320touring - back in a bargain Citroen Berlingo

[320touring]

The 23rd of October. That was the last time I bought a car for myself.

And some would say "why would you buy more cars? You have an elephants sufficiency already".

They would be right.



9 long months I studiously avoided vehicular transactions, Concentration was focused on the current fleet, and progress made.

Then, a friend casually mentioned a desire to get rid of his Berlingo, and that was me off the wagon again.

Why?

1. Who doesn't Iike a new car?

2. Have you met me before?

3. It's MOT'D til March 21

4. It had a new rear axle in March this year

5. 4 new tyres

6. I need an estate/van for lugging some **** about

Anyway, enough natter.

2005 2.0HDI. 207K

It's the Desire* spec

Meaning:

Remote central locking which works
Abs
Turbo
Electric front windays
Opening rear side Windows
Rear wash wipe
It's also the #multispace so has hunnerts of cubbyholes

**** knows what I'mma do with it..

[Ecky]

Pretty spacious inside for its footprint, and the fuel economy you've posted is pretty great too.

Do you actively pay insurance on all of your vehicles? In many states in the US, the cost of keeping so many vehicles insured is prohibitively expensive. Your fleet might exceed $2,000 per month in some areas.

[320touring]

Decided it could benefit from a bit of an internal clean, as it was showing its 207k miles..

First up, I marvelled at the headroom available with the tailgate up. This pic was taken with the phone on top of my head.



It makes a nice, dry shelter - most impressed.

I started cleaning at the back first.



The hoover was deployed, then some scrubbing wipes to clean the plastics and trim.

I also cleaned the inside of the windows.

Then my attention was turned to the roof storage space.



This got a scrub and was much improved - you can see the central storage doors are pretty mangled - I can hunt a set down at some point.



It also provides quite a lot of storage..



Next up was tackling the "map of Africa" on the passenger seat..

Before applying the skoosh and agitating



After agitation and sponging off.



The other seats were then done

Last up was to do the door cards/dash/windows and steering wheel.



This was the first pass on the wheel. It feels much nicer now!

I also spotted a piece of design that annoys me. Why couldn't they just make the binnacle meet the centre of the dash?

[320touring]

Originally Posted by Ecky

Pretty spacious inside for its footprint, and the fuel economy you've posted is pretty great too.

Yeah it's deceptively spacious - the height is great too. A lot of them get used for micro campers - something that has crossed my mind.

Do you actively pay insurance on all of your vehicles? In many states in the US, the cost of keeping so many vehicles insured is prohibitively expensive. Your fleet might exceed $2,000 per month in some areas.

Current fleet is all insured - multi vehicle policies are available in the UK

Between myself and the Burd, there are 7 vehicles

[320touring]

After the Burd had made generally positive noises (or at least no obvious distain expressed) I decided that this was to be the chariot for our impending trip to Skye.

With that in mind, it was time to prep it for the 600ish miles it will be doing.

First up was the wet Vac - starting with the passenger seat and carpet.

Seat before



Seat after


Carpet before


Carpet during


Carpet after


Armrest before


Armrest after



After that little lot, the tank of the wet vac was Minging!


I then carried on and did the other seats and carpet.

It scrubbed up lovely, and is now nice and clean.

All in all, it was about 4hrs of cleaning over two days. Inside is much cleaner, and the car smells significantly better.



Next up was a level check - everything seems fine, bar an incontinent washer fluid bottle.

I did spot this fine piece of engineering though- how to make a cable throttle work with electramatricity..



Next was as run to the petrol station to fuel up and check the tyre pressures.

The left rear was at 13, so I'll need to keep an eye on that. All the others were close to the desired 34psi.

Time to feed it, it has a 60L tank, so I am hoping for more than 500 miles from a fill.

[iikhod]

Nice one just bought an opel combo tour myself and loving the huge space/small car combination. In finland you can register this kind of cars as commercial vans (reducing the yearly taxes from 660 to 300 euros)
Do you guys have something similar you could do with the berlingo?

[320touring]

Originally Posted by iikhod

Nice one just bought an opel combo tour myself and loving the huge space/small car combination. In finland you can register this kind of cars as commercial vans (reducing the yearly taxes from 660 to 300 euros)
Do you guys have something similar you could do with the berlingo?

Cheers.

The Berlingo was originally designed as a van, and you can still buy van versions. In the UK, the road tax is only £215 per year anyway, so not expensive

[320touring]

Now, lest you think I am getting all posh in my old age, let's have a look at some of the 'lightly used' vibe this wagon gives off.





some rust on the bonnet



The bootlid has a scar - I wonder how it achieved that?



It also appears to have been parked by touch along the passenger side.







Lastly, the drivers side sliding door can only be closed when the drivers door is open.

This is because the drivers door top pin is worn, and the door droops slightly, causing a less than perfect panel gap

[GreenTDI]

This is a typical workhorse. These cars are often badly beaten = heavily used. My sister had one in the same color for a couple of years and was also covered with bumps and scratches (and yes she has 4 kids that often have something to do with it )
But you could do anything with it, damn handy cars. It can be kept on the road fairly cheap.

[320touring]

Today was a lazy day for the Bloodylingo, just the 270 miles

At the rdv for the start of the day..



Not on fire, despite appearances.



This was all in aid of helping a mate on a collection mission.


Spot of the day: a Lancia version of a Pug 806