Faults:

I am experiencing quite a severe steering drift to the nearside. The dealer has undertaken many tests and adjustments - the last of these under the direction of the Citroen technical team, but no improvement has been made. They tell me the 'drift' it is a characteristic of the vehicle. I have driven one other Dispatch and it was fine, so I do not accept the explanation. Has anyone else out there experienced such a problem?

General Comments:

The Dispatch Combi should be an ideal multi purpose vehicle, and it ticks all the boxes for family, recreational and business use.

It would be great if I could keep it on the road!

Faults:

The only time the vehicle failed to start is when a glow plug failed. Unfortunately the relay has over current protection so if 1 glow plug goes short circuit it won't turn any on, immobilizing the vehicle.

Apart from that it has the problem of the locks wearing and not working, a common problem I believe.

The side loading doors also have the common problem of sitting a bit proud and creating a lot of wind noise. Although I have now found you can adjust the locating pin with just a spanner.

General Comments:

Despite the problems listed I still believe this is a very good van. The few niggling faults common to these vans can be fixed by anyone with basic mechanical knowledge for free. This combined with returning 35mpg makes it an economic van to run.

In my opinion the suspension is a bit hard and quite harsh unloaded. This does mean that it will go round bends very well though.

The brakes are plenty good enough unladen, but Loaded they really aren't powerful enough. I have moved 850Kg dump bags and trying to stop can only be described as scary!

The basic 1.9 diesel is a bit sluggish. Once up to speed it will happily sit at 70mph though a bit noisy. The main problem is hills, if you lose momentum you're in trouble! One good thing I will say for this engine is it is very good for wading. With only minor mods to raise the air intake a bit, I have driven this van through water coming over the bonnet in recent floods. I doubt the newer hdi engines with a lot of electronics would like that!!

If you get one of these vans I would go for the newer hdi or even the 1.9td. Having said that the 1.9 diesels can be bought very cheap, so they can be a good choice if used short distances round town. If thinking about towing of carrying full payload get the hdi version.

Faults:

No problems so far.

General Comments:

This car does everything we've asked of it in a very civilized package.

Let's start with the bad news; As I have heard for other Jumpy owners, the car wasn't delivered as ordered. Apparently this is quite common. Nine seats rather than the eight ordered and no reversing aid beepers.

The only negatives to come out of the driving experience are the noisy suspension (for a car, but excellent for a van) and the lack of bottom end torque. The rest of the power band is fine, but the car is easy to stall as a result of there being no significant power below about 1800 revs, especially as the engine is so willing higher up the range.

Having got rid of the negatives, there are a lot of very positive things to be said; the car is really a van, but drives much more like a car.

Having owned a Renault Espace, I'd say this drives as well as, if not better than that, high praise. There is almost no body roll until you start getting silly, and in any case, this is not supposed to be a sports car!

Pitching is also totally absent, something that was not true of the Espace.

Noise, vibration and harshness are almost all totally absent, with the exception of the suspension noise from the rear that has already been mentioned. This really is a very smooth performer.

Performance in the upper rev range is surprising for such a large vehicle. You are very aware of the turbo coming on boost and the car can be punted along at a good clip. Motorway driving is tremendously relaxed and a 600km journey left all involved relaxed and fresh. The cruise control was very useful and we were able to maintain 140kph into a headwind in top, in spite of top gear being an overdrive. Maybe the engine isn't that gutless after all.

The seats may appear to be very hard in the showroom, but on the open road they proved to be near perfect. Some might complain of a lack of side support, but that would be missing the point. If you need more side support you really need a different vehicle!

Accommodation for the passengers has proven to be more than enough. We have been able to carry our child's motocross bike and luggage in the boot, the same child asleep across one set of seats, a friend in the middle seats with our baby in her seat, my wife and myself, all at the same time. And we still had 2 spare seats! With all the rear seats out you then have a 6000lt(6m3) carrying space.

In conclusion then, we're very pleased with our purchase so far, especially as all the other large MPVs are either a lot smaller (C4 Grand Picasso/Espace and the like), a lot more expensive (Vito/Caravelle/Espace) or not as refined (Vito/Hyundai H1) or a combination of all the above.