French cars.Hmmm...
Discussion
One of the best cars from my own driving history was a Peugeot 405sti, unfortunately brand loyalty blinded me from the increasingly crap products I kept buying from them. This culminated in a RCZ whose engine, for want of a better description, disintegrated within weeks!
Will never set foot in a French car dealership again
(even if some other BMW/Skoda/Caterham owners have experienced unreliability issues
)
Will never set foot in a French car dealership again
(even if some other BMW/Skoda/Caterham owners have experienced unreliability issues
)
TooMany2cvs said:
7mike said:
This culminated in a RCZ whose engine, for want of a better description, disintegrated within weeks!
Will never set foot in a French car dealership again
So buy one of those nice "British" (umm, "German") Minis instead. Oh, wait a sec. Same engine.Will never set foot in a French car dealership again
fivepointnine said:
Here you guys go scaring me now! I am planning on picking up a nice Renaultsport Clio 182 or an extremely clean 172 as my commuter car when I move to SW England this winter.
To generalise French cars in this thread is a massively sweeping statement.The two Renaultsports I have owned have been the most reliable cars I've had. Even beating my two Hondas in reliability terms.
I do however think Renaultsport are built better than Renaults and most other French manufacturers.
Enjoy your 182, they are great cars and if looked after will not implode/explode/fall to pieces.
Edited by Tickle on Saturday 22 November 18:46
TooMany2cvs said:
7mike said:
This culminated in a RCZ whose engine, for want of a better description, disintegrated within weeks!
Will never set foot in a French car dealership again
So buy one of those nice "British" (umm, "German") Minis instead. Oh, wait a sec. Same engine.Will never set foot in a French car dealership again
ks.
From experience, they are built terribly.
5 year old Clio, family owned from new and had only 37k on the clock when i got it.
By 60k it had literally fell apart and i had spent a fortune trying to keep it on the road.
Head gasket, water pump, power steering pump, gearbox, 2 driveshafts, both electric window motors, windscreen washer pump, brake calliper, all 4 springs, shocks and dampners, front wishbones.
Useless car that i was glad to get rid of.
5 year old Clio, family owned from new and had only 37k on the clock when i got it.
By 60k it had literally fell apart and i had spent a fortune trying to keep it on the road.
Head gasket, water pump, power steering pump, gearbox, 2 driveshafts, both electric window motors, windscreen washer pump, brake calliper, all 4 springs, shocks and dampners, front wishbones.
Useless car that i was glad to get rid of.
It's nice to see that there are numerous tales of trouble-free motoring here during ownership, but I have seen several Renault Espaces at the side of the road and selected as an individual car, they score way down on the warranty direct web page and list things such as..
Electric handbrake can be troublesome.
Keyless go system can also be temperamental.
Heating and climate control systems can stop working, with fixes outside warranty potentially very costly.
Electric windows and central locking can be erratic.
Exhaust gas recirculation valve can stick on diesels, leading to engine self-destructing.
Coil units on petrol cars sometimes fail one after another.
Glow plugs of diesels can fail after just 30,000 miles.
Headlight bulbs blow, with replacement best done by a dealer.
Interior trim often comes adrift all too easily.
As it was mentioned, it also looks like my friends head gasket has gone on his 03 plate Clio after 80k.
Electric handbrake can be troublesome.
Keyless go system can also be temperamental.
Heating and climate control systems can stop working, with fixes outside warranty potentially very costly.
Electric windows and central locking can be erratic.
Exhaust gas recirculation valve can stick on diesels, leading to engine self-destructing.
Coil units on petrol cars sometimes fail one after another.
Glow plugs of diesels can fail after just 30,000 miles.
Headlight bulbs blow, with replacement best done by a dealer.
Interior trim often comes adrift all too easily.
As it was mentioned, it also looks like my friends head gasket has gone on his 03 plate Clio after 80k.
In recent years I've owned a 2001 Clio in which I done about 60,000 mls with no issues over 4 years. That was replaced with a 2002 mkII Laguna which done similar mileage. The only issue was a fault with the front electric windows but no problem that actually caused the car to break down.
Years back I owned a Citroen ZX and a Xsara. The ZX was a good car which had a hard commuting life. The odd random flickering dash light was a niggle and it also needed a clutch after 3years of stop start commuting on the M8.
The Xsara however had a cutting out fault that even Citroen could not fix. It was complete rubbish.
On the whole I quite liked my French cars which tended to be quite well equipped. Not sure I would buy one of the more modern models though just based on reputation alone. But then I doubt I would buy a new German car either
Years back I owned a Citroen ZX and a Xsara. The ZX was a good car which had a hard commuting life. The odd random flickering dash light was a niggle and it also needed a clutch after 3years of stop start commuting on the M8.
The Xsara however had a cutting out fault that even Citroen could not fix. It was complete rubbish.
On the whole I quite liked my French cars which tended to be quite well equipped. Not sure I would buy one of the more modern models though just based on reputation alone. But then I doubt I would buy a new German car either
Urban Sports said:
French cars are crap end of story.
Bit harsh.I've had 2 which were utterly reliable and great cars in their own rights.
1988 Renault 5 1.7 GTX a fun, throwable go cart.
1988 Citroen CX 2.5 GTi an impeccable long distance wafter with the most comfortable seats know to man.
Plus, in typical French fashion, they both had huge ashtrays.
Only gripe is that they were badly put together and both ended up with a boot full of plastic trim which repeatably fell off.
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