The first Volkswagen Sharan was jointly developed and built with Ford, which marketed its version as the Galaxy, and was launched in 1995. Along with the later Seat Alhambra version, these MPVs were collectively dubbed the Sharalaxy models.
In 2009, Volkswagen replaced the ageing Sharan and Alhambra with a new model that was designed in-house and spun off the platform used for the B7 Volkswagen Passat.
