I am looking to buy either a Honda Shuttle or a Ford Galaxy with a budget of £2k.
Would appreciate if owners of the above MPV can shed any light on the pros and cons of these two cars. I am going more in the favour of the reliability of the Honda but wary of the fuel consumption ie 2.3 Auto engine, as will be used for the typical school runs etc.
Comment much appreciated.
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I have just brought a 1998 Honda Odyssey (Japanese market Shuttle) back from France for its British MoT. It has done about 10,000 trouble-free miles in the last year and went through with no advisories. I think it is a brilliant load- and people-carrier and even the dog likes the a/c in the back when the rear two seats are not needed for people (most of the time) but there is a price to pay in fuel consumption. The 2.2 auto returns about 32 mpg cruising around the motorway legal limit but is heavy around town, dropping 5-6 mpg. Admittedly I have been using the a/c pretty much all the time as it was living on the French/Spanish border. They have a reputation for reliability but I can only say mine is a low kilometrage (55,000 km) import from Japan and nothing has gone wrong in any way and everything works as it should. It used no oil over the 10,000 miles...bit boring really. I bought it because the column gear change meant it was easy to slip over from the right to the left window in European car parks, tolls etc.
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I run a 13 year old 2.0 petrol Galaxy, great motor, had it 7 years. Heavy on petrol around town, and only 30mpg on a run. If going petrol would go for the 2.8 as little in it fuel wise, but probably a lot faster. Spares are cheap being a Ford. No rust at this age, even undeneath. Well known problems scuttle drains block up, and water floods the interior usually the central locking ECU (£164 for a new ECU). The wiper arm linkages seize up are a fortune to replace, and sometimes the wiper motor goes. Would recommend the Galaxy.
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remember that on this generation the galaxy is in fact the same car as the vw sharan and rthe seat alhambra.
I think that the design is vw so you will be getting vw engines not ford ones.
Edited by adverse camber on 27/04/2009 at 18:16
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On the MK1 the 2 litre engine in the galaxy is the old dohc Sierra engine, the 2.8 might be a VW unit, (not sure) diesels ar VW, the manual gearbox is a Ford MTX 75, the auto is a VW unit. Obviously the VW and SEAT versions are VW engines/gearboxes
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I thought the 2.8 had a nasty habit of snapping its timing chain around the 90-100k mark, and the engine has to come out to change it?
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We've got an 05 Galaxy 2.3 auto that we've owned for two years. The onboard computer indicates around 22-23 mpg and that is mainly with urban driving. On a run you can get about 28 mpg.
I believe the 2.3 DOHC is Mazda derived. It's no rocket from a standstill but is a great, low stressed motorway cruiser. We also looked at a Sharan 2.8 and this was a VW engine. We opted for the Ford as it was better specced and servicing costs are lower (a major service on the Ford is around £200 all in)
The auto gearbox performs well and has a manual tiptronic function when needed on steep hills.
Build quality is very good. As mentioned it is built alongside the VW and SEAT in Portugal. All of the components are VW bar the specific trim items.
It's a very comfy, well damped ride that puts my 53 plate Vectra SRi to shame.
No rust on mine yet but it's interesting to note that this generation Galaxy (like the KA) only has a 5 year anti perforation warranty whereas the rest of the Ford range of this era has 10 years. The lacquer is starting to go milky on the polished alloys and also the rear Ford badge of all things.
I'd recommend one. The 2.3 petrols are a much better value as everyone wants the 1.9 diesel...
Edited by Marc on 27/04/2009 at 19:30
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fair enough. When I was thinking of one I only looked at the diesels - I assumed the petrols would also be vw.
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The £2,000 budget will be restricting the OP to fairly early Galaxys/Sharans/Alhambras. I bought a nearly-new early Sharan TDI 90 back in 1996 that was the most troublesome car I have had the misfortune to own. I was glad to get shot of it when I no longer had the warranty to pay the bills! I think the later ones were supposed to be better but I stuck to Citroen MPVs after that (Synergie and now C8).
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My brother in law ( to be ) has an early Galaxy and he has spent £2500ish on repairs over the last 4 years. He prob should have sold it but he said he may have bought just as much trouble for his budget.
He likes it to drive, but its not a patch on his old Toyota Space Cruiser for reliability.
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We run a 1999 2.3i LS Shuttle, have had it for 3 years and done about 25k miles in it in that time. Has done about 5 trips from Southampton up to Scotland, 2 trips to mid France and all the usual school runs and round town stuff. Apart from normal servicing and 4 tyres we have had to spend about £200ish on a brake calliper. The car has 89k miles on it at the moment. To me that makes it very, very reliable!!
The ride is excellent as is the handling. I find it very comfortable for long trips and there is bags of room in the middle row of seats, plenty for a large adult to be able to sit without their knees getting bunched up.
The rear set of seats are quite small, perfectly fine for kids, but is a bit tight for an adult!! They also fold flat into the floor giving a large boot area, and with the middle row folded forward there is a huge load area.
All in all we find it an excellent vehicle, ok it is not the best on fuel, but then what vehicle of this size with an auto box is?
We have no intention of changing ours for quite a while yet, at one point we even looked at getting a second one!
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We ran a 1997 Galaxy for about five years. With a family of three kids and a dog, and regular visits to/from Grandparents I considered it be pretty much the perfect car (from a purely practical point of view!). The only trouble I can recall was the wiper linkage mentioned earlier and a problem with a relay (well documented on Gal owners website). Petrol consumption not good (again same experience as previous posters); seats heavy to move in/out of car but lots of flexibilty with them; bags and bags of space. We changed it a couple of years ago for a newer C8 and been disappointed ever since (the sliding doors on the C8 are the only plus).
I've never driven a Shutttle. I am sure they are fine but my only reservation with them is that they all appear to have bench seats in mid and rear rows which would not appeal to me.
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