Spruce you seem to know a lot about Peugeot / Citroen vans from various posts of yours I have read on here.
The new shape Partner 850's - what do I need to look out for when buying one of these.
Thanks in advance 
Hi Ian101,
I'm afraid my experience was with the previous model 600 and 800's.
I worked for Citroen in the Commercial division, and much of the job was identifying what the customer wanted it for, so cargo size and payloads were a very important part of that. I found great interest in the technical aspects of the product and would spend every moment I could in the workshop, especially when a van I had sold with internal accessories (eg racking) was being fitted out.
We also did numerous drive days where our product was compared to the oppositions and we got to drive and evaluate each vehicle on the day.
One of my customers, who is service/troubling shooting manager for a local Peugeot garage has kept me updated with the latest 1.6 hdi engine.
He advises to buy a low mileage one, and especially look for one with a main dealer Citroen/Peugeot service record. The 1.6's can suffer engine issues if not serviced properly.
The engine needs to be at normal working temperature and the vehicle on a level when the oil is 'dropped' via the sump plug and must be left to drain for a least 1/2 an hour. This will ensure that all the old oil will drain out.
There are more and more garages who have found the quickest and easiest way to remove the old oil is to insert a small diamt tube through the dipstick holder and suck the oil out. Whilst this is seen as cost effective (fast service turn around time) some old oil will be left behind which will contaminate the new oil.
Oil filter must be replaced with every service. So proper servicing is essential with these new engines as is using the proper oil. Most garages have a universal "one oil for everything" which they have delivered in bulk. These new engines don't work well on these universal oils.
Apart from the correct servicing, you are still getting a top quality van. PSA were one of the first to half dip galvanise their chassis so body rust is virtually unheard of, even on very high mileage vans. (Compare an 03 plate MB Vito with on 03 plate Berlingo/Partner.)
If you can't afford a new one, then have a look around for a demonstrator. Each commercial dealer is required to register an example of each model and often they have very little mileage as they have mainly been used to show a customer and a brief test drive. Citroen Slough would also register a whole lot of models and their fleet reps would have these delivered to big companies on appraisal. Some would be sold off through the dealer network that were as new.
Watch out for change of registration letter preregistered vans, usually in Oct. The manufacturers will preregister a big batch if they need to achieve yearly sales targets - these get sold as preregistered delivery mileage through the dealer network, usually a few weeks to a few months later. - so there should be some out there now if a preregistering exercise happened in September.
Ask a few drivers you see what their experience is. We often used to do this with a competitor van. If we saw one parked up somewhere, go up a talk to the driver and ask him/her all about it.
A guy a few doors down from us sells carpets and he bought a new Berlingo about a year ago - absolutely loves it, but like most will say the front third seat is only good as a storage space, not enough room for an adult bum.
PSA previous pedigree is good enough to say that if this model is as good as the previous one then you can't go wrong.