Greetings!

[Gordon_B]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking to buy my first Berlingo & found this forum through Google. My wife & I are getting set to leave Scotland for the south of Spain and then eventually France. I've been looking to buy a LHD car for the trip & Berlingos seem to come up quite often. Our budget is very tight & we've also got three dogs who are going with us so the Berlingo seems to tick all the boxes. Although this will be the first one I've owned I've driven a few over the years as I work as a van driver & the Berlingo is a popular choice.

I'm currently looking at a 2006 2.0HDi which looks good and it has all the paperwork for Spain so it's a bit of a no-brainer I think. It's done 72,000 miles but the seller has agreedd to give it a full service as well as replace the timing belt & water pump. I know Citroen suggest the timing belt be changed at 100,000 miles (or 120 months) but that seems too long for me & I've no real way of knowing how it's been driven previously. One good thing is that it's had one owner since new and had seven services at a Citroen main dealer. Only the most recent service was carried out elsewhere.

I'm going to need to find some kind of dog guard for it because I'll be hoping to take a bit of stuff to Spain as well as the dogs. The rest of the house contents are going into storage whilst we wait in Spain for our new place near Avignon, Provence to be made habitable.

It's all very exciting. I've always been a fan of practical French vehicles but I'm well aware they have their problems. Who knows? Buying a second-hand car is always a lottery to a certain extent.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this and if I can be of any help here I'll do my best.

Regards,
Gordon.

[Tomcat3]

Hi Gordon welcome to the forum you cant go wrong with the 2 litre berlingo they are as strong as an ox. Getting the cambelt and water pump is a bonus to it should last you for ages.

[ron]

hi Gordon & welcome.Add trans oil change to the list & I'll be a happy bunny.

[Jed Clampit]

Hello Gordon and wife welcome to the forum keep the berlingo well serviced  it will go for year's are you putting a roof rack or box on the berlingo  a trailer mite be better.

[Gordon_B]

Thanks for the warm welcome folks. The HPI check on the vehicle we're looking at came back and everything is above board. The only thing that's making me feel a bit queasy is that we're basically buying the car sight unseen. That's one of the perils of looking for a LHD car from Scotland as they're all very far south of here.

@ron I'll take that on-board. The car will be taken to my egular mechanic & I'll get him to change the transmission oil. If there's anything else I should particularly look at I'm all ears.

@Jed Clampit I was originally intending to take my current car (VW Golf GT TDi) to Spain but because of complications down the line with paperwork I decided to source a more suitable car here at home. Because the Golf is a small hatchback I was intent on buying a roofbox for it but I'm not so sure how suitable that would be on the much taller Berlingo (my Golf is lowered). I don't fancy the idea of a trailer though & money's tight so I may just bite the bullet and go for a roofbox after all.

[CourierJim]

Right or wrong, whenever I see a vehicle with one of those large plastic roofboxes on top, I always think that there must be a disabled driver at the wheel. I associate those boxes with either being the repository of a hoist for the driver, or where the wheelchair is stored. I agree with Jed Clampit that I'd go for the trailer option. Those top boxes must cause extra drag, hence increased fuel consumption, and possible problems with height restrictions eg. car parks with entry height limiting bars.

[Gordon_B]

@CourierJim

Good point about the height being a potential problem in car parks. I doubt I'll need any additional space anyway though.

[geoff]

Check height issues with ferry operators also.

[Gordon_B]

Hi folks,

Here's a wee update to what happening. The car was advertised as being 'Spanish registered' which was exactly what we were looking for as the paperwork if it's not is horrendous. I took the details and ran the Spanish equivalent of an HPI check and the car was clean. We placed a deposit to secure the car. We subsequently found out that the car is registered in Gran Canaria which, at least legally speaking in the car world, is NOT part of Spain. This would mean that we would be liable for a 21% import tax on the car.

I informed the seller of this problem and now they are refusing to refund the deposit. I've been in touch with the Citizens Advice and they say the garage doesn't have a leg to stand on. I've now been on the phone 4 times today to the garage & he point-blank refuses any responsibility. So it's going to court & I'm not getting a Berlingo. At least, not that one.

[ron]

Sorry to hear of your bad luck.Good luck with your fight.Have they got a Facebook page? A bad comment may change their minds.