Citroen Berlingo vs Ford Ranger

What's the difference?

Citroen, the famous French manufacturer founded in 1919, has achieved global acclaim for daringly bold and brilliant design and engineering that was often ahead of its time.

Despite this, the double chevron badge has suffered a tumultuous ride since the 1970s, including a lifesaving merger with Peugeot in 1976, followed by another near-death experience for Peugeot-Citroen (PSA Group) in 2012. 

Since then, though, major restructuring has seen a remarkable turnaround. Under Inchcape Australasia, which took over PSA’s local distribution in 2017, Peugeot Citroen Australia has a fresh focus on light commercial vehicles, with the venerable Citroen Berlingo holding centre stage with its class-leading payload capacity.

Even so, with less than seven per cent of the local small van segment (under 2.5 tonne GVM), the Berlingo’s market share is dwarfed by French rival Renault’s Kangoo, with 25 per cent, and VW’s kick-butt Caddy, which now commands more than 65 per cent.

However, with an all-new Berlingo range just around the corner and super deals being done with the current model in run-out mode, we put one to work for a week to see if it would be worth a trip to your local Citroen dealer to bag a bargain.

Ford has given its Ranger ute range a mild facelift. And mild is the word. If you look closely, you might notice some small visual changes, but the real news is under the bonnet where a new entry-level powerplant lives.

And however you look at it, this new engine that addresses the ownership issues experienced by some Ranger buyers since the bi-turbo diesel engine was released back in 2018, was probably overdue.

But the new powerplant comes at a cost; in terms of power and torque, even though the vital towing statistics remain for the Ranger.

The other changes that come with this facelift include some new tech, and the availability of the V6 turbo-diesel (which is unchanged) across the entire Ranger 4X4 dual-cab line-up.

For this review, we’ve concentrated on the new engine as being the major point of difference, and we’ve driven it the base-version XL trim specification. That means this is potentially the lightest variant, and heavier specifications might blunt the performance a little. But overall, this is representative of the new powertrain and represents the biggest point of difference in what is otherwise a very minor facelift.