A GREATER CONQUEST OF SPACE (some text hidden) SECTIONED_new_citroenspacetourer_2016

By Jonathan Crouch

Introductionword count: 96

Citroen has earned an enviable reputation for its People Carriers and the SpaceTourer sits at the top of that family tree. Though based on the brand's medium-sized Dispatch van, it also shares its EMP2 platform with the French maker's C4 Picasso MPV and that, along with sophisticated suspension, means a supple standard of ride. This model's running cost efficiency also set a fresh class standard from launch and there's a wider variety of seating permutations than many rivals can offer: some SpaceTourers can take as many as nine people. It's all been very thoroughly thought through.

Modelsword count: 16

5dr SUV (1.6,1.5 BlueHDi diesel / 2.0 BlueHDi diesel / 50kWh full-Electric [Feel,Business, Flair, Rip Curl]

Historyword count: 496

Citroen has quite a history of producing People Carriers, but it's interesting that looking back over the years, there's been a notable lack of many really big ones, MPVs suitable for business use or really large families. In 2016 though, the marque launched a contender that put that right, this SpaceTourer. Prior to the arrival of this model, the most sizeable MPV your Citroen dealer could offer you was the Grand C4 Picasso, a model spacious enough in its segment but a car not really designed around the needs of seven adults. Even large segment People Carriers of the day like Ford's Galaxy and Volkswagen's Sharan struggled in that regard if the people in question came with luggage. As indeed did the models that Citroen once offered to compete against these cars - the Synergie that sold between 1995 and 2003 and the C8 that replaced it and was produced until 2010. Ultimately, if you need something properly spacious in this segment, then passenger car-based underpinnings won't really cut it. Instead, you'll need something LCV-based with the boxy proportions of a van. Something like this. Sure enough, the SpaceTourer was indeed based on a commercial vehicle, the brand's third generation Dispatch van. By 2016, we'd seen Dispatch-based passenger-carrying Citroens before, but they'd been utilitarian minibus models aimed at business users. This one was developed as a much more car-like contender and shared its design with two direct rivals, Peugeot's Traveller and Toyota's Proace Verso, a pair joined shortly afterwards by the also virtually identical Vauxhall Vivaro Life. All four of these MPVs were primarily aimed at the two other van-based People Carriers that back at the end of the 21st century's second decade dominated the super-large segment of the market, Volkswagen's Caravelle and the Mercedes V-Class, both models that in theory, ought to have been fairly easy targets for new entrants in this sector. Though the VW and the Merc were of a size that would take the nine-seat configuration that many potential buyers wanted, the Caravelle was limited to seven seats and the V-Class to eight. Plus in both cases, there was a pretty high asking price to pay for ownership. In producing an alternative, the easy perception was that all any brand had to do was to glam up a medium-sized van, add some plush seats and give it an appealing sticker price. As manufacturers like Ford and Hyundai found though, there was more to it than that. Customers in this segment want proper passenger car technology and real car-like engineering. This Citroen claimed to be able to provide that, offered appealing prices and, crucially, in its most versatile form could seat up to nine people. It all sounded quite promising, but the SpaceTourer, like its clones, never really sold in any great numbers and combustion diesel versions were phased out in 2022. The full-electric e-SpaceTourer model though (introduced in 2020) continued on. Here, we look at the diesel-engined SpaceTourer as a used buy.

What You Getword count: 629

Look at the class leaders in the super-large van-based MPV segment and it's clear that a lot of effort has been put in to distance the designs in question from their LCV underpinnings. Which is why Citroen put so much work in here to create the smart - and in some ways actually quite attractive - silhouette of this SpaceTourer model. The 1.9m height of the long flat roof is important - it means this model can fit under normal car park height restrictions. And the length is critical too. Don't automatically assume that a super-large MPV like this has to be super-long from bonnet to rear bumper. From launch, one of the body style options with this model was a relatively compact 4.6m-long 'XS' body shape that actually measures in at around 250mm shorter than car-derived MPVs like Ford's Galaxy or Volkswagen's Sharan. Most SpaceTourer buyers though, will want the extra interior room of the 4.95m-long 'M' version, plus there's also a 5.3m-long 'XL' option if you really want to super-size things. The range was rationalised down to 'M' and 'XL' versions shortly after launch. What about boot space? Well the room you in the cargo area with all three rows of seats in place obviously varies depending on the body style you've chosen. With the most popular mid-range 'M' body shape, there's 627mm of length from the back of the third seating row to the tailgate, which means you get 640-litres of cargo space up to the level of the load bay cover - or as much as 900-litres if you were to load to the roof. A lot of the time of course, you'll be using this Citroen with only five seats in place. If on the 'M' model, you fold the third row backrest onto the seat base, you'll increase loading capacity to 1,100-litres - or 1,950-litres loading up to roof height. Finally, let's cover the capacity you'd get when you only need the front two seats. In the 'M' model with second and third row backrests folded onto their bases, you'd have 2,000-litres of space up to parcel shelf level and 3,000-litres up to roof height. If you were to entirely take the second and third row seating out, those figures would each rise by 1,200-litres. Enough on luggage space: what's this Citroen like for people? Let's start up-front. Most SpaceTourers sold here were 'Business'-trimmed variants, which didn't get the option of a dual front passenger bench so that three people could be accommodated up-front. That's a rare feature to find in a SpaceTourer. Across the range, the fascia's focal point is found with a centrally-situated 7-inch colour touchscreen which includes a 'Mirror Screen' feature, so you can duplicate your smartphone's display onto the monitor via either the 'Apple CarPlay' or the 'MirrorLink' 'Android Auto' systems. In the second row, where you get ample knee, shoulder and head room, there's a three-person rear bench that'll have a 60:40 split in it. On most models, the seats are mounted on rails so can slide backwards and forwards - though not individually: the middle seat will be joined to one of the outer ones. Most SpaceTourers were sold with a third seating row and once you get to that, you'll find that the outer passenger-side seat lifts and tilts forward to aid access, something further aided by the provision of higher roofline than you'd find in something like a Sharan or a Galaxy. Once you're in the third row, you'll be reminded just why medium-sized vans make such a great starting point for a properly large family-sized MPV. Instead of being crammed in cattle-class, as you would be in even the largest car-based People Carriers, there's more than enough space here for arms, legs and heads.

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