The force is with the Galaxy

The Ford Galaxy is not necessarily the most glamorous car on the road but the latest model’s sturdiness, practicality and road-holding performance have appealed to the thin blue line.

Sussex Police’s Forensic Collision Investigation and Reconstruction Unit have just purchased their third lot of Ford Galaxy cars in 13 years. If you pop down to the Ford showroom, the latest model of this reliable workhorse will start in price at £24,645 and the base model MPV comes with a six-speed manual gearbox and a 1.6-litre 160bhp engine.

But the three economical diesel-powered cars the Sussex police have ordered come with some pretty impressive modifications that were carried out by Fords Special Vehicle Preparations team. These cars can be at a crash scene for up to eight hours with the engines running to power assorted kit on board.

The truly cool extras that you’ll have to beg and plead with your dealership to offer include telescopic roof-mounted masts for 28,000-lumen lights, public warning equipment (that’d be flashing lights and sirens, in layman’s terms) and a bespoke racking and storage system so they can carry cameras, videos, trolley jacks, toolkits, measuring and surveying equipment and crew uniforms.

“It has proved the best vehicle in terms of gross vehicle weight, performance when fully loaded, road-holding and capability in performing the tasks required of it,” said Sussex Police Fleet Manager Dennis Ord.

Sussex’s finest will be hanging on to their latest Galaxy collection for five years and in that time they expect to cover 125,000 miles. The model they’ll be taking in for mods will be the 163bhp Ford Galaxy Titanium version with a 2.0-litre engine and six-speed manual transmission. It does 0-60mph in 9.5 seconds (but probably won’t be used for high speed chases...) and CO2 emissions are at 152g/km.


By Georgia Lewis

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