are french & italian cars that bad?

webmonkeyuk said:
thanx for the imput chaps, i really fancy a clio but after reading on here http://www.carsurvey.org/ and just general stuff you hear its really putting me off, just a shame the french make good engines but cant get the rest of the car right
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A nice comfortable car but the clio 1.6 rxe is a bit slow and has cost me 3k in the first year on one problem after the other ,so if you have money to burn and enjoy driving the garage wreck whilst they try and figure out your car problems maybe its for you :D
 
no, french cars rock. just gotta buy right in the first place :p

they led the world in diesel development once... ;)
 
panthro said:
Well, so far Ive broken the above rules. Only had problems with the Fiat (punto). WIll never buy another Fiat.
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Ha, DanMc07 has a Punto, he has had quite a few issues in around 3-4 months with it, his mate has a newer Punto and his brakes failed the other day.

:)
 
webmonkeyuk said:
thanx for the imput chaps, i really fancy a clio but after reading on here http://www.carsurvey.org/ and just general stuff you hear its really putting me off, just a shame the french make good engines but cant get the rest of the car right
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I had a Renault 19 for 4 or so years that was ok.

I've got a Clio 172 I've had for 3 years that's been great, no problems.

My other half has an 03 plate Clio for 6 months and had a service and belt change today, no probs (and was cheap too).

My mum had a 1.2 H reg Clio for about 14 years, only thing that ever went wrong was the fuel pump once.

She now has a 53 plate Clio and, yup you've guessed it, no problems there :)

Ooh forgot, my dad had a 1.4 ZX for years, no problems.

Then his final car was a Saxo 1.4, never anything wrong with it.

Keep them serviced and look after them and they are fine in my experiance.

Other halfs previoius car was a Micra and that had loads go wrong.
 
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I never see old Fiats. I wonder why...neither Seat (Spanish?)
Quite a old pugs going round though. It seems if you get a good un it'll last yonks, but then if you get a cursed lemon..
 
None of my 3 FIAT's have ever broke down on me, the trim even stayed put.

Any car will let you down if you don't maintain it properly tho. *Edit: Except an old volvo, those will keep running with every conceivable kind of engine failure for at least 100k.

For new cars today the only ones that are unreliable no matter how well you treat them are the french.
 
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Ev0 said:
My mum had a 1.2 H reg Clio for about 14 years, only thing that ever went wrong was the fuel pump once.
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I find that a bit hard to believe :D in 14 years the only thing that went wrong ,did she ever drive it :D

I had a H reg 1.4 rt clio several years ago it was not to bad but repairs ,mots on average about £500 a year .
 
I never see old Fiats. I wonder why...neither Seat (Spanish?)
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I live 5 mins from Spain. The amount of late 70's & 80's Uno's, Tipos, 127's, (old) Panda's, Ronda's, Ritmos you spot in villages up mountains is immense.

By the same reckoning, all of them seem to smoke their way up the winding mountain roads too :)
 
The wife has got an 04 Clio, and not had a problem with it, but only got it in September, before that she had a X Reg Clio, and had no problem with that either, was serviced every year, had the belts changed, and no problem, the sunroof did leak though, however the new one doesnt! So they are not all that bad.

I also had a Fiat Cinquecento, with no problems in the 3years i had it, also my Dad had a Tipo for 4years, and nothing went wrong with that either.
 
MagicBoy said:
Look at the "associate" germans, eg SEAT and Skoda. Same underpinnings as the "proper" VW without the associated price tag. All those Skoda owners who love their cars can't be wrong.

Edit to the rules
1. Don't buy an Alfa
2. Don't buy a Fiat
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My wife used to run an old E reg Fiat Uno up and down the M25, M26 and M20 daily. We retired the car after 2 years at 160,000 miles without any real problems.

Replaced it with a G reg Ford Orion diesel. 9 months later it suffered catostrophic engine failure with only 88k on it.

Replaced with VW Polo F reg. Nice 1 owner example that first destroyed a distributer and then a gearbox. Price of VW spares made the car uneconomical to repair.

Finally she took over my Alfa Romeo 75 that already had 101,000. She retired it in 4 years later with 235,000.

From our experience the Italians were the only cars that seemed to be able to handle some of the hardest stretches of motorway in the country.
 
Yes your right, all italian and french cars are terrible.

So long as everyone knows that it keeps the second hand prices down for me :)
 
Swimbo69 had a Renault 19 that catastrophically fell to bits near its 10th birthday. Everything failed at the same time and it wasn't worth fixing. She's now got a 12 year old Scenic which is just going on and on and on despite having the 'notorious' Renault autobox. It's done 117K on its original box and other than a few things wearing out because of the mileage nothing has gone wrong on that thing.
 
I tend to steer clear of French since my experiences. My 205 left me stranded a couple of times, once causing a tailback! Starter motor and somthing I can no longer remember.

I then had a 306, which first had a head gasket failure. Got it repaired, then the entire engine had to be replaced.

I know you can just get lemons, but it's put me off for life.
 
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