| First Drive | Jerez de la Frontera, Spain | 2010 Ford Galaxy |

Confession time. As a young teenager my then girlfriend's dad bought a brand new Galaxy, launch fresh. 1995 it would have been. I was so engrossed by its sheer size that I actually ran around inside it, only sitting down to play with the arm rests of the individual chairs. Then I wrote a song about it, which I recorded in the studio at my school during my spare time. It wasn't actually about the car, it was a deeply meaningful allegory, obviously, but it was still called Galaxy. Loser? Me? Fair point.

Weirdly, I'm disproportionally engrossed by this new one too, despite the fact that, as someone who loves driving, people carriers are anathema to me. And the Galaxy looks like it has all the cornering ability of my mother. As it turns out, that's far from the case.

In the Metal

The Galaxy and S-Max have always been difficult to tell apart unless you're an MPV aficionado (a small club, we expect), but side-by-side it's actually quite easy. The S-Max has a more raked profile with a roofline dip towards the rear. The Galaxy's roof is as straight as a Jeremy Kyle dressing down, which gives it the hoity-toity talk show host's ability to collate and contain all kinds of trash, too. It really is massive in the Galaxy. Seven seats are standard and the rear five are easily foldable with a quick tug on a red strap. As ever with these seven-seat things, though, a huge boot gives way to two tiny chairs.

We'll let you spot the changes that the facelift has brought, which are minimal really, but Ford claims it's tried to separate out the S-Max as the sporty one and the Galaxy as the posh one. The rear LED lights remain the same, but the front end gets a rework and there are some new roof rails. There's also a new type of leather, that's softer and not available on the S-Max. The internal architecture remains as was, though that's no bad thing because it's a beautifully put together cabin, made largely of lovely springy material and which looks, we reckon, sharper than any MPV on the market. Even the gimmicky handbrake is cool.

What you get for your Money

The changes mentioned above really play rhythm guitar to the lead riffs of the new engines and gearbox that are now available in the S-Max and Galaxy. Both cars debut the new EcoBoost 200bhp turbocharged petrol engine, which replaces the 2.3-litre five-cylinder turbo unit and dishes out better performance (a wider torque plateau) while trouncing it in terms of economy and emissions. In the Galaxy it'll return 34.8mpg combined and emit 189g/km of CO₂, while getting to 62mph in comfortably less than nine seconds.

There's the debut of the new Powershift twin-clutch auto gearbox too, which is already in the Focus and, like DSG, S-Tronic and PDK, seamlessly switches gears by pre-selecting the next cog. It comes standard with the EcoBoost engine, and is available with the 2.0-litre TDCi we're testing here, although our car was a six-speed manual. The diesel is new too, and is the most powerful Duratorq Ford has ever produced, with 161bhp and 251lb.ft. It returns 49.5mpg and 152g/km when mated with the manual gearbox.

And, really, that's the thing. No matter how good the EcoBoost is - and it is good - the diesel still makes far more sense in this application. That's assuming the sticker price is right, of course, which we don't know at the time of writing.

Driving it

If spacious and comfortable is your thing, you needn't look any further than the Galaxy. It might not quite have the dynamic brio of the slightly more rakish (but not much smaller) S-Max, but it's still remarkably agile for a big, slab-sided MPV. Its proportions mean crosswinds mess with its high-speed stability at times, but that's natural. What's not so natural is the balance it strikes between road-smothering ability and road-hugging agility - completely at odds with its sheer bulk. While effortlessly able to chew up and spit out roads that appear chewed up and spat out, the Galaxy dances through corners with more zeal than some saloons do, staying remarkably level. These things are relative, but the Galaxy's grip and poise make it a dynamic overachiever.

There's occasional wind noise from the door frames at high speed, but it's otherwise exemplary at keeping the cabin free of noise, largely shutting out even the diesel's inevitable rattle and thrum. That's a diesel unit which fits nicely with the character of the car, too, serving up a strong swell of grunt from as little as 1,500rpm but revving without feeling overbearingly worked. Of the three outputs (including 113- and 138bhp), it's probably the one to go for if you'll be putting the Galaxy to maximum people-carrying, torque demanding use.

Worth Noting

The 'One Ford' strategy seems to have taken a real step into the limelight after the unveiling of the new Focus in Detroit, despite being three years in swing now. It's the One Ford strategy that has brought about the EcoBoost stuff, in part, because while we Europeans happen to have taken to diesel quite nicely, thanks, Americans, with their cheap fuel and massive cars, still love big capacity petrol engines, and continue to snub diesel en masse despite its economy and flexibility benefits. EcoBoost is nothing new - it's all about turbocharging smaller capacity engines for economy gains with big performance - but it's supposed to mimic those oily benefits in a rev-happy petrol unit. Smaller versions are around the corner.

Summary

It's not difficult to see why the Ford Galaxy makes such a compelling airport taxi, because without any haughtiness it rides like a luxury car, has space to spare, and is built to both look and feel of high quality. That it drives in such a planted, enjoyable manner is a real surprise. The cost will be an issue - other MPVs offer similar space and quality for less - but Ford has improved on a class-leading car here. The EcoBoost engine is an interesting diversion, though not one we'd recommend over the diesel in this application. The Powershift transmission, on the other hand, is a great auto and, we expect, will suit the diesel just fine. As massive MPVs go, this is the most interesting one we can think to own.