New Van

[plumb bob]

OK, not surf or Toyota related, but wanted some input, I'm looking at changing my van to reduce overheads, and have been looking at the citroen berlingo/pug partner ( same van)

The new ones have a 1.6 HDI (turbo d I think) and I know nothing about it, so Has anyone any experience with the french HDI engines, Known issues, etc,

Cheeres, Rob.

[mud skipper]

OK, not surf or Toyota related, but wanted some input, I'm looking at changing my van to reduce overheads, and have been looking at the citroen berlingo/pug partner ( same van)

The new ones have a 1.6 HDI (turbo d I think) and I know nothing about it, so Has anyone any experience with the french HDI engines, Known issues, etc,

Cheeres, Rob.

engine is unbreakable belive me i have tryed over the last 100,000, overreved to inexcess of 7000 rpm
its been ragged from new to as i say over 100 k miles only probs have been an exhaust and brake servo which you can link to the driving still


mines a 2.0 hdi pug expert
yes hdi is a turbo diesel intercooler motor
bodys dont rust but are as soft as tissue paper

[plumb bob]

Cheers Mudskipper, the 1.6 has now replaced all the other variants (1.9 & 2.0) and is available in 75 and 90 BHP, which I guess is done by a chip, I took one for a test drive and it seemed pretty nippy.

I had a Citroen C15D which lasted 7 years and 350,000 mles, and was still running when I sold it, but that was the old 1.9D, and yes the bodywork is flimsy, but I can live with that.

I've been looking on some of the froggy forums, and can find hardley any posts concerning the berlingo, so I guess thats a good thing.

I gotta sort out some finance, and try to find the best deal including my trade in.

Cheers, Rob.

[mud skipper]

mines a 52 plate, i know its not wot you want but i would have no probs recommending one,
today i was in the local pug dealer and was talking to the salesman, new expert vans start at17k upto 23k, mine was 12k 4.5 years ago and that was the top of the range version.....inflation

[plumb bob]

mines a 52 plate, i know its not wot you want but i would have no probs recommending one,
today i was in the local pug dealer and was talking to the salesman, new expert vans start at17k upto 23k, mine was 12k 4.5 years ago and that was the top of the range version.....inflation

The reason for the small van is purly on cost, I need to reduce my overheads drastically, and my LT 35 is just costing too much on hp and fuel, I reckon I can save at least £200 a month by getteing the small van, and just reducing the amount of stuff I carry ( most of which I never use, it's just stock which I could keep in the garage)

I like the berlingo/partner vans, in my personal opinion they are one of the best vans on the road (for the money) and to be honest I just can't warrent spending £20k on a van and then try to compete with the local plumbers who run around in rusty heaps.

[mud skipper]

£200 saving is worth doing, got a couple of mates who have the partner vans and they keep up dating them, personally i would go for the pug version, we have a kangoo at work and thats cr@p

[plumb bob]

£200 saving is worth doing, got a couple of mates who have the partner vans and they keep up dating them, personally i would go for the pug version, we have a kangoo at work and thats cr@p

I had a brief look at the Kangoo, as Mrs Bob has the dci cleo, and that seems ok.

I've looked at both (citroen and pug), but can't see any real difference;

same body shell, engine, interior looks almost identical.

Whats the diff between the two?

[mud skipper]

poss different g/box and engine
with the expert a fiat scudo citreon dispatch and pug expert are all the same apart from the badge not they have different engines and g/boxes

[plumb bob]

My C15 used the pug 205 diesel engine, and so I assumed that the berlingo/partner uses the same 1.6 HDI pug engine and box, as the fiat doblo is a completely different vehicle, unlike the rest of the common body shells that renualt, nssan, vauxhall, citroen and peugot use for the panel vans.

[mud skipper]

things is try them all and go with what you find best and cheapest dont forget haggle
up here pugs from aston under lyne are the cheapest all the taxis get them from there

[nero279]

Whats the diff between the two?

[rant]
Citroen afterservice, where i've been temping we had a citroen relay, with citroen assist, sat nav and tracker thing all as part of the package.

The engine management light comes on for a week or so at a time, but citroen could never book it in while the light was on. After a few days with the light on it sometimes goes into 'safe' mode where it will not do more than 40mph, other times it's fine. Every now and then it'll just cut out instead of going into safe mode. Then u use the sat nav thing to call up citroen assist, you then have to tell them where you are and they arrange a recovery vehicle. Get picked up by the recovery lorry, and start the journey home, garunteed the boss's phone rings within 10 minutes to say citroen assist have detected your vans been stolen would you like it disabled, then you have to try and explain that it's not stolen it's on the back of a recovery vehicle they themselves arranged and you're now sitting in. But they will have no record of you reporting a breakdown or them arranging a recovery. Citroen will read the fault code and go ooh never seen that before don't know what it means have to look it up, but that fault code is not on their system and hasn't been diagnosed anywhere. The engines not built by citroen and they don't know what it means. So they reset the ECU and it clears and is ok for a month or two, then the same thing happens again. They won't give you a replacement van/courtesy vehicle until they've diagnosed a fault, but they can't diagnose it because the computer doesn't know what it is.
[/rant]

[plumb bob]

Sounds like typical main dealer service to me, why will the main dealers ( in situations like this) not just replace the vehicle under warrenty, as it is clearly "not fit for purpose" and should be returned to the factory.

Again, I would think it would be a pug engine, as citroen and peugot are basically the same company these days.

[plumb bob]

things is try them all and go with what you find best and cheapest dont forget haggle
up here pugs from aston under lyne are the cheapest all the taxis get them from there

It's difficult to haggle the vans these days, as they have the fleet market, and they know that the trades have to have vans, so there is a captive market, it,s not like selling cars, the interest rate on new cars is half that of the vans.

The citroens and pugs are about the cheapest vans around, apart from the kangoo, so deals are hard to find, plus with the trade in and needing finance, I'm not in as good a position as a cash buyer.

[RodLeach]

Plumb bob - My Dads just started a new company an as such were looking into getting a few vans for the company.. We were looking at the pug an citroen etc! smart lil vans.

Not sure if you want to buy outright or do a HP/LH on the van but ..
I was doing a bit of research on it all an found www.vansdirect.com to have loads of options an there monthly rates arn't too bad!

2nd hand vans sell for only pennies less then there worth new! so you could buy a van, run it for a year, sell it on and and then get another new van before the hassle of MOT's an bits start falling off! obviously theres the tax benefits and if your VAT registered then that saves a few more ££ ..

Just my 2 cents , either way vans direct seems a decent company.

[plumb bob]

Yes, I've had a quote from vansdirect, and actually got a better deal (on paper) from my local(ish) citroen dealer.

They've thrown in roof bars, full bulkhead, window grills and silver paint all for the same money, all I gotta do now is hope the finance company likes me.