Citroen Berlingo

The excellent Citroen Berlingo remains a popular favourite with fleet managers and small businesses. 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 version of the Berlingo has been extended in length by a full 240mm and widened by 80mm. A key new modification is the increased load area and carrying capacity. You can now fold down the passenger seat to extend the load area even further making it ideal for those longer items.

These latest modifications aren’t limited to the vans ability to carry large, heavy loads. The revised Berlingo design is more modern, stylish and aerodynamic which results in far less noise when on the road. Both the headlights and the rear lights have been moved to lessen the risk of minor damage and the windscreen has been enlarged providing improved 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 Berlingo is the only van in its class to offer this outstanding three seat feature.

The standard Citroen Berlingo is full of features that you would not normally find as standard in vans in its class or price range. These features include heated wing mirrors, electric windows and that essential driver tool, a radio and CD player.

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

It is said that he was indeed a technical genius and was employed by a big 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 team of staff to start designing a motor car with a water cooled 3 cylinder engine. This should have independent suspension and be able to accommodate 4 adults. The 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 the original design which was equipped with a new engine. Unfortunately however the engine turned out to have a severe cooling problem and melted after 10 minutes of running. Zundapp decided to leave the project.

NSU a 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 economical climate in Germany at that time NSU decided to withdraw and Porche was once again on his own.

In 1933 at the Berlin Motor Show Hitler announced his plan to produce a small 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 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 purposely delayed the project which made Porsche miss the deadline and thus made him lose his contract. Hitler however realised this and placed the entire project under government supervision. The 3 prototypes were delivered in October 1936.

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

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