Citroen Berlingo

Epic value from Citroen here. The Berlingo majors on comfort, economical diesels and an enormous interior. Practical.

• Comfort

  Capable of absorbing bumps well enough when not fully laden, but the aerodynamics of the average conservatory mean you get wind noise on the motorway. There's also a general boominess inside the cabin thanks to a big space and the hard, reflective plastics that form it.

  

• Performance

  There's a 1.6-litre petrol with 95bhp that gets to 62mph in 13.8 seconds, but best ignore it as it's useless. Better to go for the range-topping 110bhp 1.6-litre Hdi diesel that hits 62mph in 12.1 seconds and 107mph. It pulls hard enough and though noisy, is capable of motivating the Berlingo at normal m-way speeds.

  

• Cool

  Farah slacks? That cool.

  

• Quality

  They've done the best with what they had. The Berlingo feels like it's been put together with care, just from cheap materials. Still, the kids'll destroy it anyway.

  

• Handling

  The steering's surprisingly good and like all things that feel like they've been derived from a van, actually quite perky. But the ride can be crashy when loaded and there's way too much lean.

  

• Practicality

  A practicality tour-de-force, this is where the Berlingo really gets going. Shaped like a box and as useful, in other words, very. You can seat five easily, but the real deal is carrying capacity. Big square shape means that luggage space is huge at 675 litres, but fold the seats and you get 3,000 litres - more than most SUVs... Bike transport, dog transport. This is a car that can work for a living.

  

• Running costs

  The diesel gets 53.3mpg (more than the smaller, slower petrol at 39.8mpg), so cheap to run and insure. But residuals drop hard.