StephenM

I think it comes down to how easily it is removed - I would never think of raising a complaint if it had been maliciously damaged to remove it. The problem lies with Citroen to either a) modify/redesign the spare wheel carrier to that it cant be removed from outside the vehichle or B) issue all models with the security device (which they sell by the way) FOC. Thats how I see it anyway.

Having sent an email to Citroen UK after my second spare was stolen, after the dealer acknowledging this is a "common problem" with berlingo and picasso models. The spare was removed in both cases without force in a safe car park, the dealer suggested fitting valve side up to prevent air being let out tyre which aids removal - still didnt prevent removal though! obviously this is a flaw with the vehichle that needs sorted. Anyway the reply from citroen UK was surprising, apparantly this problem is "not of specific concern to citroen" and that a 'degree of force involving distorting/cutting the carrier is required to remove the spare' B) (didnt read my email then!). They also mentioned about the aftermarket security kit but that did not indicate it was a concern, only that this was to suit personal circumstances and requirments (ie. those who would like to keep hold of their spare?) :o I would like to find out how many owners have lost their spare (picasso and berlingos) if you have it would be great if you could reply here (I will sent Citroen UK the link) and if you can be bothered to send an email to Citroen UK too, it may help out future owners and perhaps current owners may get a recall/modification or security kit if this problem gets recognised - who knows? Even when I visited my local kwik fit to enquire about a spare wheel, without seeing my car he asked "is it for a berlingo?" that sums it up really! :( I will not be giving citroen the money for one, thats for sure.

The second spare that was nicked was a scrappy special - only enough tread to be legal and rusty wheel too... these scumbags will nick anything! I sympathise with your dent situation - I got a massive dent (not just a ding) in the passanger door from a visit to the dealer (only noticed when I got home) add this to a keyed front wing (done at local supermarket) and 2 dents, 1 with about 1" paint gone from fireworks thrown at the roof and my blingo is a bit battle scarred. Peevs me off as I really look after my car - a trip to bodyshop will sort these wounds out and have the blingo looking good for round 2 with the thoughtless and malicious gits B)

Unfortunatly its a 15" wheel and no local scrappy has such a thing (probably due to other berlingo owners!) I have written a letter to citroen UK so will see what the come back with - dont feel I should have to fork out for a second wheel due to what is a design fault with the car. I am thinking of wiring up the wheel holder to the battery so that the theiving chavs get a wee fright B) May look at a bike lock that can be secured onto part of the car - must be one of the cheapest and hassle free options.

http://www.edirectory.co.uk/autosave/pages...ywords=Michelin Try here - even have some nicer versions of mine (bought at A1 autokits in glasgow)

2 front trims were scuffed to bits so went for michelin wheeltrims - £29.99 for 4, very nice - look more like alloys without the price tag or chav attracting potential! Keeps the french theme.

Beware of guide prices... The industry standard is 'glasses' but by that I mean - dealers will always give bottom book (trade) or less and sell at top book (or more) so if you go armed with a book they will make you feel grateful to go just under top book! example I was going to trade in my clio 1.2 for the blingo, the car had 40k on the clock, was totally mint with history - top price (dealer) was £3400 ish, bottom (trade) was £2400 approx. Arnold Clark offered £1800 max as a trade in and no discount of new blingo! (they has clios like mine at £3500+) Citroen retail world offered £2000 but again no discount so got fed up - sold clio to relative for £2800 and got a whopping £600 reduction + the £1000 cashback from Parks. My advice is always sell private. When I flog the blingo in a year and a half it will be 3 years old with 60k miles and a FSH - I expect to sell it easier than any car I have ever owned at a great price! Even my saxo VTR had 70k was mint and 4 years old - got £3700 for that! If the car is tidy it will sell.

Pretty crap - worse out of any car I have owned, a bit of adjustemt of the angle helped but I will seek out upgraded bulbs when mine go.

Only when I hit deep puddles...

Looks like the theiving gits have been at it again - second spare gone within a year in what is a safe area to park - can only assume passers by think the scumbag relieving me of a spare is actually legit! The weakpoint as confirmed by dealer when first wheel went walkies is that by letting air from tyre the sticky fingered chav can drop down the wheel carrier, bypassing the need to unscrew from inside the boot - handy (actually the saleman at the dealer said I was lucky as the picasso has tools in wheel too - indeed I may even put numbers on as I am blessed with luck ) Anyway, got new wheel and fitted it valve side up - that will fool the wee gits (decided against a lock as it may invite damage to wheel holder from frustration) - 6 months later wheel leaves berlingo for probaby 10 squid down the pub! Now having tested it 'valve in' only 2 ways they could have got it... 1) sheer brute force by 2 folk to get the whole wheel pushed further up into the recess or 2) slashing the tyre out of maliciousness to release it - unlikely but possible! Citroen really need to sort this out - if you are a blingo owner 'beware the spare' - now its off to the scrappies as I aint giving citroen cash for a new wheel, would go to adtrader but I may end up buying back my wheel! To finish it off some wee chavs (I reckon of the tracksuited burberry variety) thought it funny to hurl fireworks at the car when I went through a less savoury part of glasgow - end result, 2 dents and gouged paint on roof as well as dipcoating removed from part of roof bar ...hangings too good...

Because some of our schools are off with exam leave etc. the 'brat run' has calmed down a bit, and with less snarl ups I have managed to break the 40mpg barrier on my 1.6! This is with rush-hour journeys Mon-Fri and a wee jaunt up north at the weekend...not bad me thinks. So if you have just bought a petrol and only get 280 miles out of your first tank, dont worry (like the song) things can only get better.

Yeah i know - nonsense isnt it, not good for customer relations and as they are not too handy for me i may need to take my servicing elsewhere as i would have difficulty getting to work! I think they should review their policy on that one. On another note - wrong seatbelts ordered so work could not be complete, this is getting to be a farce...

Wait for it... Parks @ EK! mine is in today for all its problems to be sorted, managed to get a free 'courtesy car' - they normally charge £16 for one, as I had been waiting so long for the bits and also the fact that I had to wait 2 hours for the car to be made ready on the date of uplift! Pre-sales was good, aftersales not quite as good. I have a new shape Vectra Sxi (DTI version) today - not bad (very like my L reg Primera from a few years back except not as sharp handling). Much prefer the Berlingo though as the Vectra is so bland and repmobile like on the inside and actually feels slower than my 1.6 multispace. Finger crossed that Parks dont cause any more problems though.

Thats exactly what I mean! - poor design me thinks. Still not had any of the problems sorted - waiting over 3 weeks for the seat cover, although dealer claims citroen had been looking for another part number! - only one trim level for my car so I can assume that the dealer had forgot to order and was telling porky pies... The saga continues.

I think they have forgot! all other berlingo's have the badge.

gets better with practice, when you have filled up as much as I have it becomes as quick as a Formula 1 pit manouver!

Not yet - still waiting on a call to bring it in! dealer ordered the new seat cover last week and I will get the stalk fixed at the same time, hopefully I will get a call this week. Also having folded the 2 seat section of the rear bench forward I now cannot fold it back! - the seatbelt appears to have locked (like it does if you brake hard or have a bump) in turn this means that the back of the seat only folds up halfway. I have tried to release the belt, no joy - anyone have a suggestion, this looks like another problem for my dealer to sort out - eventually. Major issue as I now can only take one rear passenger. Still love the Berlingo, but these problems make me think it a lot more fragile than I though, I have only done just over 2000 miles now...I assumed Citroens were more reliable these days?

Most of these dont improve the look of the berlingo - especially the 6 wheeler! I hope my design is a bit more tasteful.

Indicator stalk is goosed! wont switch off at all when wheel is centred - it now has 2 steps before the main beam is activated - reckon switch is broken. It will get fixed when the new seat cover is being fitted.

Since running the Berlingo for a few weeks i have had some niggles, some of which can be sorted under warranty... 1) split on fabric of rear seat - only noticed when I folded it forward, seems like a weakness in the fabric caused a split when the seat was folded and the cover stretched. New cover being replaced under warranty. 2) today indicator/lighting stalk has went a bit wonky. Indicators stay on even when wheel is centred again - mysterious clicking noise as I turn wheel coming from the stalk! need to call dealer about this too. 3) when tailgate is open in the rain (like everyday in Scotland!) water runs or pours from top of tailgate into the boot, forming a puddle at either the left or right side - close to where the lights are. This seems like a design flaw - has anyone else noticed this. Thought the big tailgate would be good to get changed under for hillwalking on a rainy day - now I am not so sure... Tailgate also needs a good slam to close it, is this normal? Hope these are teething troubles, apart from that the Berlingo is excelent - 2000 miles so far.

Since running the Berlingo for a few weeks i have had some niggles, some of which can be sorted under warranty... 1) split on fabric of rear seat - only noticed when I folded it forward, seems like a weakness in the fabric caused a split when the seat was folded and the cover stretched. New cover being replaced under warranty. 2) today indicator/lighting stalk has went a bit wonky. Indicators stay on even when wheel is centred again - mysterious clicking noise as I turn wheel coming from the stalk! need to call dealer about this too. 3) when tailgate is open in the rain (like everyday in Scotland!) water runs or pours from top of tailgate into the boot, forming a puddle at either the left or right side - close to where the lights are. This seems like a design flaw - has anyone else noticed this. Thought the big tailgate would be good to get changed under for hillwalking on a rainy day - now I am not so sure... Tailgate also needs a good slam to close it, is this normal? Hope these are teething troubles, apart from that the Berlingo is excelent - 2000 miles so far.

Since running the Berlingo for a few weeks i have had some niggles, some of which can be sorted under warranty... 1) split on fabric of rear seat - only noticed when I folded it forward, seems like a weakness in the fabric caused a split when the seat was folded and the cover stretched. New cover being replaced under warranty. 2) today indicator/lighting stalk has went a bit wonky. Indicators stay on even when wheel is centred again - mysterious clicking noise as I turn wheel coming from the stalk! need to call dealer about this too. 3) when tailgate is open in the rain (like everyday in Scotland!) water runs or pours from top of tailgate into the boot, forming a puddle at either the left or right side - close to where the lights are. This seems like a design flaw - has anyone else noticed this. Thought the big tailgate would be good to get changed under for hillwalking on a rainy day - now I am not so sure... Tailgate also needs a good slam to close it, is this normal? Hope these are teething troubles, apart from that the Berlingo is excelent - 2000 miles so far.

I have an image of a possible Berlingo VTR, I dont have webspace so cannot post them to see what you think - could anyone host these images so they can be displayed on this forum or are there ways for me to do this without having webspace? Im sure the before and after shots will raise a few smiles - photoshop works wonders! Thanks in advance.

I have an image of a possible Berlingo VTR, I dont have webspace so cannot post them to see what you think - could anyone host these images so they can be displayed on this forum or are there ways for me to do this without having webspace? Im sure the before and after shots will raise a few smiles - photoshop works wonders! Thanks in advance.

I am from up in sunny scotland too (glasgow) - I didnt get any options fitted, really wanted the comfort pack, but would have to wait an extra month for this! had sold my car so I needed the berlingo quickley. I am now annoyed that I didnt go for the modutop - but wished I had now. No dealers had a car with this fitted, I only saw it after I got my car. Air con and safety pack would have been nice, but the extra cost of these options was horrendous and I felt missed the point with the Berlingo - good basic and cheap motoring - If I needed loads of toys I would be in Piccasso/Scenic territory! Was away at the weekend... 5 people, 2 tents, BBQ, sleeping bags, loads of food and clothing all fitted in - amazing!