we have been keener on the bigger and more usable boot in the Galaxy/Sharan size versions than SMax/Touran sizes.

The galaxy boot is not larger in terms of usable space, it is more voluminous but the extra volume is in the roof area as it has a squarer roof – and is intended to give adults in the 6th and 7th seats more headroom. They both have the same length/width and wheelbase. My brother had an A4 Avant – so basically an Octavia, and it has a much much smaller boot than the SMax. One of his most used bits of kit was a roof box. Also the leg room you get in an SMax/Galaxy for the passengers in he rear seats is double that you get in an A4/Octravia, so slide the rear seats forward and you can still give your passengers better legroom and liberate more boot space.

Someone will be along shortly with the boot capacity figures to prove I am wrong

Yep…. 😉

I can understand where MCTD is coming from…when I picked up my SMax I parked the Mondeo I was trading next to the smax and had both boots open. I was pretty disappointed, as I thought the Mondeo looked almost the same size as the SMax. I think that’s slightly misleading as the Smax load area can be packed higher, which can make a big difference, and if you move the 2nd row of seats forward, the amount of usable space increases a lot.

I have grown to really like the smax, I don’t find the AC a problem at all. The stereo is terrible (lot worse than the Mondeo it replaced) and you have to be careful stuff does not fall down near the post for the boot catch, or the boot can stick shut, which is a massive PITA. I also despise the mounting of the Ford roof bars…it’s a terrible design. Panoramic roof is great for checking the bikes are OK when driving.

I believe it is possible to totally remove the 3rd row of seats (I’ve never done it) by unbolting them to give more space, but that’s not something you’d want to do every day.

Engine wise, I think the 140 is probably a good bet, I’m sure I’ve read about people preferring the 140 over the 163 in real world conditions.

We changed from a 2010 Galaxy to a 2013 S-Max, both with the 140ps diesel engine. We have two golden retrievers in the boot on a daily basis with five seats up. Masses of room.

I prefer the Galaxy for being a more relaxed drive and not pretending to be a sports car.

My wife who drives the car every day prefers the S-Max.

So I am wrong.

disagree with the above that a Octavia is comparible to an A4. The skoda boot and rear space is massive.

We have 140 tdci Galaxy here.

Bought as a bit of a stop gap, it is growing on me.

It is huuuuuge – massive boot and leg room normally, slide middle row forward and the boot is just vast. Fold down Middle seats and it is over 7′ long…. Even in 7 seat mode the boot is ok (I can fit a bike frame, wheels and gear in there), and again slide both back and middle row forward and you have ok legroom and a big boot still. Normal legroom in the middle row with Mrs_oab driving is more than our lads legs can reach.

We have the glass roof with storage. I thought it was a gimmick, but in fact it is ace- the car feels light and airy, we can see canoes on the roof, and we do use the storage lots on long trips.

It cruises along really well, a great mile muncher.

It is big in car parks, and poor mpg in town ( it is a heavy old beast). It picks up its skirts well when progress is needed, but not round corners…

On a long run I can get mid to late 40’s, indicated as 50+ mpg.

Downsides? The tdci sounds like a bag of bolts when cold, mrs_oab at 5′ finds the passenger seat too ‘long’ and high in the base (newer models have different seats), the end of the boot dips down towards bumper so stuff is for ever falling out when we open the boot, tyres are a bit steep it seems, the Ford stereo is poor, get the Sony if you can.

Ours is about to do South of France with two 17′ canoes on the roof, four bikes on towball and one in he boot with a fortnights holiday gear for five….

Mrs_oab does not like it, I can’t imagine a more practical car for us at the moment.

2.0 140bhp diesel Galaxy owner here. Love it!

Best upgrade you could ever get for it is buying a selfie stick so you can take a long hard **** look at yourself.

When you love a diesel people car your life is over.

And you are clearly jealous of those of us who need to drive such a beast to transport the results of our virility. 😉

When you love a diesel people car your life is over.

Nope … It’s just very busy!!!

Thanks for the replies … Very helpful.

The 163 is basically a remap of the 140 lump, i think it was to give it some more oomph probably due to emission controls. I thought the 140 drove better.

Oh, and factor in £2-300 for a new pair of front tyres every year. The 2.0 Tdci is a heavy engine, and eats tyres fast. I’ve had very few brands that last much longer than 12k!

163 SMax needed new fronts at 25000. Goodyears if that helps. Ok grip but not great economy on those tyres though.

Aye, it does provide some comfort igm! I had Goodyear EfficientGrip Performance fitted this time last year, and it looks like they will be one of the few that I manage to get decent mileage from!

Ah Ford Galaxies.

Yeah, I was hoping (stupidly) for a thread about proper Ford Galaxies too.

Yeah, I was hoping (stupidly) for a thread about proper Ford Galaxies too.

You could always start one if that’s what you want. I however, didn’t.

Well I’ve gone and done it …. Picking up a 2011 Galaxy (titanium, 163bhp) next weekend.

Apparently that means you just gave up on life. 😉

Welcome to the club.

Apparently that means you just gave up on life.

Apparently so. I’ll get that selfie-stick ordered 😉