Whilst some french cars are cult others are just plain old rubbish , be they new or old.
Do the french actually like french cars ? Or do they put up with the rubbish ones and say nothing…

Have you actually driven a modern Peugeot? On a par with any manufacturer.

My shabby looking 15 year old pug is still going strong. Its no BMW but it plods on. I think there is something amazing about battered old French cars.

significantly less hassle from my “french car” which had no service history (as in none at all – and is covered in dents and dings from ladders) than from my VW golf – despite on paper the golf being the better car (mint condition inside and out ,FSH , 4 new branded tires and a timing belt + service done – with reciepts from another garage to prove it all..) was still an absolute horror fest.

I like my French car. When it goes wrong bits a relatively cheap, and I’m not to precious about it.

Father-shaped-object had a Renault for ages, it kept having odd electrical problems – the best was when all four windows went down overnight and refused to come back up.

So he traded it in for a brand new Golf last year.

The central locking stopped working this morning – how I sniggered.

Meanwhile our 8-year-old Forfour keeps working perfectly.

ze French are the same as us, they love old diesels that just chug along for 300k miles and hate the modern computerized complex cars they produce today. It’s always the same complaints about needing a laptop to fix one, FAP (Dpf) issues etc etc

Having said that, they don’t seem to think that the electrical system is made from cheese and disintegrates after 5 years as many of us do

Ben your ForFour is a Mitsubishi Colt in a plastic dress

I’m a wee bit of a Francophile. I like french cars, I hate rusting shitboxes that start to rust after 7yrs (ford) or fail with expensive repairs (VW).

Apart from Renault ALL cars need regular servicing. The difference between a Citroen and a VW Golf is people seem to think a Golf is something that is high quality so spend the money needed to keep it going. Whereas people think French cars ‘are bound to go wrong so dont want to throw any money at it/them- hence servicing slackens off’

Ben your ForFour is a Mitsubishi Colt in a plastic dress

Made in Belgium – land of great motoring 😉

Not taken with modern French cars really. My old ’99 306 XSI however was a different story. Great drive, looked fantastic and very practical too!

jesus – the internet really is going to implode – thats twice in a week me and hora have agree’d

We have had numerous French cars, I like them for their quirkiness and interesting design looks (big bum Meganes etc). I currently own a 307 HDi for 4 years now with no issues at all just consumables really.

Wife has had Meganes, Scenics, Lagunas no massive issues and now a Citroen C3 which looks very cute frankly compared to other cars in that class.

I have also owned Alfa Romeo’s too, no issues, I am either very lucky or most reputations are unfounded.

The worst thing about them is depreciation.
That doesn’t really matter to me as I keep them until they die anyway.

On reliability surveys/ratings the Citroen Berlingo/Peugeot Partner scores very well.

Hora – wrong on every point you’ve just made.

Forgot Partners and Berlingos. Those I really like as well!

My french pal used to have a Peugeot 208 of the small gutless diesel type that people who don’t really like cars seem to drive.

He filled it up with petrol one day and drove it around with half petrol / half diesel for a couple of days before it gave up.

Had quite a lot of bother with it after that, though I’m not sure you could blame it all on the car

He know owns a Kia Cee’d.

My old 306 lx turbo diesel estate has 150k on the clock and still going strong. The most practical & reliable car I have ever owned and a very nice drive actually. Pity it’s ugly and costs £230 a year to tax.

Checked around/underneath your rear arches yet?

How long have you owned the Golf though?

A sidenote: My bro in law had a 18month old Golf. Under warranty it needed a new EGR/DMF and a new turbo. On previous 1.8T engines coil packs a plenty.

Always serviced ontime, correctly.

On a diesel 1.9TDI I had I had MAF problem and the turbo was failing.

If it was a French car it’d be serviced infrequently/got rid of as its ‘only worth 3k not worth the repairs’ (due to high depreciation- other people thinking the same merry-go-round).

As to whether the French think they are good – we were in Montbeliard where they are built last year and at least as many people were driving Fiats as Peugeots so make of that what you will.

I like my Megane Scenic. When it’s working. 240K km on the clock, I’ve had it since 140K or so – and since then I’ve had the following problems:

* Boot refused to open (it’d been raining continuously for a couple of weeks, probably related)

* Dashboard stopped working

* Turbo blew up

* Change of fuel injector (suppose that’s probably just maintenance rather than a real defect)

… and my local garage can’t reprogram the display properly, so I’ve had the “service needed” message on the console for the past two years running. I refuse to give Renault any more money so haven’t gone to a main dealer to get it fixed.

I won’t be buying another.

This one? 7 months. The previous one? 4 years. Never had a problem with either.

The pug was beset with electrical problems, engine issues and felt like it was made out of tin foil.

France is full of french cars – source: drove to Italy through France last year.

I’ve got a Scenic Mk 3 on a 59 plate, bought two years ago no problems with it so far (fingers crossed) – hang on that’s a lie Daughter No1 busted a piece of the door/window trim off.

Oh and just after we bought it (while camping) I was fiddling with some bits and bobs, then a couple of days later we were driving home in a storm (ah UK camping) put the lights on and the TFT screen went black – “effing French cars, knew we shouldn’t have got one, shoddy electrics effing French cars”, turned out I one of the things I fiddled with was the dimmer for the TFT – d’oh!

Montbeliard to Fiat’s home city is about the same distance as Brighton to Manchester.

4yrs when was this? You had a leased-new Focus from 2007.

There are NO manufacturers who make reliable cars outside of 3yrs old across their range.

Well apart from the Jazz but who wants to be seen in one.

golf – needed brake calipers , steering rack/ wishbones , headlight loom , ABS sensors , high level brake light , engine ……..

van which was older – and french. has done 5 times as much milage and needed – 2 suspension springs , 2 alternator clutch pulleys an exhaust and a wheel bearing + routine servicing – it gets a much harder life than the golf ever got.

all of the above for the van including the routine servicing – cost less than just doing the rack on the golf. – which was 600 quid for the part alone.

I have owned quite a few French vehicles to date, 16 Renault vans and a Renault 4 and a 2CV.
The Vans were a mix of Traffics and Kangoos and when I sold my business I took a Traffic and Kangoo with me, I sold the Traffic after a monster trip around Spain with my windsurfing gear and I wrecked it, got the electrics nerfed by dripping salt water down the dash from my windsurfing gear.. The Kangoo I still have, 52plate 1.5DCI and it’s battered and knocked about and still hacks and drives like it should do, done 100k now and only thing nerfed on it is the drivers side central locking sensor and the heater blower only works on 3, oh and the Arial fell off…it looks French in every sense of the word with it’s “modified” panels n’all. I love that van, stupid I know.
The Renault 4 (gearshift out of the dash version) was amazballs and I want another and have been looking for an early 78-83 plate for some time now to no avail.
The 2CV was my first company car and I have very very fond memories of that car, I have looked around for another on occasion but have yet to find a decent white one.
I just love the fact that you can fix them easily and cheaply and they do tend to go on forever then fail in a dramatic and often terminal way. 😉

mogrim – you bought a car with 140k on the clock and got 100k out of it …. i fail to see the issue here – except with the repairs you have put into it id have cut it loose long ago – it shouldnt have been expensive anyway(in car terms – i appreciate its still alotof cash to write off) with 140k on the clock – megane scenic with 140k – should have been about 800-1500 quid pending condition and history.

The 2CV was my first company car

Class outfit!

I like my Megane Scenic. When it’s working. 240K km on the clock

😆 Are you quite tight as a person!?!

I remember a MOT tester saying to me ‘Subaru Forester- great cars, totally bombproof’.

I replied ‘no that they aren’t mate, they are like every other car’.

I’d love a Renault 4.
Put 20k miles on a Partner 1.4 petrol, came to me with 107k on. Various things have gone wrong but it still keeps running. Spring broke so need to sort that before driving it again. All the other things- rad fans, interior fan, washer pump are little.

The French do seem to be amazingly patriotic about their cars!! The lesson I learned from living there is you don’t need a flash, big exterior. Much better to have the top range, well-specced smaller car especially if you need to park in Paris or any other city. I have no desire to buy a flash car since living in Paris.

pretty much stock Citroen AX, seven years, nine engines, five gearboxes: 😀

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBFjHjm0O5M[/video]

The only problem with French cars is that they use a thinner gauge of steel for the bodywork than most manufacturers, so it dings easily, although also makes the car slightly lighter.

VW on the other hand are just masters of marketing, they have everyone convinced they are a quality car while being no better than any other major manufacturer.

footflaps – Member
Have you actually driven a modern Peugeot? On a par with any manufacturer.

Eeek! Really? Define modern.
My OH’s Pug 308 (58 plate) was an absolute pile of crap. Sluggish, uneconomical, awful gear change, lumpy throttle response, lazy design, unreliable.
I really don’t know what tempted her to buy it. I think she regretted it within about 2 weeks of getting it.

The only redeeming thing about it was that it was comfortable on long journies. But given how crashy the ride in my Ibiza is, most cars are.

The French do seem quite patriotic. Always impressed with the amount of French cars you see driving about France.

That AX…without a helmet too. I bet theres more metal in a coke can than on a AX!

French car with a frenchman behind the wheel has won the WRC for many many years not to mention same frenchmen smashed the Pikes Peak record to bits, with an epic Pug 8)

that said i prefer Zee Germans ( i have german car and german bike ) both are 4 years old and neither one has gone wrong……yet

It’s always the same complaints about needing a laptop to fix one

Don’t see why that’s a problem, it’s quite useful 🙂

When we used to go to France in the late 80s you’d only see French cars. Now the mix is fairly similar to here I think.

Only French cars I’ve driven have been two Citroens. Both had awful driver controls that made them quite hard to drive.

mogrim – you bought a car with 140k on the clock and got 100k out of it …. i fail to see the issue here – except with the repairs you have put into it id have cut it loose long ago – it shouldnt have been expensive anyway(in car terms – i appreciate its still alotof cash to write off) with 140k on the clock – megane scenic with 140k – should have been about 800-1500 quid pending condition and history.

That’s a fair point, and I’m not particularly bitter about the turbo or the injectors. But the bloody dash going wrong? It’s a computer, FFS. No moving parts.

I like my Megane Scenic. When it’s working. 240K km on the clock
Are you quite tight as a person!?!

Not that tight, just resent spending money on something so utterly boring as a family car.

I spent a lot of time down in Bordeax and funny as it seems there were a lot of those god awful Rover 420’s and Metros down there (back in the late 90’s)
Go figure.