This is a review of the 2020 Citroen Berlingo 7-seater MPV. I bought this car brand new in October 2020, 5 months ago from the time of writing this, and I’ve driven ca 5000km in it so far.
I am publishing this to give other MPV buyers hands-on information about how is to to live with the Berlingo MPV and the thought process of why I made my decision like I did. I hope this makes it easier for you to decide what you want.
The bottom line
I love this car. It’s perhaps irrational to love a beige Citroen van, but it really fits the needs of my family and it has the “cheap and cheerful” quality of a good set of Ikea furniture. When I’m driving my van, I feel like I made a smart deal.
I have three young isofix-child seat aged kids, who travel with a metric s**t-ton of luggage — prams, bicycles, pushchairs, a triple set of extra clothes, a guitar. We have car-less grandparents who often need to travel with our family. And, approaching the age of 40, I frequently find myself hauling around stuff like furniture, timber, lawn-mowers and household appliances.
My Berlingo was significantly cheaper to buy than a fancy 7-seater SUV or a full sized MPV, it is more modern and convenient to live with than a full sized van, but much more spacious at the same price than a small car based MPV.
This car does exactly what it says on the tin. It takes a lot of people and stuff and moves them around in relative comfort, while not costing too much to buy, run and maintain.
It has a Citroen 2CV kind of a joie de vivre — it’s built to do a job in a cheap and cheerful kind of a way.
Why did I choose a Citroen Berlingo over all the other MPV-s in the world?
Childconomics
Turns out that having a third child really narrows your choice of cars.. and shrinks your budget, too.
With 1 kid — you’ll have to ditch your 2-seater cabriolet, but you can have pretty much any 4–5 seater car. One baby-pram fits into the boot of even the supermini sized saloon cars and every car that has a back seat and was made in the last 15 years has 2 isofix anchor points in the rear. We lived dandily with a 2007 Ford Focus hatchback after our first daughter was born.
When you have your second child — not much changes. Maybe you’ll want to upgrade to an estate body form factor just to carry around the increasing amount of stuff. If you need to fit a third adult in the car — chances are at least one of the three adult passengers is thin enough to fit between the child-seats in the rear bench. A 2008 Renault Megane estate car did the job great for my family at this stage.
But then, your third child is born. All of a sudden, every.single.time you need to drive with the whole family, your wife needs to cram herself in the 30cm gap between the two child seats on the rear bench. Most cars don’t have isofix anchor points on the front seat, so you have to choose one of your children to sacrifice in case of an accident — they will sit on the less safe seatbelt-only chair in the front passenger seat. You can’t take grandma with you at all when all 3 kids are in the car, since she’s .. khm .. too corpulent to fit between the isofix seats at the back. You are constantly removing and re-installing the child-seats in the car as you have different combinations of passengers and cargo. The sheer amount of luggage 3 small kids needs is a pain to fit even in a basic estate car.
So — you’ll need a people carrier.
Having a third child also increases your family’s “cash burn”. Imagine having to buy lunch for 4 of your friends every time you go to a restaurant. Or buying a plane ticket and hotel for 5 people if you want a weekend getaway. You’ll want to live in a 4-bedroom place at some point in the future when the kids are bigger. Not to mention saving for 3x college.
So — you’ll need a reasonably priced people carrier.
People carriers
There are a whole lot of cars with people carrier credentials out there — ranging from luxury SUV-s to compact cars with a slightly bigger boot and two cramped extra seats in the boot. Prices range from 9999EUR for a puny Dacia Lodgy to 150kEUR for a Tesla Model X. It seems “MPV” can mean many different things to many different people.
Which one do I need?
Here is my mental map of the MPV market:
Luxury SUV-s (75kEUR+)
Pros: spacious, luxurious, newest tech
Cons: crazy expensive to buy and run
Models: Mercedes Benz GLS, BMW X5, Audi Q7, Tesla Model X, etc
Full sized vans (30–70kEUR)
Pros: hugely spacious, fit up to 8 passengers and a lot of luggage, options range from luxury Merc V class to a more budget Toyota Proace
Cons: top models like Merc and VW are very expensive — 60kEUR easily, short wheelbase versions have a remarkably small boot, long wheelbase versions can’t hide their van origins — van-style seating position and driving feel, old-school on-board tech, inflexible seat configuration. Problems fitting into parking spaces, carwashes, etc. These are good if you have 4 or more kids :). More expensive to run than car-based MPV-s.
Models: Mercedes-Benz V-class, Volkswagen Multivan, Peugeot Traveller, Toyota Proace, Citroen Spacetourer
Small van based MPV-s (15k-30kEUR)
Pros: very cheap to buy, very strong on practicality, feel much more like a car to drive than the full sized vans, cheaper to run than full sized vans (tyres and tyre changes, insurance, car washes), can fit into parking spaces
Cons: often achingly boring and generations behind on available tech, often meant for commercial use with little attention to family features like additional isofix anchor points, 7 seats, convenience tech etc
Models: Citroen Berlingo, Peugeot Rifter, Toyota Proace City Verso, Ford Tourneo Connect, Volkswagen Caddy, Fiat Doblo, etc
European & Asian MPV-s (25–50kEUR)
Pros: car-like driving feel and latest tech, have attention to family features like isofix anchor points, 7 seats, etc
Cons: may not actually fit 3 isofix seats side by side at the back, eliminating the whole point for a 3-child family, extra 2 seats in the boot not big enough for adults, sneakily really expensive — Sharan and Espace can clock 50kEUR easily, used cars often have a history as taxis.
Models: Volkswagen Sharan, Ford Galaxy, Seat Alhambra, Citroen C4 Grand Picasso, Renault Espace, Kia Carens
Compact European & Asian MPV-s (20–30kEUR)
Pros: reasonably priced, latest tech, family-oriented features like isofix anchor points, etc
Cons: vast majority are just too small — don’t have 3 isofix anchor points at the back or too narrow to fit 3 isofix seats side by side, extra 6–7 seat way too small for adults, boot not much bigger than VW Golf estate.
Models: Renault Scenic, Volkswagen Touran, Ford C-Max
7-seater “regular brand” SUV-s (30–40kEUR)
Pros: can have 4-wheel drive, SUV form factor looks good
Cons: not more spacious than standard MPV-s, but more expensive, heavier
Models: Skoda Kodiaq, Peugeot 5008, etc
American MPV-s (30–60kEUR)
Pros: Americans really know how to make large family cars — generously spacious, 7 full sized seats, a lot of convenience tech
Cons: not sold as new or sold at ridiculous prices in Europe (Chrysler Pacifica 60kEUR new and 30kEUR at 5 years old), used cars hard to find, often no maintenance history, only 2 seats in the middle row means that one child must always take rearmost row seat
Models: Chrysler Pacifica, Lincoln Town & Country, Toyota Sienna, Honda Stream
Why a Berlingo?
After thinking through our family driving situation, renting/trying a few different MPV-s and vans and talking to friends with many kids, I ended up with a target car:
- 3 isofix child seats fit side-by-side into the rear seats
- 7+ seats — with the third row big enough for grandparents to get in and out without injuring or embarrassing themselves
- reasonably big boot (when 5 seats are in use) — at least VW Passat estate size
- automatic gearbox
- reasonable fuel consumption (looking at you, American MPV-s with a V6 petrol engine doing 14l/100km in town)
- basic modern tech — distance keeping cruise control, Android auto, parking sensors at least at the rear, optionally: automatic windscreen wipers and keyless entry
- roof rails (& tow-bar or possibility to add one)
- less than 4 years old
- less than 100k km on the odometer
- Priced at ca 25kEUR
After obsessing about it for a couple of months, I paid 27,460EUR for a brand new 2020 Citroen Berlingo XL Shine XTR 1.6 96kW 8EAT.
Why this?
Luxury SUV-s like Audi Q7, Tesla Model X are just too expensive — at my price point, I would get an old run-down and very expensive to maintain version.
Full sized van based MPV-s are either too expensive (65kEUR Mercedes V-class, 50kEUR VW Multivan) or too “van-like” (Toyota Proace). I rented a Proace and drove it for a few hours before vowing not to buy it to myself. It was uncomfortable to drive in town, hard to park, had clumsy fixed seats and old-school tech (no adaptive cruise control, tiny infotainment screen low down in the dash). Even the basic versions of the vans tend to cost 35kEUR+. Used vans often have a history as taxies or transfer vans — causing a lot of wear and tear even in newish cars.
Small MPV-s like VW Touran are just too small — 3 kids won’t fit side by side at the back, grandparents won’t fit on the extra seats.
American MPV-s could be great, but are ridiculously pricey as new (Chrysler Pacifica 60kEUR in my country). Used American MPV-s are sold few and far between in our tiny market and mostly have very dodgy backgrounds.
This leaves full sized European & Asian MPV-s like VW Sharan, Renault Espace, Seat Alhambra, Kia Carens; SUV-based MPV-s like Skoda Kodiaq, Peugeot 5008 and small van based MPV-s like Citroen Berlingo, Volkswagen Caddy, Renault Kangoo, Fiat Doblo.
At the end, my choice came down to — money and modern tech.
25kEUR gets you a 4–5 year old Sharan or Skoda Kodiaq. 5 years is a long time — these cars are out of warranty, several used Sharans that I looked at had been taxis in their past life.
25kEUR gets you a top of the line small van based MPV — but most are truly old-school and generations behind in tech — Renault Kangoo, Fiat Doblo, etc.
25kEUR, however, gets you a brand new, almost top of the line car from the new Citroen Berlingo, Peugeot Rifter, Toyota Proace City Verso, Opel Combo family that does tick all of my boxes.
Rifter does not come in 7-seater form in my country at all, Proace City Verso looks more boring than its French sister-cars and would have been delivered in 5+ months, Combo just looks terrible — this leaves Citroen Berlingo.
Review of the 2020 Citroen Berlingo MPV
Looks
It looks like a van. There’s no going around that. It’s not pretending to be a fake SUV, it’s not sacrificing boot space to have a “shooting brake” roof line. It’s a box. It has sliding rear doors. It has a humongous rear tailgate.
But, owning up to being what it is — a van — makes the look work. It looks like a van on purpose!
Citroen has added a bunch of visual elements to liven things up and distinguish the “civilian” versions of the Berlingo from the pure vans. A Berlingo MPV gets plastic “side-bumpers” on the doors, orange rectangles on the sides and around fog lights, black plastic elements on the A-pillar, shiny black roof rails and mirror housings, chrome accents here and there.
In top of the line versions, you get tinted rear windows, fancy (for a van) alloy wheels, and a few more plastic silvery bits on the bumpers.
The main downside of the boxy look is — you’ll have to explain why you are driving a van to your friends. Yes, it does have seats at the back. Yes, it does have a radio and an automatic gearbox and carpet in the boot. Yes, it does have airbags. No, you can actually hear the passenger talk over the road noise when driving on the highway.
The physical size itself is thankfully precisely right — even the long wheelbase Berlingo is no longer than a VW Passat nor wider than a Mercedes E-Class. So — it’s easy to park on the street, fits under height restrictions in multi-storey car parks. It’s exactly below the height limit to get classified as a “car”, not a “van” on ferry tickets, car-washes. It runs on “car” tires.
Interior & practicality
The interior space at this price point is the biggest advantage of the Berlingo MPV. There are acres of room in all three rows. Headroom is ridiculously good — it’s easy for parents to dive into the car to help kids in and out of their seats and grandparents to get to the third row seats. 3 isofix child seats do fit into the second row without problems.
The best way to access the seats in the third row is via the large boot. 70 year olds can step up the low loading height without problems, the rear extra seats are full size and there’s a super basic 12v socket, a door-pocket and a cup holder at the rear.
There are a lot of storage spaces inside the cabin — two gloveboxes, central console that can fit a bottle of wine and a 100-pack of N95 masks, large door-pockets, a shelf above the head of the driver and passenger, cubby-spaces in the passenger footwell, trays on the rear sides of the driver and passenger seat, etc.
Most of the interior is hard plastics, but the top spec model and the optional “XTR pack” improves the look a little with green plastic accents on the dashboard, a console between the front seats, slightly more lively looking seat covers, etc. Overall — the interior is geared towards the low price and practicality — it looks like it can take years of kids getting in and out and lugging around furniture without scratching or breaking or tearing much. However — the interior of even the most basic car-based MVP-s feels more luxurious and modern than in the Beringo.
The rear sliding doors are very practical in tight parking spaces, but kids under 5 will struggle to open and close the heavy doors. There is no option for electrically operated sliding doors like VW Sharan has.
The tailgate in the MPV version is huuge — you will struggle to open it in tight parking spaces, since it needs several meters of room behind to fully open. It does open very high — so you can easily stand under it if it rains. The tailgate feels a little flimsy and makes an old-school van-door noise when it’s closed. A separately opening tailgate window is available in the top spec car — it’s a really useful feature when loading smaller items to the boot.
The middle row seats fold flat into the floor individually and the front passenger seat folds flat into the floor as well. This is a great feature, making it theoretically possible to drive around 4 passengers and a 3m canoe inside the car at the same time.
The two additional seats in the boot do not fold into the boot floor, but flip up against the middle row seat-backs. The seats can be removed, but they are quite heavy and you need space to store them. The additional seats in Skoda Kodiaq do fold flat into the floor, but they are much more cramped and harder to get to as a result.
The boot is vast if the extra seats are flipped up or removed. You can easily fit a large baby pram in the boot without any disassembly — even removing the chassis from the cocoon — just lift the whole damn thing into the boot.
When the extra seats are in use, the boot is pretty tiny — probably somewhere in the Fiat 500 boot size. If you need to carry around 7 people AND their luggage, you will need a roof-rack. This is where American MPV-s are better — third row folds flat into the floor, you have pretty decent luggage space with all seats in use.
Due to the additional weight of seats, interior materials and equipment, the Berlingo MVP has a loading capacity of 590kg and can tow a 1300kg trailer. This is worse loading capacity than it’s van cousin and less trailer weight than SUV-s can handle, but should satisfy most MPV situations. I don’t think it will cause problems for my family.
Mechanics
The Berlingo gets the same basic modern engines and gearboxes as the other low-end PSA group cars — either a 1.2l 3-cylinder turbo-petrol engine in 100bhp or 130bhp or a 1.5l blueHDI diesel engine in 100bhp or 130bhp options. It gets either a manual or an 8-speed EAT8 automatic gearbox. There is an electric version coming later in 2021, but the pricing and range remains to be seen.
The front suspension is the same as PSA group-s SUV-s like Peugeot 5008. This makes it modern and comfortable to drive. The rear suspension is from the previous generation Berlingo van — for a low loading height and high carrying capacity.
You can only get front-wheel drive. You can buy an optional electronic package that uses the ESP system and brakes to help the car in tough terrain, but I have no idea if this is any good.
The Berlingo is pretty basic in it’s engines, gearboxes, drive and suspension. You get many more options like powerful engines, hybrid technology, 4-wheel drive, independent rear suspension, etc — in the luxury SUV and car-based MVP segments.
The fuel consumption during my 5000km with my 130bhp 1.5blueHDI 8EAT car with mostly city driving in the winter has been 6.2l/100km. This is a bit more than the WLTP rating of 5.8l/100km on the combined cycle. But — it’s a pleasant surprise — a large van driven in cold and snowy weather on winter tyres, in slow stop-start city traffic and just 6.2l/100km.
Tech
You get most of the basic modern tech in the Berlingo MPV. In my experience — most of the tech works just as expected and makes it easier to forget that you’re driving a van.
On a cold morning, you start the engine heater of your Berlingo with a remote control from the warmth of your kitchen with a coffee in hand. You keep the car key in your pocket as you walk up to the car 20 mins later. The doors unlock as you place your hand on the handle. You press the start button in the car — the engine starts, the phone connects via bluetooth.
The interior is already warm and ice has melted off the windows. The headlights automatically switch to the right mode — daytime, low or high beams, the windscreen wipers run automatically. An automatic 2-zone climate control, which is thankfully controllable with physical buttons, keeps the air in the cabin pleasant.
You turn the gear selector into reverse and the parking camera image pops up on an 8’’ infotainment screen — with interactive lines showing where you’ll end up as you turn the steering wheel. The ultrasound parking sensors in front and rear activate as well and show up visually on the screen. As you lift your foot off the brake, the electronic parking brake is automatically released.
As you gently start rolling backwards, the rear view camera image is used to synthesize a 360 degree view of the car and the camera image switches into a top view if you get near an obstacle.
When you rotate the gear selector to “drive”, the parking brake holds the car in place until you press the accelerator and then automatically releases. The heads up display shows your current speed, recognised traffic signs and status of the automatic cruise and lane-keeping assist as the music plays from a radio, bluetooth or Android Auto device.
As you hit the highway, you press a button to activate the automatic cruise control — the car uses a camera behind the windscreen to keep you a safe distance from the cars in front and a line-keeping makes steering inputs when you veer too close to the lines of your lane.
Most of the tech works, but let’s be honest — this is a 10 year old VW Passat level.
The infotainment screen is very slow, especially loading up when you start the car. I reverse out of my driveway mostly by looking at the mirrors, not the rear-view camera, since the bloody thing takes 20s to show the image after starting the car. The radio buttons on the infotainment screen are also terribly slow. At least there is a physical button for volume control — although sometimes this takes 5s+ to react as well.
The steering input in lane-keeping assist is too timid — it mostly recognises the lines on the highway, but only gently nudges the steering wheel when veering too close to a line. It does not keep you in the center of the lane, rather keeps you bouncing on the line that you veered against. It’s better than nothing, but not really self-driving.
The distance keeping cruise control is quite good on the highway but not usable in the city. On the highway, it could be more intelligent when overtaking — it sometimes starts braking as I am changing lanes. In city traffic, the automatic cruise control is jerky and a bit unnerving — it often accelerates hard just as you would lift off and coast and then brakes really hard when reaching the back of the traffic. I’ve stopped using it in the city.
The automatic headlights and parking brake are great — they just work and I’ve not noticed them at all.
The automatic windscreen wipers are a bit weird — they work well in your classic rain (I imagine when it rains like it does in France), but get confused with snow, dirt flying off the road to the windscreen and ice melting from the car roof to the windscreen. In these, less French conditions, the wipers occasionally overreact and go into frenzied wiping, but more often — they just stay off, while dirt and water are streaming down the glass. I find myself endlessly manually doing a single wipe in wintery conditions.
I hate the start-stop functionality. It’s too eager — kicks in on the millisecond the car stops — and in my town, you often have 1–2 second stops in traffic, causing the car to stop and then immediately restart the engine. I turn it off every time I drive in the cold months. Since it takes eons for the infotainment screen to turn on, I usually just start driving and then poke around in the settings as I drive.
I miss a digital instrument panel. The heads up display almost makes up for this, but the classic gauges are pretty useless most of the time.
Driving
Whether you like driving a Berlingo or not depends on your expectations. If you want a smooth, soft and comfortable ride, you’ve got it. But this car does not like to be rushed around.
You sit up high and have a good view out to the front and sides. Rear view is fine in an empty basic car — but my car has tinted rear windows and it’s crammed full of child-seats and baby gear and grandparents, so I need the parking sensors and rear camera in some situations.
The Berlingo is surprisingly comfortable to drive in. The suspension is soft, the car is reasonably quiet, the two armrests for the driver are at the exact right height, the controls are light and well damped.
The driver’s seat itself is pretty basic, though — I would like a longer seat-base, more side-support and a better lumbar support. It’s not unpleasant or uncomfortable, though, just basic..
The diesel engine and automatic gearbox combination is smooth, it always finds an appropriate gear quickly — including when it has to kick down a few gears. The diesel engine pulls smoothly with plenty of low-down torque. Although as a diesel, it has a limited useful rev-range, the 8-speeds available in the gearbox make up for it.
The cabin is pretty quiet in city traffic. It gets a bit louder on highway speeds, but it’s not unpleasant. It’s not a luxury car, but it’s significantly quieter than my wife’s 12 year old Renault Megane.
The driving feel is .. soft and smooth, but woolly. This is not a sports car in any sense. It drives surprisingly well for a van. The suspension is soft, a bit bouncy and clearly comfort has been prioritised by Citroen. It feels like an American car to drive. The feedback through the steering wheel is pretty vague.
When you push it, it runs out of ideas. There’s a lot of body roll in the corners, the inside front wheel loses grip quickly and the car in general feels out of its element when driving at speed. The car just safely understeers if you get too enthusiastic. Nothing exciting here.
The 130bhp diesel engine has enough punch in the city — the 8-speed automatic gearbox is pretty responsive — kicks down a few gears reasonably fast when you put your foot down and you will not have any trouble in city traffic.
On the highway — the large size and nearly 1800kg weight start to have their effect. You can overtake, but you’ll need to plan it a little.
The brakes are good — feel linear, but strong. The emergency braking assist works well. It sounds an alarm when it detects you approaching an obstacle too fast. The alarm is reliable and I’ve had almost no false positives so far. It is also supposed to automatically apply brakes if you haven’t braked in time — thankfully, I have yet to try this functionality out.
What I don’t know yet
Since the car is brand new, I don’t know yet how reliable it is. It came with a 6 year / 150,000km warranty, so I’m not too worried.
It will probably depreciate in value faster than classic MPV-s like Sharan. You can buy a Berlingo at very different price-points — 13,000EUR for a small 2-seater van up to 29,000EUR for a top of the line 7-seater MPV with all the available kit. So — when you’re selling in the aftermarket, it may be hard to understand why one Berlingo costs thousands more than another.
In conclusion
You’re probably going to buy an MPV because you need it, not because you want it. A decently sized “normal car”- or SUV-based people carrier will set you back north of 40kEUR brand new and 25kEUR will get you a 4–5 year old out of warranty car — often with previous generation engines, gearboxes and tech.
Full-sized van MPV-s are hard to live with — hard to drive in town, hard to park, cost more due to to “van-rates” in insurance, carwashes, ferry crossings, etc.
However — it turns out that small van based MPV-s like the Citroen Berlingo are surprisingly good these days — have the same tech as normal cars, but the practicality, and unfortunately looks, of a van .
