Citroën Berlingo VTR 1.6 HDi 90

Road Test

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Citroën Berlingo VTR 1.6 HDi 90

Test date 08 October 2008 Price as tested £12,311

For Refinement, interior quality and comfort, clever storage solutions

AgainstExpensive options list, occasionally disappointing ride, heavy rear seats

The original Berlingo was a bit of a pioneer — at least in the UK. Although van-based MPVs have been popular with Continental families on a budget for decades, the original Berlingo was a bit of a surprise hit for Citroën when it brought the genre to the UK back in 1998. Between then and 2008 Citroën sold more than 50,000 examples of the Berlingo.

Even with the arrival of the new version, the more utilitarian original is still on sale as the Berlingo Multispace First.

MPVs based on commercial vehicles do not hold the highest of ranks in the pantheon of people carriers. They must provide simple, rugged and practical family transport, but their no-frills nature means that anything more than a token nod to luxury or refinement is unnecessary, if not undesirable.

The new Citroën Berlingo Multispace could change that stereotype. It is still based on a light commercial vehicle – the Citroën Berlingo/Peugeot Partner van – but that car uses the same basic platform architecture and drivetrains as the Citroën C4 and Peugeot 308 hatchbacks.

This should mean higher levels of comfort, refinement and dynamic than we’ve seen before in a van-based people carrier.

The question is, does the bigger, more sophisticated new Berlingo Multispace live up to the promise of greater comfort, refinement and dynamic ability that its more sophisticated engineering background suggests? And can it still fulfil its core role as a good-value, practical, utilitarian family holdall?