Owning a French car, why why why?

Subjective, but I think the French make some cracking looking cars. Often think their more mundane, everyday cars are still much more interesting looking than their German and Japanese contemporaries.
But aside from that, I'm also not a big fan in general. When younger, every friend I had who had a French car had trouble with them. My dad has owned several French vehicles, and all of them ended up being a mixture of unreliable or poorly built. The one exception being a 1988 Renault 25 which he loved, and which never went wrong at all. Unfortunately, some bugger stole it and wrote it off :/
 
JonRGV250 said:
Try working on them for a living.
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That's mainly because they are LHD designs adapted to RHD but it can be applied to most modern cars are way too complex & you have to remove many unrelated components to reach the part your interested in!
 
I'm writing this from a hospital bed, seemingly having narrowly dodged meningitis! So please excuse my indulgence whist I await the approval of the Infections Consultant in sending me home...

My first car was a Renault Fuego Coupe TX. 'Fuego' meaning 'fire' strangely. Gifted to me on my 17th birthday, by my father who'd used it to commute to work 80 miles a day, for a couple of years. It wasn't particularly frugal, but it kept the miles off his E34 5 series. It was given to him by his then boss, who said it was foc if dad could get it to start and get it off his driveway! It seemed to run ok for Dad, at least for a while, but then broke down on the starting leg of a family holiday to London - requiring the AA and a visit to a garage. Days later it overheated on the Victoria Embankment in summer traffic.

Sadly for me, the Fuego was gold. However it had a 2 litre engine, whilst all my fellow 17 year-old peers were driving around in 1.0 and 1.2 litre Novas. To me it looked like it had been styled after the Porsche 924, although very badly. It did have the most amazingly supportive and comfortable seats however. I loved it - it was my first car, but the handling wasn't great, 2nd gear was picky, the bodywork dented if you sneezed and it was a pita to work on. Most memorable moment was doing 70 mph on a dual carriageway when the bonnet skin decided to separate, swing up and smash into the windscreen, obscuring all view. Looked like something from Mad Max. Brown trousers that day.

Not one to learn a lesson, a few years later I bought a Renault 19 16v phase 2 with my own money (see student loan). Again great seats and again a pain to work on. Parts were expensive and some were hard to get or just peculiar sizes/threads. The bodywork was painfully thin again and parts just seemed to disintegrate at will - aluminium window surrounds bubbling, light clusters filling with water and panels rusting from the inside-out on a 3+ year old car?! It did handle well though and was reasonably quick for its time... I should have just bought a Golf though.

I've haven't bought another French car since, never will. I also similarly distrust Italian cars, but I'm mindful that means I've missed out on some great Alfas and probably a load of epic breakdowns.
 
I've only owned the good ones (205 GTIs, 309 GTIs) so can't comment any further than that!

Edit

I did have to help do a clutch change on a Safrane once, 8 hours or so of my life I'll never get back.
 
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Loved my 306 gti-6 when it was working! It was a money pit though. Repairs every 6 months, every bill started with a 3 or a 4 which, at the time, made it very expensive. It wasn't very frugal but as said, when working it was the best car I've had. Masses of feeling through the wheel, spookily supple over bumps and handled corners superbly. All the unreliability just soured the ownership experience. It was a car that definitely confirmed the old adage that French cars have dodgy electrics.
 
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I was told recently by someone at work that they would never buy another french car after some issues with a 407 (I think) decades ago. Ironically the constant major and eye wateringly expensive faults on his wife's Evoque didn't stop him getting an F pace which has been equally dreadful reliability wise.

I considered a 308 estate as a company car but the driving position felt weird when I first sat in it and I saw it as soon as it came in which put me off as it was a bit tatty. Kind of wish I'd given it a bit more if a chance as it was a nicer package overall than my Leon.
 
My previous car, a Megane RS280 cup was brilliant, I can't imagine anyone not loving giving it a good thrashing. Build quality was good but there is a special place in hell for the person who decided the placement of the window switches. I now have a Italian car and the fear of repair costs is real with it!
 
Other half has a 2011 Megane. We hate it. Compared to my old 07 Civic and current 09 Mondeo it feels 30 years older.

Her current complaint is that she keeps locking up and skidding when braking despite having decent tyres on it. The brakes are absolutely inadequate as it is, I've replaced the lot and had a garage go through it and it passes its MOT but they just don't get any better, it's like there's no assistance. The fact she's getting no ABS kicking in is concerning, but then I'm not sure if it even has ABS. No lights or warnings that something isn't working.

I've also had to strip and re-grease the electric window mechs becasue they've dried out, bound up and bent inside the door.

We've just bought a house, hence driving older cars we own outright, however the second we can replace it we'll never look back. Even a Fiesta/Focus/Civic of the same era would just be a massive upgrade. The fact her commute can be 3 hours a day really doesn't help. Wouldn't get me driving that daily!
 
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I needed a cheap family load lugger and bought a Brand New Grand Scenic in '08, it was the cheapest new big diesel estate I could find, 12k for a brand new motor, no more justification needed than that to buy a French car, big ones were cheap.

Ran it for 6yrs/100k miles absolutely flawless, easy 50+mpg, reliable and a super wafty, zero excitement car, wore out the rubber pedals and hole carpet in that time, no actual mechanical issues.

Only got rid when I realized I was towing illegally as its GTW was super low. Superb car and I would have bought another Renault of the back of that but they didn't sell anything I wanted at the time.
 
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We had a Peugeot 2008 since 2014. Perfectly reliable, comfortable, well equipped, efficient, cheap to tax, small family car. Sold it a few weeks ago with 100k on the clock without ever having any issues bar typical servicable, maintenance items.

Better question is, why do people rely on outdated heresay about previous generations of cars to make car purchasing decisions now.
 
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