Citroen Berlingo Multispace 1.6i 110 VTR

by David Finlay (8 September 2008)

Citroen has spent the last decade or so turning into one of Europe's most important MPV manufacturers, and part of its success in this field is due to the original Berlingo Multispace, which has floated the boats of a lot of customers interested in its combination of low cost and high practicality.
Ten years on from the UK launch of the first Multispace, along comes a new one (though the earlier model is still available in very low-specification form if your budget is limited). Like the old car, this one is a five-seat version of the Berlingo van, but it's bigger - luggage capacity, to take the most useful of the possible measurements, has increased to 675 litres up to parcel shelf level with the rear seats in place, and a really rather splendid 3000 litres up to the roof with the rear seats removed.
In other ways the old Berlingo Multispace philosophy continues much as before. There are, for example, myriad storage spaces, so many in fact that I would be fearful of losing important items simply by stashing them away and forgetting which compartment I had used (nobody who knows my standards of personal organisation will be in the least surprised by this).
And, as before, Citroen offers what it calls Modutop, an overhead storage system with yet more storage spaces including a closed compartment at the rear which can be accessed via sliding doors at either end. It also features a 12v socket and a scented air freshener, and it comes with roof bars which can be mounted either in line with the vehicle or across it, depending on what you want to carry.
Modutop cuts into the Berlingo's available headroom, but there is so much of this already that you're unlikely to be inconvenienced unless you happening to be wearing one of Elton John's more elaborate wigs.
The only snag about Modutop is that it's an optional extra, adding £550 to the price of the Multispace. This isn't really a problem in itself, but it's possible to get rather tetchy about it because so many useful items add to the bill. ESP, for example, costs £350, and you have to pay a further £320 for lateral and curtain airbags. Surely safety features like this should be fitted as standard?
Safety is in any case not the Berlingo's strongest suit. Euro NCAP awarded it four stars out of five for adult occupant protection, noting that "structures in the dashboard presented a risk of injury to the knees and femurs of the driver and passenger", and just two out of four for pedestrian protection. More hearteningly, the Multispace achieved four stars out of five for child occupant protection, and no vehicle in Euro NCAP history has ever done better than that.
The test car lies smack in the middle of the new range on account of having the more powerful of two 1.6-litre petrol engines and the VTR trim level (you get less stuff in the VT, more in the XTR). On the face of it, you'd be better off buying one of the three diesels, since they all manage around 50mpg on the official combined fuel economy cycle and the both petrols lag behind on 34.5mpg, but the petrol models are cheaper and you would have to rack up a far greater mileage than I imagine many Berlingo customers actually will to claw back the difference.
In the 109bhp form tested here, the petrol engine is as strong as it needs to be for a car like this, and its sound is well muffled. Gearing is quite low, though - the engine spins at almost exactly 3500rpm when you're doing 70mph in top, so you're always conscious that there's a lot going on under the bonnet during a motorway cruise. In these conditions, however, road noise is more of an issue, which is one of the reasons you can never entirely escape the knowledge that Berlingo is really a well-equipped van.
Not that it's in any way laborious to drive. In fact, it's very easy, particularly in town, because the major controls are light to the touch (so light, indeed, that they take a little getting used to). Ride quality is impressively good whether you're sitting in the front or the rear, and the high driving position and large glass area are useful for visibility. Mind you, in their attempts to soften the van-like lines, Citroen's designers have been a bit too cute with the shape of the windows, and this combined with the very wide pillars means that there are large blind spots.
A colleague who briefly shared the Berlingo with me described the steering wheel as feeling like it was "made out of recycled Action Men". True, the trim in general doesn't have a premium feel to it, but the Berlingo was never intended to be a premium car. It was designed to be practical, and it can't be faulted on that score.
It's also meant to be cheap, and going by the list price it certainly seems to be, though the number of must-haves on the options list will probably lead to customers either spending more money or going for a lower trim level or less powerful engine than they originally intended.

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