Drive with us: Citroen Berlingo MPV Review

The Citroen Berlingo is the car you didn't know you need

The Citroen Berlingo is a vehicle so unique that it is almost in a class of its own. It’s an MPV – a ‘multi-purpose vehicle’ designed to suit a multitude of needs. It used to be called the ‘multispace’ and is one of the few passenger cars that have both the practicality (and the looks) of a van.

Not to be mixed up with the Citroen Berlingo, which is…an actual van (we know, it’s confusing), the Berlingo is a hugely versatile choice when considering your next lease vehicle. 

If you've come to this review hoping it was for the Berlingo van, we're sorry to disappoint. However, you can find the latest Berlingo van lease deals here.

Right, let's get into it! 

Model Lines and Prices

There are two body styles available with the Citroen Berlingo, a 5-seater ‘M’ and the 7-seater ‘XL’.

The XL has a 35cm longer wheelbase than the M, as well as a sliding third row of seats that can also be removed. We drove the 5-seater variant in the entry-level ‘Feel’ spec. There have been some slight spec changes since we drove it, but all the information below is correct for brand new Citroen Berlingo models, and it's the 'M' model that we'll be looking at today.

M – from £21,875

Feel

• 16-inch steel wheels
• Manual air con
• Cruise control and speed limiter
• Electric and heated door mirrors
• Safety Pack – Speed limit recognition and recommendation, Forward collision alert, Driver attention alert
• Rear parking sensors
• Electronic parking brake
• LED daytime running lights
• Front fog lights
• Visibility Pack – Automatic MagicWash windscreen wipers and ‘follow me home’ headlamps
• Green Mica cloth
• 8-inch touchscreen
• DAB digital radio
• USB & 12 volt socket
• Bluetooth® handsfree and media streaming
• Mirror Screen – with Android Auto and Apple CarPlayTM

Flair

• 16-inch Alloy Wheels
• Black roof bars
• Opening tailgate window
• Tinted rear windows
• Electrochrome rearview mirror (auto-dimming)
• Electric rear windows
• Electric, heated and power-folding door mirrors
• Three individual rear seats with headrests

Rip Curl

• 180° Colour Reversing camera
• Automatic air conditioning
• Rear and Front parking sensors

XTR

• Head-up display
• Top rear vision camera
• Green ambient lighting
• Green Fabric seats
• 17-inch ‘Spin’ Alloy Wheel
• XTR badging
• Gloss black door mirrors
• Gloss black roof bars
• Front and Rear scuff plates
• Orange fog light surrounds
• Airbump orange coloured surrounds

XL – from £23,875

The 7-seater XL is available in three trim levels – Feel, Flair and XTR. But remarkably, this top of the range 7-seat option remains affordable, with prices just over the £27,000 mark. 

*Model lines and prices correct at the time of publication

Engines and Drive

Depending on the model line you go for, the Citroen Berlingo has four engine options available. Two petrol and two diesel. You can also consider leasing the brand new Citroen e-Berlingo.

• PureTech 110 – 1.2 litre petrol with 6-speed manual gearbox and 110 horsepower.
• BlueHDi 100 – 1.5 litre turbo diesel with 6-speed manual gearbox and 100 horsepower.
• BlueHDi 130 – 1.5 litre turbo diesel with 6-speed manual gearbox and 130 horsepower.
• PureTech 130 – 1.2 litre petrol with automatic gearbox and 130 horsepower.

The car we were driving had the 110hp petrol engine, though after finishing up on the test drive, I had to double-check the vehicle specification to make sure I wasn’t mistaken. Despite only having 110 horsepower, this car performs really well.

The manual gearbox is situated higher up on the dash than in your standard car, so takes a moment to adjust to, but once you have, the drive is incredibly easy. The car we’re in had a HUGE parking brake, though those taking out a new Citroen Berlingo lease will get an electronic parking brake as standard.

Light steering makes for a surprisingly manoeuvrable car, and even without a reversing camera, the boxy shape of the car makes it easy to park or reverse. This is further aided by massive windows that more than makeup for the few blind spots dotted around the car.

The fuel economy is also reasonable, making the Citroen Berlingo nice and affordable to run. During our very stop/start test drive, we came back with an average performance of 41mpg.

Design

No word of a lie, as I was parked and taking a picture of the car, a man walking his dog stopped me and said, “Cor… now doesn’t that look stylish”.

Now, 'stylish' isn’t perhaps the word I’d use to describe this car, especially not with such vigour, but there’s no doubt that Citroen have hit the nail on the head when it comes to creating a family car with van practicality, whilst minimising boring van-like aesthetics. 

Citroen themselves describe the Berlingo design as “robust” and we agree. The Berlingo won’t win any points for beauty, but it has created a new category for itself – the funky MPV. 

It’s certainly not boring, with a distinctive front, sleek chevron-surrounded headlights and colourful elements you’ll notice along the flank and around the fog lights (in our car's case these are white). Few cars offer such a quirky design, though the Renault Captur and the Jeep Renegade spring to mind if we were to try and compare. 

Inside, the vibrancy continues, with a pop of colour coming from the dashboard trim, centre console, doors and seat upholstery – in this case, a lovely mint green.

Although the dash does feature a lot of plastics, it doesn’t look particularly cheap. And thought has gone into what goes where for the most part. A light headlining adds so much light to what is already a vast space, and black gloss finishes have been used sparingly to create a visual contrast whilst avoiding high touch-point areas.

Space and Practicality

If you asked me to score the Berlingo out of 10 it would get top marks. I cannot remember the last time I was so impressed with a vehicle's cabin space and boot practicality.

Let’s start, as I suppose is sensible, with getting in and out of the car. The access is incredibly easy. The front doors open wide and the footwell lip is flat and low to the ground, meaning no awkward climbing in and out.

The cabin space is also really ample for those with long legs and the seat offers a decent amount of adjustment to make it comfortable for pretty much any passenger.

This is the same for the access to the back seats. Sliding panel doors open up to the spacious rear space, a bonus that makes it more practical for opening up when you’re in tight parking spaces.

There is so much height in the cabin. So, if you’re tall, long-legged, long-armed, wide-hipped, broad-shouldered, all or anything in between, the chances are you are going to have room to sit comfortably in this car.

On top of that, storage space is also abundant, with an overhead storage shelf above the driver and front passenger as well as more storage in and under the centre console, behind the screen, on top of the dash and various other places around the cabin.

The Berlingo has a huge square boot opening that made loading and unloading an absolute dream. In total there is 775 litres of capacity available, however, when you fold those rear seats (and they lay completely flat), that space becomes a cavernous 3000 litres. For even more practicality, the parcel shelf can be adjusted for flexible configurations to create a massively usable space.

Technology

If space and practicality is the area where the Berlingo flourishes, then technology would perhaps be an area where it coasts along happily, though perhaps doesn't excel.

It’s important to remember that this is meant to be a simple car – if you’re after all of the bells and whistles then you’ll have to consider rivals like Volkswagen or a Mercedes-Benz, although we don’t think you’ll want to. Although cars like the B-Class or VW Caddy Life have more kit, they come at a premium.

The touchscreen does the job you need it to, and model-dependent comes with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity. Again, depending on the model you choose, the Berlingo also has nice features such as a colour heads-up display, adaptive cruise control, active safety brake and traffic sign detection.

A new Berlingo comes with electric and heated door mirrors, rear parking sensors and LED daytime running lights as standard.

However, if you want to customise your Berlingo even further, you can add additional options like wireless phone charging, reversing camera and an additional Technology Pack, which includes Emergency Assistance and Voice recognition.

The driver's display is clear and simple. However, one note would be that the steering wheel controls seem a little counter-intuitive. The left-hand dial controls the right-hand driver display and the right-hand dial controls the central touchscreen on the left, which to me is a bit confusing but something you soon get used to.

Verdict

This is a car that you don’t need to worry about outgrowing within a couple of years. It’ll suit family, business and personal needs for as long as you need it to. It was a car that I was also not expecting to like as much as I did. But hey ho, we love an underdog.

It’s comfortable, practical, well-priced and nice to drive. The tech isn’t groundbreaking by any stretch of the imagination, but it does the job, and it does the job well.

If you’d like to find out more about a Citroen Berlingo lease, please take a look at our latest Citroen lease deals or get in touch with a one of our Leasing Experts.