Are French cars really that bad?

indyskyz · 20 Mar 2015 at 20:31

I've got a 2005 407 2.0HDI @ 90k I have owned it for two years.

Problems so far
The center console screen blacks out when it gets warm
The left rear light cluster kept setting off warnings about bulbs being faulty (fixed was the earth)
Rear left window regulator winder snapped away from the motor and chewed the cable up
Intermittently the turbo stops with no error shown usually when pulling hard but not Always (sorts its self with ignition off/on)
Passed two mot's with minor advisories

I get laughed at because of top gear

Several of my colleagues own golfs that are sub 5 years old which often have major faults luckily covered by warranties. I would not have a golf.

shroomz · 21 Mar 2015 at 12:48

joesmith said:
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

Speaking of which, I was speaking to a friend at my gym 2 weeks ago who's a steeplejack and got his entire toolbox nicked from his van when he left it unlocked and unsupervised for 10 minutes in Glasgow... My car doesn't lock! At first I was worried, then I thought, hang on, all I ever have inside is some emergency water, first aid kit, blanket and a £20 bluetooth FM transmitter... It can wait

One day though, I'll not drive a piece of crap and it won't be French.

dalin80 · 21 Mar 2015 at 13:21

As a mechanic I would fully encourage everyone to buy French cars, I like having job security.

German cars... not that much better.

If you want a reliable car you simply have to buy from the Japanese or the quickly improving south korean makes.

IC3 · 21 Mar 2015 at 16:35

dalin80 said:
As a mechanic I would fully encourage everyone to buy French cars, I like having job security.

German cars... not that much better.

If you want a reliable car you simply have to buy from the Japanese or the quickly improving south korean makes.

How would you rate the newer fords, well not new but from 2005/2006 upwards to 2011-2012?
Kia is made in Korea, right? I remember my dad use to have a kia ages ago, it was really reliable. It was one of the older ones which had engines from mazda. I can't remember what car it was, as it was probably 12 years ago if not more.

I do like the Kia Pro'Ceed, but that's over my budget atm.

Dav4 · 21 Mar 2015 at 16:58

IC3 said:
How would you rate the newer fords, well not new but from 2005/2006 upwards to 2011-2012?
Kia is made in Korea, right? I remember my dad use to have a kia ages ago, it was really reliable. It was one of the older ones which had engines from mazda. I can't remember what car it was, as it was probably 12 years ago if not more.

I do like the Kia Pro'Ceed, but that's over my budget atm.

Haven't you got a Focus yet :eek:

there's tons of them for sale.

IC3 · 21 Mar 2015 at 17:51

Dav4 said:
Haven't you got a Focus yet there's tons of them for sale.

I'm really picky when it comes to cars, I'm not in a rush. I drove the 3dr focus sport and 5dr focus zetec, I haven't checked the figures in terms of acceleration. But the 1.6 3dr felt snappier than the 1.6 5dr, not sure if its a placebo effect.
BTW because the focus is so popular its really easy to step on a mine... So I wouldn't say that the amount of them posted up for sale is a good thing.

I still put Honda Civic at higher priority than a focus, my checklist for ford is 2 pages long where for the civic its like 3-4 things to look out for.

Edit:

I have actually booked a test drive at my ford dealer in a black 1.6 3dr zetec 06 or 07 can't remember now. But the person before me bought it... I'm 99.9% positive I would have bought that one after the test drive

I also had an appoitment with a guy who was selling an 08 Zetec 5dr nice dark blue colour mk2.5 focus 1.6. But the same story, someone before me bought it...

joesmith · 21 Mar 2015 at 18:19

IC3 said:
BTW because the focus is so popular its really easy to step on a mine... So I wouldn't say that the amount of them posted up for sale is a good thing.

I think your logic is a little bit broken there.

Yes, more of them means there are going to be more bad ones for sale, but the proportion of bad ones, meaning the probability of picking up a bad one, remains equal. In fact, it just means you can be more fussy and therefore less likely to pick up a bad one.

Dav4 · 21 Mar 2015 at 18:27

IC3 said:
I'm really picky when it comes to cars, I'm not in a rush. I drove the 3dr focus sport and 5dr focus zetec, I haven't checked the figures in terms of acceleration. But the 1.6 3dr felt snappier than the 1.6 5dr, not sure if its a placebo effect.

There's 2 1.6 focus's there's the 1.6 99bhp duratec and the 115bhp ti vct engine. U have probably tested one of each hence the difference in feeling. The 115bhp is 0.8 secs quicker but u can actually feel it as it likes to rev a lot easier
Can't think why u would still want the civic over the mk2 Focus as the shape Civic in your budget looks like a Honda Jizz/really dated now imo

ChugNorris · 21 Mar 2015 at 18:59

I've got a Megane RS 265, put over 10k on it in a year, absolutely zero problems. It's only on 22K but it's been fantastic. Might be a different story 5 years down the road but for now I'm happy!

Catman05 · 21 Mar 2015 at 21:24

Biggest thing is to do redearch before buying any car all makes can have have problems

I have owned 2 renault clio's

1994 1.4 Auto owned for 3 years - had no major faults until I scapped it but faults were caused by myself not changing the plugs or oil for over 40 thousand miles

2004 1.5 DCI 100 owned for 4 years - Only problems I had was EGR Valve and the Hazard switch but apart from that all was ok.

I have had many fords through work and all been terrible but probably down to lack of servicing and hard driving

Current car is a Skoda Fabia VRS and apart from drinking 10L of oil between buying it and it's 1st service (hopefully now fixed) it's been Good

IC3 · 21 Mar 2015 at 23:29

Dav4 said:
There's 2 1.6 focus's there's the 1.6 99bhp duratec and the 115bhp ti vct engine. U have probably tested one of each hence the difference in feeling. The 115bhp is 0.8 secs quicker but u can actually feel it as it likes to rev a lot easier
Can't think why u would still want the civic over the mk2 Focus as the shape Civic in your budget looks like a Honda Jizz/really dated now imo

Focus MK2 looks dated as well and I don't exactly fancy that shape, the mk2.5 is a massive improvement over mk2 in terms of the design IMO. The civic is just quicker and feels snappier than the focus.

Fuzz · 22 Mar 2015 at 09:23

Old ones no
Newer ones yes
Newest ones no

IC3 · 22 Mar 2015 at 10:00

Fuzz said:
Old ones no
Newer ones yes
Newest ones no

French cars or Ford Focus? I'm confused due to the slight OT...

Fuzz · 22 Mar 2015 at 10:06

French, as per OP

OpenToSuggestions · 22 Mar 2015 at 10:35

I wouldn't even entertain a French car.
Not when the equivalent Ford/Skoda/Seat/VW is better.

OK so I would buy a 205 GTI...

GTAMADDOG · 22 Mar 2015 at 12:47

My first car was a 1999 306 HDI which I did about 42,000 miles in over three years and aside from the instrument cluster doing a needle dance for the first few miles I couldn't fault it. Even that didn't bother me because I used to test myself to see if I was doing bang on the speed limit when the needles started working. Just normal servicing and replacement of tyres and brakes. I did put new springs and dampers on all round, but that wasn't because anything was broken.

If I needed a cheap car that I knew would start every day and get me where I wanted to go I'd probably have another one. That car never spent a day off the road due to a problem whereas my BMW has had a week or so out of action and three times the money thrown at it in just one year.

My dad drives the 306 now and he calls it the Top Gear car, because it is like the backup cars they had on their banger road-trip episodes, it always gets you where you want to go.

Dav4 · 22 Mar 2015 at 12:54

IC3 said:
Edit:
I have actually booked a test drive at my ford dealer in a black 1.6 3dr zetec 06 or 07 can't remember now. But the person before me bought it... I'm 99.9% positive I would have bought that one after the test drive

IC3 said:
Focus MK2 looks dated as well and I don't exactly fancy that shape, the mk2.5 is a massive improvement over mk2 in terms of the design IMO. The civic is just quicker and feels snappier than the focus.

Slight contradiction there :confused:

you where gonna buy a mk2 but you don't like them? You won't get a mk2.5 in your budget. And as for the Civic it has exactly the same 0-60 time as the 115bhp Focus.

IC3 · 22 Mar 2015 at 17:15

Dav4 said:
Slight contradiction there you where gonna buy a mk2 but you don't like them? You won't get a mk2.5 in your budget. And as for the Civic it has exactly the same 0-60 time as the 115bhp Focus.

The Civic can do 0-60 in 8s, it does it on 2nd gear.

I don't particularly like any of the cars that the insurance allows me to drive, but focus and civic compared to crappy corsa or fiesta seems like a better choice IMHO.

Dav4 · 22 Mar 2015 at 18:03

IC3 said:
The Civic can do 0-60 in 8s, it does it on 2nd gear. I don't particularly like any of the cars that the insurance allows me to drive, but focus and civic compared to crappy corsa or fiesta seems like a better choice IMHO.

a 2.0 Civic type S takes 8.5 secs. Show me a 1.6 Civic for 3k that hits 60 in 8 secs :confused:

IC3 · 22 Mar 2015 at 20:36

Dav4 said:
a 2.0 Civic type S takes 8.5 secs. Show me a 1.6 Civic for 3k that hits 60 in 8 secs

around 9s