French cars.Hmmm...

Author
Discussion

vikingaero

10,256 posts

168 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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It'll be interesting to see how the new range of "premium" French cars - DS3 etc perform in x years time. Will they be OK or a bag of nails?

djc206

12,249 posts

124 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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I had a peugeot 205 1.8 grd years ago and everything was broken on it but it kept plodding along.

I think someone hit the nail on the head earlier. Most people who buy french cars don't care about cars, they're a means of transport nothing else so they don't look after them as well as the rest of us might.

I do think that french cars specifically peugeots still have terrible electrics though. I reckon at least 90% of the cars driving around with blown or non working lights are peugeots and around here it's rare to see a 5-10 year old peugeot that has a full set of working lights!

vrooom

3,763 posts

266 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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Personally, If i see cars with bosch electronics fitted. i walk away. bosch are crap at electronics.

RemyMartin

6,759 posts

204 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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I do feel we are overly xenophobic in our perception of French cars, might like the ' all tts drive BMW or Audis' there is no real basis for this other than media hype (Clarkson et al) On a average week its just as likely to see a Vauxhall, Ford, BMW, Audi, VW or anything really.

Ive owned three French cars, a mk1 1.9 diesel which never ever went wrong and to this day holda the time record for Bagshot to Newcastle lol.

A 5 GT Turbo. Again faultless and not standard. Ran to 160000 miles when i sold it, still going strong.

182 which again never let me down, never broke. Did I get lucky? Possibly, but maybe in reality they just arent as st as we think. There will always be horror stories of cars. Id have another French car in a heartbeat.

I want a Citröen C6 smokin

Johnston

249 posts

179 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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I took a chance on a Renault Safrane 14 years ago as it seemed a really comfortable and well built car. I still have it now and it just will not break. It does everything so well and in that time, the only thing that has ever gone wrong was a heater matrix (which wasn't a breakdown but was a pig to get to and change). I also had an R25 before that which was every bit as reliable. Renault built some utter garbage between 2002-8 which is well documented but in my experience, if you look after them, they are very good cars. The Jag and Volvo also in the family have been far less reliable (not to mention just simply not as good in almost every way as the Safrane).

I seem to see more Audi's and BMW's than anything broken down at the side of the road. More often than not, it is stuff under 4 years old too. I worry about these newer cars when they get to 10 years old. They will be unfixable/beyond economical repair when anything goes wrong.

vikingaero

10,256 posts

168 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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Johnston said:
I seem to see more Audi's and BMW's than anything broken down at the side of the road. More often than not, it is stuff under 4 years old too. I worry about these newer cars when they get to 10 years old. They will be unfixable/beyond economical repair when anything goes wrong.
I also see a lot of young BMWs at the side of the road. Not surprising when they outsell the Mondeo and shift in huge numbers.

Rickyy

6,618 posts

218 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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I've never had any mechanical failures in a French vehicle. Even in a 170k Berlingo that I had in a previous job.

I've broken down in my MX5 (coolant hose split), my old Alfa Romeo (complete engine failure) and my old Mk1 Focus ( my fault as I made a slight fracture in a coolant pipe and chose to ignore it!

I did breakdown in my old 306, but that was because I hydro locked it! Then I broke down again because the garage who rebuilt the engine didn't reassemble the engine mount correctly and it collapsed!

That said I wouldn't touch a modern French diesel!

confused_buyer

6,610 posts

180 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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Rickyy said:
That said I wouldn't touch a modern French diesel!
That covers a lot of cars though including Mercedes, Ford, Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, Toyota, Mazda etc. all of whom use or have used French diesel engines in one or more model.

corvus

431 posts

151 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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djc206 said:
Most people who buy french cars don't care about cars, they're a means of transport nothing else so they don't look after them as well as the rest of us might.
That's very true in the case of one of my workmates who owned a Clio. Never serviced it, never checked anything. The sort of absent minded bloke that drives around in the gloom with no lights on.

I looked at the tyres and they were all virtually illegal. He wondered why he was sliding sideways across roundabouts in winter. He broke down temporarily a couple of times on the hard shoulder due to a failing ignition coilpack and a bad earth wire, both could have been remedied beforehand as there were warning signs. Apart from that, the thing kept going.

Now he's bought a Peugeot 307, and swears he'll be getting it serviced regularly. Nah, he can't even turn the lights on at night rolleyes

Rickyy

6,618 posts

218 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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confused_buyer said:
Rickyy said:
That said I wouldn't touch a modern French diesel!
That covers a lot of cars though including Mercedes, Ford, Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, Toyota, Mazda etc. all of whom use or have used French diesel engines in one or more model.
Which is why both cars are petrol (one French)! My van is Diesel, but is a Toyota with, with afaik a Toyota engine (2.5 D4D)!


Yamahadivvyrider

450 posts

117 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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Renault can't be that bad.dont volvo use the engines?

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

125 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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Yamahadivvyrider said:
Renault can't be that bad.dont volvo use the engines?
Not for a decade or more.

But Nissan...

HTP99

22,444 posts

139 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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TooMany2cvs said:
Yamahadivvyrider said:
Renault can't be that bad.dont volvo use the engines?
Not for a decade or more.

But Nissan...
And Mercedes and the new Twingo is the new Smart.

I see loads of the new Citan about but hardly any Kangoos, yet they are the same van, the Citan will be more expensive than a Kangoo though, it's funny what people will do just for a badge.

Edited by HTP99 on Sunday 23 November 13:36

supersingle

3,205 posts

218 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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French cars have terrible reliability... but they're better than Mercedes!

owner of a Clio 172 with a stubborn misfire

trophyjoe

5 posts

112 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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Is there any point in this thread other than to inform everyone how you and your mates listen to clarkson a little to much and are abit snobbish about cars for no reason other than what you have heard ?
Let's use vw as a quick example, I had a lupo gti on 33k and it was the most unreliable car I have ever owned, the roof rusted which vw accepted and re/painted as apparently it was a common problem, then the window motor broke and cost me 200 quid for a new one, and that was within 3 months of ownership, not counting the amount of lupo owners who suffered with pedal box welds snapping and gearbox issues after less than 40k on e 6 speed gearbox....
Oh and their reliable sister company seat use the very common vw pd Diesel engine which the 130 model suffers camshaft wear at 80 thousond miles and requires new cams


So to be clear, everything has it's problems but I'm amazed people still think certain cars are worse than others, the German snobbery is beyond belief with owners of these cars,
Another boring cliche is the fiat reliability issue, it's old hat and boring.

clowesy

293 posts

120 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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Clio 197 and Megane R26, most dependable cars I've owned. Only ever needed fuel, tyres and servicing. My parents had a string of Renaults with no horror stories to report. Not sure I believe the myth.

trophyjoe

5 posts

112 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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I've had 3 106 rallyes
A Clio 172 cup
Clio 182 trophy
Megane r26
All brilliant cars, got a 275 trophy on order
Trouble it's usually the vag group fans who think the sun shines out vw's proverbial

simonej

3,877 posts

179 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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My wife has a Peugeot 307 and I really, really hate it, it is a truly awful car. But, it just will not die.

In the 8 years she's had it the only things to go wrong are the heater getting stuck on full hot and the front offside coil spring snapping. Admittedly the spring broke at 40mph, went through the tyre and sent her veering through oncoming traffic into a ditch.....

I've a feeling the more you hate a car, the more reliable it becomes just to spite you.

Digby

Original Poster:

8,230 posts

245 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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trophyjoe said:
Is there any point in this thread other than to inform everyone how you and your mates listen to clarkson a little to much and are abit snobbish about cars for no reason other than what you have heard ?
Well, that doesn't apply to me and I started the thread. hehe

simonej said:
I've a feeling the more you hate a car, the more reliable it becomes just to spite you.
You may be on to something there.I have heard numerous times "I will just run it in to the ground and then bin it", followed by "I said that 12 years ago.It's still going"

I would also like to add that I don't recall ever seeing the sportier type Clios at the side of the road.In fact, not too many Clios at all.

Edited by Digby on Sunday 23 November 15:05

TheInsanity1234

740 posts

118 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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French cars can be jolly reliable if you're able to look after them well.

My parents had a few Renaults before I was born, and never had an issue with them.

And my mum owned a '57 Renault Clio 1.5 dCi (collected some time in October 2007, if I recall correctly) from new up to June this year, and it happily covered 120k miles during our ownership of it with no faults until around April, when it needed a new bearing, and the new one, plus the following replacement both disintegrated, but the 3rd replacement was fine, and in May, it needed new wiper motors, as the original ones were going funny. The clutch started to show signs of wear, and the engine was making an unusually loud noise (mum suspected a broken engine mount, as her Mini had the same problem and showed the same symptoms). Oh yeah, and about the same time, the radio broke.

But the only non-age-related problem appeared to be the fact the Clio absolutely adored headlight bulbs, and they were often blowing, and this was a PITA, as the headlights required removal of things in order to access the access holes for the lights.

TL:DR

We had a Clio for about 6 years and it never broke down or had any real issues.

Edited by TheInsanity1234 on Sunday 23 November 15:19