StephenM

£200 is still steep when you consider you can get a good sony/kenwood/jvc unit 4x45watts for £100 - £150! As for speakers, I replaced my old paper ones in the saxo i used to have with sony (not sure of the model name) - the were £29.99 a pair in halfords and fitted in - although citroen rivited theirs in and it took a while to remove them. The difference was amazing, a worthwile upgrade - I will do mine eventually once the multichanger is linked up.

If this is the case I am now glad I got the 1.6 - cheaper fuel and better performance. I always assumed that the HDI was very efficient - although there is a lot of hype about diesels at the moment, everyone seems to want one! a few years ago people would laugh if you went for an oil burner. So far I have done 1100 miles in my 1.6, gettin closer to the figure of 38mpg but still a few miles short, as the engine loosens up I expect mpg to be normal. I know the diesels are supposed to be about torque, the 1.6 seems to have great overtaking power, not so great at lower speeds/revs but fairly flexible.

I am selling my kenwood front loader and buying a Blaupunkt multichanger unit - I will check with Citroen that it works - this may be the best way to go!

Parks in East Kilbride, tried Arnold Clark and Citroen Glasgow but the dis not seem interested in negotiating a good deal - Parks were excellent, it took 6 weeks to arrive.

The handling is great - not much body roll, drives very like my last car (a clio) which handled well too. Only time its not so good is driving on very twisty roads, it goes in to the corner well but if it tightens too much then it will run a bit wide, you have to be ready for this. Not bad for such a big car though and certainly better to drive than my dads Volvo V40! Motorways are good, a little wind and road noise but fairly smooth ride, bounces a little on undulating surfaces. Brakes seem aduquate and the visibility is a great plus point, I like the raised driving position and the seats are the comfiest I have sat in - I seem to sit 3ft higher than the lowered saxo i used to own! The power to weight ratio for the 1.6 is great even when fully laden, if the waiting list is down to 8 weeks for the HDI then it would be worth going for - it took 6 weeks for my 1.6 to arrive. I am surprised that the 2.0HDI is not much better than the 1.6 in terms of economy - I have heard many reviews about it being very efficient. Also, Albert I would be annoyed at your dealer - if you negotiated £500 (good discount) off from the dealer then citroen introduced their cashback, you should really have got this on top of your £500 as this is a manufacturer offer - not from the dealer! any discount is good but the bigger the better - I negotiated around £600 off plus low finance, the £1000 cashback was separate. A warning to folk trying to get a deal, dont let the dealer use the cashback as a means to end haggling (one dealer tried this with me), they have margins too and if they want your business they will be flexible.

Oh and another thing is cost - the HDI costs more to buy and so does diesel - make sure you recooperate your costs, if you do low milage think again. I assume the HDI will be easier to sell, but I am confident that my 1.6 is a large enough engine that buyers wouldnt worry about pulling power. The 1.6 I bought without factory extras, with the £1000 cashback and serious haggling only cost £8500! where can you get a better car for the money than that! With the demand for the HDI being so strong you can forget about an amazing deal.

Thats odd - my dealer had no berlingos in stock, except a 1.9D which was sold - I was wanting to sign up for the 2.0HDI but they wouldnt be getting built until May/June - delivery was looking like June/July! I went to another dealer (owned by Citroen UK) to be told exactly the same - all he had was the 1.9D in stock (these seem readily available) but didnt push it and agreed that you were better off with the 1.6 16v - roughly the same economy but far better performance. Unless you want a 1.9D or 1.4 you need to order - I went for the 1.6 as the perfomance was better, the Diesel was too slow for me, if the performace was better I would have considered it. To get the factory fitted comfort pack which I wanted would have caused a longer delay - although I could have got a highly specced 1.6 (air-con, modutop etc) sooner as some were available in the UK when I ordered - this would have cost me too much and I felt that some of the options were not great value. I would go for the 2.0HDI (if you can get it!), although my 1.6 was thirsty at first - it is now the same as your average hatchback, not bad for a big van! It is also surprisingly fast - I would recommend it.

Filled up again - got approx 340miles from a tank - seemed to be driving it a bit lighter when my first fill was at 280miles! I assume a petrol engine wont loosen up that quickley? but I am now fairly happy with the MPG - it seems very similar to my old Nissan Primera 1.6 16v which had 12bhp less than the Multispace. I drive on a real mix of fast mways, rush hour, B roads - only had the car a week last Tuesday and I am at 1050miles!!! I would have benifited from the HDI for the milage I do but would have to have waited until July! - I ordered the 1.6 in February and had to wait a month and a half as it was. I am about to fit a 10 disc multichanger - dealer says most aftermarket versions will fit - I will check with Citroen if Blaupunkt is among them before I buy a lead.

Although it initialy seemed OK, my new 1.6 (110bhp) Berlingo is a bit thirsty - 280 miles on a tank of fuel! Is this due to the engine being new, should this figure improve as the miles increase. This is my first brand new car, as such I have been light on the accelerator, keeping it below 3000 revs and my driving is a real average of motorway, a bit of town and B roads. Other than that its excellent.

My local paper - the Daily Record gave a glowing report a week ago, and it was testing the 1.6 - same colour as mine too! I have heard nothing but good things so far.

Picked up my shiney new berlingo 1.6 multispace and I must say I am very impressed! It handles brilliantly - I never test drove (I know this may have been foolish!) as they didnt have one available that day and the reviews were so good everywhere. There is very little body roll to speak of, similar to the way my clio drove (which was good) this is impressive for such a tall, heavy car. All the sceptics - ie. relatives, who thought it was an ugly van were well impressed - it's not normal looking, but quirkey and clever with bags of character lacking in most bland cars on the road today. The medditeranian blue is very smart looking. Massive amounts of space which I'm sure to fill with mountainbikes, snowboard, hillwalking/camping gear etc. 1.6 seems eager enough, but still has to loosen up a bit. Comfy interior and raised driving position - about 2 foot higher than my lowered saxo! makes driving a pleasure, especially on my run up to sunny loch lomond today - massive amounts of glass give an airy feel. I will comment more on economy when I run a few tanks of fuel - seems reasonable so far. A bit of wind noise makes itself heard above 50mph - all the trim seems secure, I assume this is a characteristic? Saw a lot of new shape multispaces today - more than I have seen in 6 weeks, can assume that all the dealers have had a delivery. If you are thinking of buying one of these, ignore your image consious mates and go for it you know it makes sense.

I wouldnt advise it, although it depends on how high quality you want the sound to be. I used one a few years ago with a technics player and goodmans kit - sound was OK although not nearly as good as my current kenwood front loading player, plus the kit was a bit bulky and the CD jumped a lot. If you are going down this route I would recommend going for a player with a long anti-shock memory, it will help your listening pleasure a lot! Should also note if you drive long distances and like your music - replace the factory speakers. If you only have 2 you need to add at least 2 more (not sure on the berlingo set up - even though I ordered one!). My saxo VTR had crap sounds until I removed the cardboard citroen ones, and swapped for sony - £30 a pair and the fitted right in, a 20 minunte job for a vast improvement.

Forgot to mention I was also interested in views re. CD fitting. Dealer had advised you must use a dealer fitted player (wasnt sure at the time if one was available) or multichanger. As citroen was charging well in excess of £200 before fitting :) I want to explore all other options first. I have a perfectly good Kenwood CD player which I wanted to use, my father who is a bit savvy when it comes to all things electrical and mechanical to do with cars reckons this can be wired in, regardless of the multiplex wiring - although you would lose speed sensitive volume and the steering wheel control. We will try this out before commiting to an overpriced citroen item!

I ordered my Multispace 1.6 (new shape) way back in February, I am due to take delivery very soon (TBC). I do a fair few miles and wanted an HDi but I was told it would be June/July before I could take delivery . The 1.6 was supposed to be with me in early March - turns out it was another customers car on order - salesman error :) and the comfort pack I wanted would add another month onto the delivery time, so I went without. The dealer did try to get me to buy the 1.9 D - these seem readily available, but as the fuel economy was only about 3mpg better and performance slower I stuck with the petrol. I managed a craking deal on this car, most dealers refused to haggle even when I manged to sell what would have been trade in. I was almost about to buy over the net, but tried one last fairly local dealer - bingo! someone that wanted my business, they even beat my 'net price as well as giving me a fantastic finance rate. It pays to shop around for this car as it appears that some dealers seem to use citroen's cashback offer as a means to end haggling, I know (from the waiting times) that this is a popular car that citroen underestimated who popular it would be - but dealers still have their margins so haggle like mad. My 1.6 16v forte, w/mettalic paint (mediteranian blue - nice!) and comfort pack (now deleted from order :( ) cost less than £8600 - even after £1000 cashback it should be over £9000. This car is quite a transition for me, I came from having a modified Saxo VTR! (which are excellent cars even in unmodified form) But as I do a lot of outdoor pursuits the Berlingo makes much more sense and are unbelievable value. The Mk2's are also rare up here in Scotland - I have seen only 3 so far in the last month.