It's taken me most of the weekend to get my password reset after forgetting it. Can't think why. Its only 5 years since I was last on
Our 10-year old 2nd Gen Berlingo expired in a cloud of smoke a couple of weeks ago
Injector seals must have gone suddenly, and the extra gunge destroyed the turbo. I know its fixable, but the car has been well used. So we took the decision to look for a new car. its clear that in 10 years the people carrier/practical market has shrunk - its nearly all toy 4x4 carp, and much more expensive. The Berlingo, the Peugeot and Vauxhall versions are the only real choices, and they're a LOT more expensive than the previous model. Our local Pug and Vauxhall dealers were completely uninterested in selling us a car. There's no Citroen dealer in Kendal any more, but Morecambe isn't far and there's an industrial estate where all the car dealers are concentrated. So we had a visit there. Ended up at the citroen dealers and had a look round a demonstrator outside and a 7-seater in the showroom. Then sat down to discuss what we were looking for. We were willing to compromise on some stuff to get something quickly. What we definitely wanted was 7-seater, Petrol and the flair spec. Turns out the one in the showroom was practically exactly what we were after. Compromised on the colour (grey/silver rather than blue or red that we'd prefer) and not having the opening rear windscreen (that's really quite useful for tight car parks)
So the following weekend we did the deed.
The new 7 seater is about a foot longer than the old model (which was the same size as the 5-seater). The bonnet is quite a lot shorter too, which means there's loads more room. There's a decent amount of room behind the back row of seats with the seats in place. The middle row folds flat, rather than removing, but there's space beneath the seats themselves. The rear pair of seats slide and can be removed. With one middle seat down and a back seat removed, I can get my mountain bike in without needing to take the front wheel off. In the old one, I needed to fold the middle seat down as well to be able to put the bike at an angle across the car, or take the front wheel off, as it was just a touch too long to close the boot. The only downside with the new flat boot is that there's no cubby hole to store the load cover when its not in use. But there are two places designed to latch the cover in to - one behind the middle row and one behind the back row.
The dash layout is much better - who's idea was cup holders at 45° in the centre of the dash? The glovebox is actually usable too, and there's a lot more sensible stowage around the dash. On the old one there were a lot of useless cubby holes that things would just fall out of. The interior is just classier overall. I don't like that there's no button to blank the infotainment screen though - you need to go through the settings menu for that. Silly.
The mirrors (both rear-view and wing) are quite a lot smaller than the old model, although I think the wing mirrors may have shrunk on the facelift in 2013/14. The rear view mirror is also a very long way from the driver, so its awkward to adjust.
Externally, the black & silver alloys work well with the car. I'm undecided on the 'airbumps' - I definitely don't like the white accents and I think they'll look tatty quite quickly. But at least its better than the orange accents on the XTR trim. Our old one had body coloured bumpers & rubbing panels, which do look classier than the black plastic - one reason we went with VTR rather than XTR on that one. But there's no option this time.
Overall, it's definitely moved more upmarket. I guess because there's not many alternatives out there now. Ford are stopping making the C-Max now, the Tourneo and VW caddy are much more van-like. Not sure the Galaxy, Sharan etc are made any more either - but they were much more expensive. And as I said at the start, the trend is for SUVs, which just don't have the practicality.
PS - anyone want to buy 4 15" alloys. 2 have good tyres. 2 are well-worn and will need replacing. I'd actually ordered two new tyres the day before the old one blew up. Images on my
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PPS - Thanks for the electric handbrake tips in the snow. Still getting used to it.