Citroen Spacetourer Review (2016-2021)

Ignore what your eyes are telling you, what you’re looking at in the pictures is a car, albeit a very van-shaped one. The Citroen Spacetourer is based on the Dispatch van, but it has seats, so it is officially classed as a car, although you might have trouble convincing anyone of that.

Cars like this exist because purely to move a lot of people and, with sales of large people carriers now a fraction of what they once were, sticking some seats in a van is a much cheaper way to build one.

As dressed up as it is with body-coloured bumpers and alloy wheels, the underlying result is still very van-like. Clamber aboard the Spacetourer, and you’re greeted by a large expanse of black plastic that looks and feels cheap, and the tiny touchscreen infotainment display looks rather lost. The touchscreen system itself is fiddly, but the rest of the controls are easier to get on with, as there’s a big row of buttons beneath the screen and a separate panel to control the air-conditioning.

It’s in the back that the Spacetourer MPV really shows off its biggest plus point: practicality. You get anywhere between six and nine seats, depending on which model you choose, arranged in three rows, with at least four Isofix child seat mounts. The rearmost two rows split into two, and can slide up back and forth on rails, so you can set up the seats in virtually any configuration.

You can also remove all but the front-row seats individually, which gives you the option to almost return the Spacetourer to its original van state, or you can leave as many seats in place as you have passengers, leaving the rest of the rear cabin free for cargo. There’s also a huge, barn-door-style tailgate behind which sits a low loading lip. This is ideal if you often need to carry large items in addition to people.

Be warned, though: the seats can’t fold down into the floor like most MPVs’ can, so you’re left with no choice but to remove them if you need maximum luggage space. They’re also extremely heavy and cumbersome to remove and, once they’re out, you’ll need to find somewhere to store them.

Driving the Spacetourer is much as you’d expect. It rolls a lot if you try to hustle it around corners – but then, if that’s the way you’re hoping to drive it, you’re probably reading a review of the wrong va... sorry, car.

On the plus side, the driving position is high with a commanding view of the road, the ride is soft and comfortable, while the automatic gearbox fitted to our test car shifted swiftly and smoothly, all of which makes it feel more car-like than you might expect.

If you need to seat the most people for the least cash, the entry-level 118bhp BlueHDI 120 Business version is the one to choose. It’s slow, and lacks equipment, but you get nine seats and the Spacetourer’s exceptional practicality.

Want an automatic? Sadly, you can’t have one on our preferred engine in Flair form, so you’ll have to upgrade to the 178bhp engine, or downgrade to the Feel model. We’d choose the former if possible, as the more potent engine complements the transmission, and the extra equipment is worth having.

Want to go electric? You can. Choose the E-Spacetourer, and you get a 50kWh battery, with 100kW rapid charging available meaning a 15-80% charge can be achieved in 30 minutes on the right charger. Just keep in mind that that range falls off quite rapidly if you’re on the motorway, and the 134bhp electric motor will feel pretty wheezy when the Spacetourer is fully loaded, though the smooth, almost-silent acceleration gives it an ethereal quality.

You can have your Spacetourer in any number of different flavours – there’s a choice of three diesel engines with 118-, 143- and 178bhp respectively, two body lengths – M and XL, the longer of the two gaining 35cm – and four trim levels.

The most basic of these is the Business, which has manual air-conditioning, plastic flooring, cloth trim, and nine seats, though you do still get cruise control and a touchscreen infotainment system with DAB, Bluetooth, and Apple Carplay and Android Auto.

Feel swaps the front passenger bench for single seats, rendering it an eight-seater, and adds dual-zone climate control, carpet flooring, and a glut of 230V, 12V, and USB power sockets. Flair, meanwhile, gets keyless entry, additional soundproofing, leather upholstery, parking sensors, spotlights, separate air-conditioning controls for rear-seat passengers, and heated electric massage front seats.

The Flair is the best version to choose – mainly because of the additional sound deadening, which makes the Spacetourer a bit less agricultural on the move. We’d then choose the 143bhp BlueHDi 145 diesel engine with a manual gearbox, which should provide enough grunt for most people’s needs without breaking the bank.

If you need to seat the most people for the least cash, the entry-level 118bhp BlueHDI 120 Business version is the one to choose. It’s slow, and lacks equipment, but you get nine seats and the Spacetourer’s exceptional practicality.

Want an automatic? Sadly, you can’t have one on our preferred engine in Flair form, so you’ll have to upgrade to the 178bhp engine, or downgrade to the Feel model. We’d choose the former if possible, as the more potent engine complements the transmission, and the extra equipment is worth having.

If you’ve got somewhere to charge, consider the E-Spacetourer Flair. Its range might not be up there with the best electric cars, but if you only do short-to-medium journeys it still makes a lot of sense. Plan your routes to include fast chargers, and a longer journey shouldn’t add too much time.

There’s very little reliability data on the Spacetourer, because it sells in small numbers and rarely appears in reliability surveys. However, it’s based on the Citroen Dispatch van, which achieved 10th place in the 2020 Warrantywise Reliability Index for commercial vehicles – a solid result that suggests the Spacetourer should be pretty dependable.

The Spacetourer comes with an industry-standard three-year or 60,000-mile warranty, but if you order it online, that automatically gets topped up to five years or 100,000 miles, which matches the Toyota Proace Verso – and that’s about the best you’ll find in this van-turned-car class.