Head gasket

[Gadgetman]

Mine has 200.000Km on it, and a techie I talked with claimed that with proper care, that engine should be able to do double or triple that.
(you won't find a more proven aluminium body engine in any car)

A modified version of it was used in Citroën Rally cars after all...

A good mechanic, with all the toys to his disposal should be able to do the job in just a couple of hours.
Parts cost?
£50 for cambelt and pump(often sold as a kit)
£30 or so, for a gasket kit with head bolts. At least a kit on eBay won't cost you more than that.
Add the auxilliary belts (alternator and servo pump) for extra ease of mind, new oil, some anti-freeze and you should be set.
Of course, the garage may source their parts from other channels...

No, the Berlingo was not built 'as a van'...
First off, the underside is mostly Citroën ZX, so that hails from the 'small car' industry. The upper part is a 'leisure activity vehicle' and really, the ancestor for that is the 2CV!
This is made even more clear on a Berlingo with a Ragtop sunroof.
(you CAN bring your surfboard in a Berlingo with a sunroof... )
The fact that it's also a capable van is just plain luck.
If they really intended it to be driven with a full load all the time, they might have been smart enough to fit proper suspension and brakes.(hydro-pneumatic suspension and rear disc brakes. Trust me, that suspension makes a difference. I miss my old BX estate sometimes when I have a long drive with a heavy load)

Then there's the naming convention.
Citroën tends to 'stay with a theme', and the other two vans are 'Jumpy' and 'Jumper'.

I'll admit that it's a more capable van than the VW Caddy that I drive at the office, though. You sit a lot higher in the Berlingo, so you get a better overview, and I believe the ceiling-height is a bit better back in a Berlingo than the Caddy.
And the Ford Courier looks as if the designers didn't even try to get it right...