Citroën Berlingos are a common sight on Irish farms and in van guise have transported anything from calves to full silage teams going for dinner around the country.

The original version was released in 1996 and immediately found a home among the farmers looking for a no-frills and affordable van. To this day, there are plenty of the original Berlingos running around the lanes and yards of the country.

This is now the third generation of the Berlingo and how it has grown up. The car version was on display at the launch. There are two wheelbase versions – the Medium and the XL.

In the Irish market, the split of vans to cars in very heavily weighted towards the commercial vehicle. In other markets around Europe, the split between the two variants is much more equal.

Looking around the new Berlingo, you can see the advantages of the van-derived car. There is a massive amount of storage and a really nice feeling of space when you are sitting in it. Everywhere you look there is a storage space to put any clutter.

For this reason, along with the fact that the middle row of seats can comfortably take three Isofix seats, this is a great option for the three-child family.

Once the kids are secured in place, there is still a substantial 775 litres of boot space in the Medium version and a massive 1,050l in the XL.

Both versions have the ability to be seven seaters. In the Medium, this makes the boot very small, but in the XL there is still ample room for some stuff.

On the road

On the launch I drove the 110bhp petrol engine model with a six-speed manual gearbox and a 130bhp diesel version with the eight-speed automatic. Sitting in both cars, the first thing you notice is the lovely upright king of the road van driving position the car driver never gets to experience.

On the move, the petrol-powered car was capable and this will probably be a big seller in the passenger version as it will be priced affordably.

Driving the diesel with automatic gearbox was a complete pleasure. The gearbox felt nearly seamless and the diesel lump was very capable of moving what is a sizeable car down the road as briskly as anyone would ever need to drive this type of car.

Both cars had the excellent grip control system. There was no opportunity to test it on this car but previously I have used it to great effect on the C3 Aircross. One other thing that I noticed while driving was the unbelievable range of vision you get from the upright driving position in conjunction with the huge square footage of glass.

Once parked up for some light refreshment, the sliding rear doors really come into their own as they give simple access even in the tightest of parking spots.

The verdict

As always, I will reserve judgement until I get to spend a week with the new Citroën but on first impressions it seems to be one of the most practical and still fun ways of getting a family or groups of people and their stuff from place to place.

The practicality is the big selling point that has always been there in this type of vehicle but the poise and enjoyment has been missing.

On first impressions, I think the fun factor may be present which makes this a serious contender in that market where people currently feel that they have to own an SUV, but it will take a brave buyer to step away from the herd mentality and do something different.