Are French cars really that bad?

[GT3]

I drive a 15 year old Xsara VTS and a 26 year old 205 GTI. I've also had 5 Saxos, 3 106's, 4 Xsaras, 2 406's and probably some others I've forgotten about. Yes I'm the PSA version of that bloke who likes Rovers on here, never had any major issues with any of them though! They might be cheap and old but they don't tend to rust and you can fix them with a Halfords socket set.

 

[M1k3H]

I have to say I was in the same boat as the OP.

Never wanted to touch French cars, as growing up the only positive thing I heard about them was the ride comfort. Everyone kept saying about how un-reliable they were.

Until I saw a very good deal on an approved used Renault Megane '05.

Bought it and now had it for nearly 2 years. Excellent car to drive, very nice engine.

Only thing wrong is the passenger window, moisture must have gone into the connector to ECU so whenever the weather is damp, you can't operate it.

Other than that, just servicing and a belt at 60k.

 

[chrisoverson]

that bloke who likes Rovers on here

not a good time to mention I've owned four rovers and loved em all to bits then? .

 

[SexyGreyFox]

If you want to know what makes of cars are reliable go and talk to an AA repair man.
For many years they fill details into a laptop so know the least make/model cars they go out to.

 

[Westyfield2]

I had a Saxo VTR as my first car, bought it off the original owner. I sold it to someone I knew and its still going strong today. Always seems funny whenever I see my old car coming towards me.

Currently have a Clio 182, again bought off the original owner. It hasn't had anything major go wrong, and I'm hoping preventative maintenance will keep it that way. But the French build quality wasn't particularly great and its not uncommon for them to drop a valve.

 

[shroomz]

My 307 does odd things with the electrics - the windows aren't new so the anti finger jam mechanism triggers every time I close the window due to extra resistance in the mechanism so the windows always open fully before I can close them again. The door lock sensor on the drivers door has gone too so I always get a "door open" alarm and the car doesn't lock... Lol. I was hoping it was just wet and would dry out but it's been about a month now so garage time soon.
Reliability-wise, I've put more than 20,000 miles on it since getting it in July and it hasn't missed a beat. In that time it's had an oil change and a new timing belt/water pump/tensioners.
Going to keep it till it dies.

 

[lemonade]

There are some interesting and myth-busting figures re: mechanical reliability which show up German marques as worse than the French if you want to search those up. If I wanted to 'upgrade' to a more reliable marque I'd definitely go Japanese. I see going for German marques as a bit of side-step in that respect. VW have excellent perceived quality and marketing departments but I was really surprised by how many newish cars were coming in with serious failures when I worked at a VW dealership.

Yep agreed, the whole German reliability is a myth, they are just as unreliable if not more in some cases than French cars, the whole interior quality is a myth too, another perceived thought, they have excellent marketing and the motor press just parrot old cliches about them that makes people think they are indestructible.

If I was buying for reliability and quality I would get something Japanese failing that Korean, but then again some of the Japanese brands are not as good as they used to be either in the cars they have made past 5-10 years.

 

[joesmith]

My 307 does odd things with the electrics - the windows aren't new so the anti finger jam mechanism triggers every time I close the window due to extra resistance in the mechanism so the windows always open fully before I can close them again. The door lock sensor on the drivers door has gone too so I always get a "door open" alarm and the car doesn't lock... Lol. I was hoping it was just wet and would dry out but it's been about a month now so garage time soon.
Reliability-wise, I've put more than 20,000 miles on it since getting it in July and it hasn't missed a beat. In that time it's had an oil change and a new timing belt/water pump/tensioners.
Going to keep it till it dies.

So dodgy electronics isn't a reliability issue in your eyes? Most people would class that as missing a beat or two!

Yep agreed, the whole German reliability is a myth, they are just as unreliable if not more in some cases than French cars, the whole interior quality is a myth too, another perceived thought, they have excellent marketing and the motor press just parrot old cliches about them that makes people think they are indestructible.

Agree with this, also, VWs have extremely dull interiors.



Can't say that I would ever consider buying a French car though - there's simply always better alternatives for the money.

 

[IC3]

I've ran my Clio (55 plate mk 3, 1.5 dCi) for 5 years and 55,000 miles. It's now coming up to 10 years old and 100,000 miles and I'm quite pleased truth be told.

I've only had to replace consumables on it. Although this year has been a bit of a stinger - pair of springs, track rod end, drop links and suspension arm - I would attribute that to my locale and driving style. I do home visits all day long (care) in the middle of Snowdonia on awful roads. I live in the middle of it too so it never gets an easy ride. I reckon if I lived in a city or just did motorway runs with it I wouldn't have had half of these things. The glow plugs have also been changed this year. I don't think any of the above are unacceptable. Perhaps I'm making excuses but I guess if I am that's a sign of how much enjoy my car. I recently had a 63 plate Focus 1.0 125 Ecoboost as a courtesy car and as much as I enjoyed the engine the car itself was quite poor I felt. Really rattly steering column, unattractive dashboard and vague steering. I was glad to get back in my Clio! The only electrical issue I've had was a broken indicator stalk but that was fixed easily enough with a replacement.

As with most cars these days I think service history is significantly more important than brand. If someone doesn't bother servicing their car they likely don't care much for it and don't look after it.

There are some interesting and myth-busting figures re: mechanical reliability which show up German marques as worse than the French if you want to search those up. If I wanted to 'upgrade' to a more reliable marque I'd definitely go Japanese. I see going for German marques as a bit of side-step in that respect. VW have excellent perceived quality and marketing departments but I was really surprised by how many newish cars were coming in with serious failures when I worked at a VW dealership.

Yep agreed, the whole German reliability is a myth, they are just as unreliable if not more in some cases than French cars, the whole interior quality is a myth too, another perceived thought, they have excellent marketing and the motor press just parrot old cliches about them that makes people think they are indestructible.

If I was buying for reliability and quality I would get something Japanese failing that Korean, but then again some of the Japanese brands are not as good as they used to be either in the cars they have made past 5-10 years.

I totally agree with you two, Japanese cars are indestructible as long, as you keep the correct oil level and change it within the recommended time scale. That's why I wanted an EP2 so badly as my insurance was low, the car weights like 1150kg and has 110hp. But too many chavs drive these, the last one we went to see was a lovely grey ep2 with full service history, but the owner was a drug dealer and we met somewhere in a parking lot. I checked the car and it was HPI clear, but too many things put me off buying that car.

My dad's mechanic was given an old 01 accord type-r which was going to be scraped anyway. So they went out on the field and spent whole day having fun in the field trying to blow the engine, but they were unsuccessful so they gave up after wrecking it till it got dark and they run out of fuel.

Our Accord 01 1.8 VTEC was faultless as well, its funny how the german cars quality dropped as the 230E and E190 mercedes were bulletproof, one of the older blokes which drove a taxi did like 900,000 miles on one. Another example would be my dad's friend who sold he's mercedes C class in which he invested around 6-7k and the car still broke so he went out an bought an Honda CRV.

 

[Uncle_Gravy]

Our 2003 2L Accord has been a dream during the 8 or so years its been in the family i've owned it for just over a year now, literally zero faults with it, its serviced every year, nice set of tyres put on it, and even with 135k miles on the clock it still feels new, Interior has held up so well in it.

 

[yaboydom]

owned a mk2 ph2 clio at 48k sold at 80k
never needed anything other than consumables i.e timing belt tensioner front brake discs and tires only let me down once with the immobilisers

current mk2 ph2 clio at 63k now on 89k
only thing i have done is an oil service with plugs and 4 new tyres as im running this one to the ground has never let me down and has cost £100 for the above as well as not a single advisory in 4 years for MOT

now that's not to say they both haven't had funny electrical problems 1st clio i could turn the front foglights on without the side lights or main beam and also the passenger airbag light was intermittent due to a faulty connector.

current clio the front side lights are always on when the engine is started albeit very dim i can still select side lights and they come on brighter.

i could probably fix these issues but to be honest its not worth my time or energy.
also to add they both squeak and rattle like a french car should.

mechanically neither have put a foot wrong.

owned a ek4 honda civic B16A2 engined .....that was a pile of crap valve stem seals let go, ecu was fried seat mounting bolts rusted and made the drivers seat insecure. a whole host of other electrical gremlins left the dash cluster lit up like a christmas tree.

will i buy jap again of course some cars are just lemons (also never buy a car thats been previously tinkered with by some one who can't even be bothered to change out of pyjamas when you see the car)

 

[yaboydom]

i should add my experience with a german car.
Polo 6n2 1.0 65k currently

window regulator failed
clutch pedal box snapped
(anyone whos ever had to change one over will know what a pig of a job it is due to having to remove the steering column to replace!)
and now the door lock assembly has failed

these are common problems for polo's and mk4 golfs btw.
also to add not my car so i had no say in the car beforehand.

i've owned 3 other jap cars MR2 Turbo / Mitsubishi FTO / MB6 honda civic
and none of those had any faults so technically Jap cars have been more reliable for me so far but to be honest i'm not swayed by any brand every car has it's common problems its down to the person buying the car to research what they are and if it's a reasonable cost/price to fix before buying.

 

[IC3]

Our 2003 2L Accord has been a dream during the 8 or so years its been in the family i've owned it for just over a year now, literally zero faults with it, its serviced every year, nice set of tyres put on it, and even with 135k miles on the clock it still feels new, Interior has held up so well in it.

We did over 80k in this car, nothing went wrong, this is the last pic that was taken before it got sold. The mileage was like 145k on it when we sold it. We did so many long trips of 1500km+ in it...

owned a ek4 honda civic B16A2 engined .....that was a pile of crap valve stem seals let go, ecu was fried seat mounting bolts rusted and made the drivers seat insecure. a whole host of other electrical gremlins left the dash cluster lit up like a christmas tree.

will i buy jap again of course some cars are just lemons (also never buy a car thats been previously tinkered with by some one who can't even be bothered to change out of pyjamas when you see the car)

Looks like you were unlucky, some civics do rust quickly. But other than that they are reliable cars, I have heard more good about Japanese cars than bad which is a good thing.

 

[lemonade]

We did over 80k in this car, nothing went wrong, this is the last pic that was taken before it got sold. The mileage was like 145k on it when we sold it. We did so many long trips of 1500km+ in it...
[IG]http://i.gyazo.com/2e4ba3841e7e427e6719ba329f5768ee.png[/IMG]


Looks like you were unlucky, some civics do rust quickly. But other than that they are reliable cars, I have heard more good about Japanese cars than bad which is a good thing.

I have this generation of Accord, my one is actually my first car which I still have and will keep forever, nothing has gone wrong with it and it is thrashed to bits every time I drive it and it keeps asking for more , great fun to drive, super reliable from the engine to the uber strong suspensions, great paintwork and the interior is rock solid from the materials used to the build quality, these were the last of the solid build Honda's from Swindon, everything went downhill afterwards.

 

[pepsilol]

One of my friends had a Citroen on an 05 plate if I recall correctly. This was back in 2008 and it had something like 40k on it. Parts of the trim were falling off

She wasn't too impressed when I managed to dismantle half the centre console in a few seconds.

 

[lemonade]

One of my friends had a Citroen on an 05 plate if I recall correctly. This was back in 2008 and it had something like 40k on it. Parts of the trim were falling off

She wasn't too impressed when I managed to dismantle half the centre console in a few seconds.

That is by design to make it easier for the owner to repair or replace faulty electrical gubbins behind the dash.

 

[MeAnBoY]

Oddly enough the exhaust fell off my 106 as well.
However I'm not sure why anyone would end up stuck at the side of the road because of it!

Happened to me on my first date with my current GF! Very embarrassing at the time as I hear the clunk and thought nothing of it (was fairly slow moving traffic in town), next thing I know there's two lads knocking my window holding my exhaust telling me I left something behind

Still with the same lass 10 years later and still embarassing myself

 

[shroomz]

So dodgy electronics isn't a reliability issue in your eyes? Most people would class that as missing a beat or two

The only thing I'm happy with is that it's done that many miles, frequently heavily loaded, with nothing actually necessary for getting from A to B breaking and I am happy with keeping it going until I can afford to buy something better.

 

[joesmith]

The only thing I'm happy with is that it's done that many miles, frequently heavily loaded, with nothing actually necessary for getting from A to B breaking and I am happy with keeping it going until I can afford to buy something better.

Fair enough. Actually, that is exactly my dad's policy - the central locking in his old car (a Ford Escort) completely failed, such that he could not lock the doors. He still kept driving it until the cam belt snapped!

A couple of times some thieves went inside the vehicle to try to look for anything valuable in it, I bet they regretted it after simply re-arranging the crap that was in there