Citroen Berlingo

The popular Citroen Berlingo continues to be a firm favourite with fleet operators. The Berlingo has recently been awarded the Fleet Vans best in class trophy and the car maker, Citroen, reports that the Berlingo accounts for 49.7% of the carmakers sales and Citroen lease contracts.

The Citroen Berlingo has undergone some excellent updates and now boasts a whole load of features that will ensure that this great little van continues to win accolades and praise from fleet managers and van drivers.

Here in the United Kingdom there are two versions of the Citroen Berlingo van. These models are the L1 and L2. The L1 has been extended by 240mm and widened by 80mm. One of the main modifications is the more spacious load area and increased carrying capacity. You can now fold down the passenger seat to extend the load area even further making it ideal for those longer items.

The recent modifications are not limited to the vans carrying capacity. The new Berlingo is more stylish, modern and aerodynamic resulting in less internal noise when travelling. The headlights and rear lights have been moved to minimize the risk of minor damage and the windscreen has been enlarged to provide improved driver visibility. Internally there is even more storage space including a passenger side glove compartment and larger door pockets.

But its the LX model that provides one of the most outstanding new features. The new feature is called Extenso Seating and it provides a useful third seat in between the front two. The three seat feature is unique to the Berlingo as the only van in its class to offer this facility.

The standard Berlingo comes with features that are not standard with many vans in its class. These include heated wing mirrors, electric windows and of course a good radio and CD player.

With all of these fantastic features you might expect the Citroen Berlingo to be an expensive option. But this van is very competitively priced. You can get a Citroen van lease deal from as little as £170 per month with various options including van lease purchase.

It is believed that he was indeed a technical genius and was employed by a great number of car companies eg Austro-Daimler, Mercedes, Daimler-Benz to name but a few.

In 1930 he opened his own design company. In 1931 he asked his staff to start designing a car with a water cooled 3 cylinder engine. This should also have independent suspension and be capable of accommodating four adults. The main aim was to keep the costs as low as possible to make it affordable to the masses.

In 1932 he found a partner in Zundapp. Originally three prototypes were produced using his original design which was equipped with a new engine. Unfortunately the engine turned out to have a severe cooling problem and melted after ten minutes of running. Zundapp decided to opt out of the project.

NSU a motor cycle manufacturer decided to join forces and a completely new cooled 4 cylinder engine was built. The engine was placed at the back to avoid the traditional transmission with a separate gear box, drive shaft and rear axle. Unfortunately due to the economy in Germany at the time NSU decided to withdraw and Porche was once again on his own.

In 1933 at the Berlin Motor Show Adolf Hitler announced his plan to produce a small, economical car for the people of Germany. Porche and Hitler were to join forces and a contract was signed in 1934. The prototypes were to be built by the RDA, which was the German Auto Manufacturers Association. RDA were soon to realise that this project had a chance to be successful and this they did not want. They deliberately delayed the project which made Porsche miss his deadline and thus made him lose his contract. However Hitler realised this and placed the entire project under supervision. The three prototypes were delivered in October 1936.

To this day the VW has stayed almost identical in design. It has a reputation for being a highly reliable car and indeed Volkswagen van leasing is a very popular alternative as they have such a solid history behind them.

van lease