Hi all, and welcome to the
forum if it is your first time! (I see it is
for most on this thread)
The Berlingo is in my opinion a great vehicle, and the 1.6 HDi is a great little engine. It has to be said that usually with good preventive maintenance, comes good reliability when it comes to anything in life. This means regular oil and filter changes along with the fuel filters on the diesel models. Always use or insist on fully synthetic low-ash/saps oil
for models with a DPF.
Parts are cheap, and pretty easy to obtain when needed. I've had 3 Berlingo vans, and been a member of the
forum
for 10 years. In that time, I've never really seen or heard any horror stories, and very few serious problems that couldn't happen to another brand, and usually involved vehicles of old age, with moon mileage and on the 10th owner. To me, that's a car combination that has breakdown built in, no matter what brand you buy - and even then the hardy Berlingo often doesn't let go. The French are VERY good at vans, and diesel engines.
All B9 Berlingo's (08-18) are vans or van-based cars (and great vans
- my current one is a B9) which were purpose built but share the plat
form with the Pug 3008 and the C4 Grand Picasso, and the ones be
fore that (M49 & M59) were cars first then vans which were based on the Xsara / Pug 306. Read the Berlingo Wiki page online
for exact specs and model years - there is some overlap with the older shape M59 and the B9 as they were produced together
for a while - the later version of the M59 being called the "First"....which confusingly, it wasn't.
Time cannot be beaten, age will always catch up with you and mileage matters, no matter what anyone says, or what car brand you end up buying.
I spent £5k buying a 2012 van with 60k miles on it, with aircon, radar park assist, factory Bluetooth hands free with Google voice dialling, and a year later I've only had to spend £7 on it
for a new windscreen washer pump. It's a lovely thing to drive, so comfy, 45mpg - yet I got a king size divan bed in the back when I had to take it to the tip the other week (I'd bought a new one) and it went in without a hitch. Try that in a BMW 3 series....
So my own best advice is, look
for the one with the features you want, at the price you can af
ford, with the least mileage and of the newest age available in that price range. Then look after it.
Hope this helps!