Motoring Discussion > 25k Miles in Another Berlingo Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Bromptonaut Replies: 45

 25k Miles in Another Berlingo - Bromptonaut
The second Berlingo, aka Fleur, hit 25k miles during trip to Plymouth over weekend so a report seemed in order.

It’s a 1.6 Hdi 115 in XTR trim. Bought new in September 2013, cash purchase from the franchise in Milton Keynes. Its arrival allowed the other one to replace my 2000/X Xantia 110Hdi estate which had cumulative issues meaning repairs made no sense. We’d been contemplating a replacement for a while but need to change quickly meant we had to choose from dealer stock. Could get more or less model we wanted (a glass roof version would have been ideal) but had choice of grey or grey.

I’d signed up for redundancy/early retirement a few weeks before and a caravan was on the agenda. We went for the 115 engine rather than the 90 to have a bit more ‘poke’ when towing. Both are DI turbo diesels but the 115 has different mapping and possibly differing turbo/intercooler set. Like all modern diesels there’s a DPF.

Overall picture is of a comfortable, reliable economical and reasonably fast large estate car – it’s considerably larger in all dimensions than mine.


Performance – Much quicker than the old one (obviously). Happy all day at UK or continental limit and with more than enough acceleration for A road overtakes or mixing it with repmobiles in lane 3. All the low down torque you’d expect of a diesel but pulls above 3k rpm too, not that you need to. You can though run out of the bottom of the torque band. Lacks the warning of feeling each detonation you get in an IDI prompting driver to drop to second or first on mountain roads. Caught me flat footed a couple of times on Pyrenean passes.

Still moves adequately well with our 1067kg Xplore 304 caravan on tow. As the combined weight is under 3.5 tonnes the outfit can legally do 110/130 on a French motorway – not sensible though.

Can get 50+mpg on a run without trying too hard. Obviously less round town, say mid forties overall. With the van on it’s down in twenties but I gather that’s normal.


Equipment and Comfort– XTR trim gives 16inch alloys and different springs so it’s slightly higher than other models. Rides well but not a magic carpet like the Xantia. Longitudinal roof bars are standard too. Together they put overall height a tad over 1.8m – too tall for some car parks and needs to go with vans and coaches on Chunnel.

Upholstery is an unexceptional black fabric which seems to be wearing OK. The three separate rear seats can be folded or lifted out completely in any permutation.

Lacks the overhead storage and permanently live 12v supplies of the older model which is a bit of a swizz. But as we’ve got mains in the caravan it’s not the problem it might have been on tent hols. Plenty other storage around the cabin including a second glove box over the speedo and a massive (removable) centre console cubby. The main glove box conceals an auxiliary input to connect MP3 etc to the excellent 6 speaker CD/radio etc combo. I’ve an idea it has a pen drive slot too but that’s not a way we store music.

Manual air con was standard and does all that’s needed.

In Use – It’s been good. Now our daughter is in Plymouth and son still at Uni in Liverpool it gets more than enough long runs. In fact we divvy those up with Enrico so as not to hit the warranty’s 60k limit sooner than 3 yrs. Went down to the Pyrenees returning via Mimizan last summer with no issues. Even four up and towing performance was OK but we need to be careful about max weight with ‘van and a large payload in car.

Luggage space is phenomenal. Remove the offside rear seat and it will take two mountain bikes upright and stowed fore/aft in the ‘English fashion’ while still having four passenger seats. Bikes just need their bars turning 90 degrees. Oddity is they won’t go in as well on passenger side – pedals end up in wrong place.

For such a large beast it’s incredibly manoeuvrable, the steering lock/turning circle and all round visibility with massive mirrors are key. It’s pretty wide though, all but seven feet over the mirrors, and needs care in small UK parking bays.

No rattles or squeaks. Only niggles are the indicators which do a four flash lane change thing if you breathe on the switch and the radio’s stored station set up. Like previous Cits it has three ‘banks’ of 5 or 6 FM presets and 6 on AM (incl LW). On the old ones you could set a different station on each FM ‘bank’ so that by toggling he band switch would quickly cycle thru R5live, R4, R2 and Classic FM – I rarely listen to anything else. On his one if I set R4 on bank one banks two and three default to it as well. I could sort of see point if you still needed to tune to different transmitters, . indeed I used to have Sutton Coldfield and Holme Moss frx in separate banks on the old BX, but with RDS what’s the point?


Servicing and Reliability – Nothing to report. It’s been serviced twice at Perrys in MK who report brake pads 50% worn at 24k. Going to need tyres soon, say around 30k, but a heavy FWD car that tows always was.

The DPF gets more than enough long runs to ensure it regenerates and I’ve been blissfully unaware of it doing so.

Expect to run it into ground. Only caveat to that would be if we wanted a bigger caravan and/or more ‘full on’ tow car.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Tue 3 Mar 15 at 13:28
 Messages Author Date
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Bromptonaut 3 Mar 15 13:26
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Boxsterboy 3 Mar 15 13:59
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Bromptonaut 3 Mar 15 14:28
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Old Navy 3 Mar 15 14:02
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new WillDeBeest 3 Mar 15 14:22
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new RichardW 5 Mar 15 12:38
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Old Navy 5 Mar 15 13:04
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Bromptonaut 5 Mar 15 13:28
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Old Navy 5 Mar 15 13:49
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new RichardW 5 Mar 15 14:52
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Old Navy 5 Mar 15 15:23
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Old Navy 5 Mar 15 15:39
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Bromptonaut 2 May 15 17:58
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new sooty123 2 May 15 18:18
 25k Miles in Another Berling.. new Bromptonaut 2 May 15 19:48
 25k Miles in Another Berlin.. new sooty123 2 May 15 20:10
  
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Runfer D'Hills 2 May 15 20:59
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Bromptonaut 2 May 15 21:53
  
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Londoner 2 May 15 22:30
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Bromptonaut 9 Aug 16 13:37
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Boxsterboy 10 Aug 16 22:05
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Robin O'Reliant 10 Aug 16 22:11
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Bromptonaut 10 Aug 16 22:26
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Bromptonaut 26 Sep 17 12:49
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 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Auntie Lockbrakes 9 Jun 19 05:06
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Bromptonaut 9 Jun 19 09:48
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Duncan 9 Jun 19 09:55
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Bromptonaut 9 Jun 19 10:25
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Duncan 9 Jun 19 11:43
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new tyrednemotional 9 Jun 19 11:48
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Haywain 9 Jun 19 15:44
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Haywain 9 Jun 19 15:48
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Auntie Lockbrakes 9 Jun 19 21:17
 25k Miles in Another Berling.. new Bromptonaut 10 Jun 19 08:42
 25k Miles in Another Berlin.. new smokie 10 Jun 19 10:05
  
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Bromptonaut 14 Jun 19 15:13
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Bromptonaut 1 May 20 15:12
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Avant 1 May 20 15:29
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Boxsterboy 6 May 20 12:07
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Runfer D'Hills 6 May 20 12:46
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new tyrednemotional 6 May 20 12:49
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Runfer D'Hills 6 May 20 12:50
 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Mr Moo 6 May 20 18:06
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 25k Miles in Another Berlingo new Mr Moo 15 May 23 21:27
  
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