Hello, all! I live in Kongsberg, which is in the southeastern part of Norway. I've been looking around for a "sensible" car to take my family to work, school and kindergarden, and it looks like we're going to close the deal on a Berlingo next week. I'm currently reading up on the car to ensure that I'm not doing something stupid.
Our requirements are: Rear sliding doors, room for three child seats, boot space enough for a pram, good mileage, reliable and not too expensive. The Berlingo seems like a nice fit.
We've been back and forth on wether we "need" 4WD or not, but we've decided to put our trust in "Grip Control" and high-end winter tyres. Traction on winter roads is not to be treated lightly where we live, as there's winter half the year... :justno:
I've always done my own maintenance and repairs, so it'll be weird to own a new car and send it off for service...
I've owned Land Rovers for ages, but our ageing Discovery is not the most economical for the school run. Lovely vehicle, though. We'll eventually have to get something newer for overland travel as well, as that's our family activity #1.
So if anyones still reading this; thank you, and I'll probably annoy you with questions and stuff later!
Welcome Harald,
Sounds like you have serious snow and ice in that part of the world. Here in Switzerland my Multispace with ESP and good winter tires got me though this winter without problems. Over on a German Berlingo forum (berlingo.org) the consensus of opinion on Grip Control seemed to be that is just an over priced firmware tweak for the ESP and not worth the increased price. I live on a hill and after a while the snow gets compacted to ice but with the ESP and Continental TS830's we got up every time with the ESP kicking in and out. Looking forward to your posts and experiences with a Berli.
Tom
Welcome Harald, another Scandanavian member!
You seem to have considered a lot more than most when it comes to picking a new vehicle, which is great. On grip control, you should check out this previous thread on the topic
http://www.berlingoforum.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=98
Look forward to seeing you around.
Hi, Harald. Welcome to forum.
Greetings from Russia.
Welcome to the forum herald
Welcome to the forum mate!
Hi and welcome to the forum,
great first post
Hi Harald and welcome to the forum
Some more thoughts on Berlingos and winter tyres in this
thread
Generally, members seem to have been impressed with how well their Berlingos coped with snow and ice, especially with winter tyres (I know I was
)
Which model Berlingo are you looking at?
Thank you for the warm welcome, all!
Winter tyres used in Central Europe are different than what is usually recommended for Scandinavia. Let's say they are engineered for 80% tarmac / 20% snow&ice, whereas Nordic spec are more like 50/50. I've always got a separate set of winter tyres for my cars. Expensive, of course, but worth it. My last 2WD (Pug 405) had Nokian Hakkapeliitta studless Nordic spec. Those and Bridgestone Blizzak Nordic spec are what I'll look into next time. And don't get me started on the "four season" tyres that a lot of SUVs are fitted with...
Having gotten that off my chest, I can proudly announce that I've doomed my children to a year of eating only oatmeal by ordering a brand new Berlingo from the dealership! I'll dig up the specs and post them in-thread (or maybe I'll have to start a different thread?)
On second tought, lets get started on four season tyres!
I'll just share this anecdote: A couple of years ago we were driving the before mentioned Pug 405. Our old Range Rover was having some kind of trouble, so we decided to go to the Land Rover club's Christmas dinner by French saloon... The venue was a fairly remote mountain lodge (as is fitting). Snow surprised us on the way, so the last small, but steep, hill was unsurmountable for our friend's Land Rover Discovery 2 with older four-season tyres. Remember, the Disco is a serious off-roader, with low range gearbox and proper traction control, but they had to park at the bottom of the hill. I managed to nurse our front wheel drive car, with new Hakkapeliittas, all the way to the top.
I managed to dodge most of the ribbing due me for turning up in a non-Land Rover...
Interesting info on the difference between winter tires here and in the northern countries. It seems many new cars come with "all weather" tires these days. Our neighbor's new Toyota (with all weather) could not get up our hill several times this winter. I cruised up like on dry ground to their dismay :lol:
