Do FRENCH CARS Suck? All You Need To Know About French Cars

[@ronjohnson1658]

I have owned 12 Peugeots in the last 57 years . All were reliable, very safe, well engineered and comfortable long distance cars .Lovely to drive, economical and durable (Australia has some very bad roads and incredibly long distances) . My current Peugeot 508 GT turbo diesel is brilliant, averages 5.3 litres per hundred km on a long distance drive (53MPG Imperial) and has plenty of power and torque. Currently has 329, 000km and is only 12 years old.

[@nsz2302]

We had 9 Renaults 3 peugeots and 1citroen in the family till now and none of them had major problems. Only one peugeot got stranded once.

[@about_blank.]

When you were talking about performance in French cars, I was screaming 'ALPINE!! ALPINE!!' in my head.

[@ThePapaja1996]

And i whould say Bugatti

[@about_blank.]

@ThePapaja1996 Still, Bugatti is owned by VW, so it doesn't make it fully French unlike Alpine which has been under Renault in all of it history.

[@Milyyym]

@@about_blank. Does that mean we should consider Lamborghini (owned by VW too) a german brand ? What about Jeep, Dodge, RAM (Stellantis) ?

[@adrianomari9820]

Not in all history in the debut it was just Alpine alone modifying Renault cars

[@about_blank.]

@@Milyyym What in trying to say is mecahnics and engineering. Alpine is a truly French brand with French built engineering and mecahincs. The Stellantis question is a more "yesn't" question too. 😅

[@repajozsef8961]

Renault making some of the engines for Mercedes cars. 🗿

[@TeamKiller06]

And Peugeot for BMW

[@thatpeskyswan]

yes they do and they're absolutely dreadful, the dci and peugeot lumps for Bmws/minis absolutely suck frog butt crack and have only made bmw/mercedes/minis reputation worse too.

[@repajozsef8961]

@@thatpeskyswan fake news, mercedes reputation is still great, although not as good as BMW's. Oh and Peugeot only makes engines for Minis cause they need to cheap out somewhere, but that is no longer going to be the case, because new Minis are going to be built in China with the cooperation of Great Wall Motors.

[@spitfire656]

​@@repajozsef8961That,old minis + if im not mistaken some engines in early f30 bmws called the prince engine

[@spitfire656]

True,i still see my brother super happy with his mercedes a class with a megane motor in it,so sad

[@randomthingsstuff6591]

French cars r literally my fav

[@leogeee1]

USA (Pennsylvania) here. In the 80s I had a Renault Alliance (Renault 9). It rode like a larger car, very comfortable and economical. There were oddities, the hood opened from the windshield up, the horn was on the turn signal stalk. And now I drive a Nissan (Versa) Note which is built on a Renault Clio platform. Lotsa room in the back seat, super economical and ultra reliable. No complaints here.

[@roflwtfdude]

currently the biggest drama today is the puretech engine

[@yigitderici.]

It's not that big of a deal if you change the belt every 5th oil change and clean the oil pump.

[@Clémsdu37]

Oui mais le premier problème c'est que les puretec consomme de l'huile à cause d'une mauvaise segmentation.

[@yigitderici.]

@@Clémsdu37 Je travaille dans une concession Opel Vauxhall et nos voitures utilisent également un moteur PureTech de 1,2 litre. Autant que je sache, ils ne brûlent pas d'huile. Mais si vous me donnez plus d'informations à ce sujet, je vous en serai reconnaissant. Désolé pour la mauvaise utilisation du français, j'ai utilisé traduire pour vous répondre.

[@Clémsdu37]

@@yigitderici. cela survient généralement vers les 100000 km.

[@thatpeskyswan]

not as bad as the ecoboost (aka ecoBOOM!)

[@abdelhakimhouari6451]

I had two french cars, citroen and renault, with as many problems, but far behind the problems I had with land rover (a real headache and money pit) ! Yet the best car I've ever had is a Toyota which is still taking care of my family over the last few years.

[@AlgerianGeoTuber]

As an algerian my POV is that french cars are better than american cars i have a peugeot 206 from 2006 and it doesnt have any problem

[@Luke-PlanesTrainsDogsnCars]

3:12 There's nothing remarkable or original about a Citroen with a 2 spoke steering wheel. What you mean is Citroen is famous for a 'ONE' spoke steering wheel !! .

[@EngineWise]

Yeah, I've seen it. It looks strange, doesn't it?

[@Luke-PlanesTrainsDogsnCars]

@@EngineWise 🙄

[@MrLense]

I daily, a Renault Clio 182. 180K miles and still ticking. 0 issues. Also up until Honda beat it, one of the fastest Hot Hatches to take the Nurburgring was a Renault Megane Trophy

[@aster934]

I drive a latest Nissan Micra. It comes from the same assembly line as the Renault Cliio. Same for the Mitsubishi Colt....

[@cristianoferreira4940]

3 months ago I was thinking about buying a new car. I had 2 great deals, 1 Renault Clio 2024 TCe 90 or 1 Suzuki Swift 1.2 mild Hybrid. I ended up chosing the Suzuki Swift and am really happy with it.

[@koneserbaleronu3781]

funny thing is that performance is often good, they have great hothatches, and reliability outside of electronics and few engines is really good

[@drestztdrestzt1589]

My mom has a Renault Megane, My dad has a Renault Clio, and my Sis has a Ford Fiesta all from the same dealerschip!

[@ThePapaja1996]

Do they have volvos there to

[@drestztdrestzt1589]

@ThePapaja1996 No it is in Germany and it is A Renault Dealership

[@roibinvandersteene6310]

I own two Renault's. A renault megane from 2010 with a 1.5 dci engine and a renault twingo from 2006 with the 1.2 petrol engine. My megane drives 600 kilometers every weekend and never had any issues at all. My twingo is a project car that does need a lot of attention and love because the previous owner never took care of it. But everything is getting fixed and it just keeps driving better and better everytime something gets replaced or fixed.

[@gabifrangu9794]

I usually listen to the information and do not question it, but this video is repeating the information over and over again, feeling like this is a very bad made AI video 😅

[@CultOfMonika]

I know enough people who will never again buy a french car.

[@balazsjozsa4301]

Interesting video, i have a love and hate relationship with french cars, yes they often use unusual engineering solutions, even if the rest of the world does kind of agree it should be done another way because that worked for 100 years. But they have a lot going for them, like in the 70s 80s they were already frugal, a renault 5, 9 or 100 with a 1.4 petrol engine would get around with 5l /100km, or if you try to sit in a back 90`s Clio and then in a larger Vw Golf or Mercedes c class you will find the Clio has way more space. Its great that any high end german rocket can fly down the autobahn like a comet, but when you drive in a narrow bumpy rural roads you will be happier in small french hatchback with torsion or hydropneumatic suspension. if we talk about French cars from the 00`s you will find all of them has 5 star crash safety rating and they dont rust. Also one more thing i have noticed that you can see in many cases, that great visibility and lit interiors (large glass surfaces all around) were prominent features, and that does not makes a pretty car but a good one.

[@NajCharfeddine]

old French cars like 90's and 2000"s were good, in fact maybe the best cars you get for the price you pay, but the new ones are horrible like TCE and Puretech

[@ssssssss6889]

French cars are actually ok. I myself driver a Renault Talisman. In their history , there were eras where they were rather unrealiable , rust prone and not always up to point. 1-Citroen: They mismanaged themselves financially and ended up in a merger with Peugeot. All the innovations came as a cost. In the case of the DS , they spent so much many in the project for the car as we know that they had to reuse the engines from traction avant cause no budget left for engine development. And again , the company was so much craving for finance that the DS was rushed to the market , I am going to may be a bit exagerate, while still in a prototype status. The first 2-3 years were really really difficult , after it rolled ok. From mid 70s to late 80s, realibility was an issue due to tight finance. Again , in 1989 , the XM was another model rushed in the market while not fit yet to be commercialised. 2-Realiability was a big issue in the late 70s to end of 80s. When the R19 was getting readied for the market , the CEO back then , Raymond Levy was unsatisfied and postponed the model's commercialisation for another year for better quality and realibility and it paid off. The R19 was the best selling import model in Germany for several years. From then on , realiability was no more an issue or may be just confined to certain models. Renault also pionnerred a lot of equipment , amongst others central locking and later keyless entry and start. The first cars equipped such had few youth problems but such things are enough to convey an inrealibility image. The same apply for the commonrail diesel engines in the late 90s and early 2000s , again first on the market , first to hit youth problems but today Renault is regarded as one of the best if not best diesel engines producer for the 1.5 to 1.9 liter capacity with horsepower ranging from 110 to 160 hp. Specially , the 1,5 dci is the best of best, extremely reliable , very popular amongst taxi drivers etc. 3- Peugeot: While famed for though built cars untill late 70s and early 80s , it plonged down during the 80s , only to recover in the 2000s. I believe the merger with Citroen and the resulting financial shortcomings surely have something to do with that. That specially apllies for the interior furnitures of the 80 s to late 90s. cars , both cheap materials and bad fit and finish.

[@faygox955]

Believe it or not it has a lot to do with where the French vehicle is built, what type of engine it has and what transmission it has. To give you an example, in South America, we usually take European bodies and improve them... We put reliable engines in them... and manual transmissions... Since here the fashion of being eco-friendly is only for the newspapers, in real life, nobody consumes them... .... So much for their values, distances, infrastructure, etc etc etc etc.... That is why you can see vehicles like the 208 with standard 206 engines, without modifications... precisely because they are reliable... This is something that many Europeans don't know for a fact... And as a consequence, vehicles of French brands are very popular... In fact I had a 206, and instead of selling it, I gave it to my younger brother... and he is still driving it to this day.

[@MohammedAli-mz2vl]

I fix car in Switzerland. Germany cars is the worse

[@jcdenton3062]

new, yes. Frenchies had some of the most legendary cars before they started doing this, whatever that is now

[@club1fan552]

The French have built some of the world's best cars, but not for a long time. The Citroen DS, Peugeot 404 and 205 GTi and the Renault 16 TS, par example. Having a belt immersed in oil though, and small capacity turbos, are not a great idea. Can you even buy French cars new in the U.S?

[@HalalSpeklap]

I've always had a soft spot for French cars because my family owned them, I can tell you that in terms of reliability, yes, they mostly do suck. We grew to like them anyway because they are funky, often good looking, and most importantly very comfortable. The latter was why we could never move away from them. It definitely is not true that bad reliability was a problem of the past only. I fell for this trap when buying a second hand Renault Clio. Only had 120,000 km's, full service history and very well maintained. But I've had to spend way more on that car that I ever had to on the car that I had before, a BMW E36, which had done 240,000 km's. People said the BMW would be expensive to maintain and the Clio would be cheaper to run. The contrary turned out to be true. The Clio had weird electrical issues, unexplainable coolant losses and other weird issues that no one seems to be able to diagnose. French cars are also deliberately designed to make it hard to service them. For example, on almost all cars the fuel pump would be accessible through a hole under the rear seat. Renaults will have the hole too, but it will be too small to get the fuel pump out, so you have to remove the fuel tank. The thing is that they are very hard to maintain because a lot more parts need to come out in order to reach the part that you need to. For that reason French cars have very high maintenance costs. This becomes extra bad because those parts aren't as durable as on other brands. Parts tend to have a shorter lifespan and break earlier, and are not as resistant to abuse as Japanese and German cars. For example on my dad's Citroën the clutch failed at 75,000 km, while he rides it normally. The gearbox synchro's were also worn out at 120,000 km's. Stellantis cars furthermore also have terrible gearboxes with the most hideous shifter feel I've ever felt. But it's not all bad, it's their comfort that's their main selling point. Whenever I get into Japanese cars for example, I instantly want to get out of them because they are overall dull and uncomfortable. When my parents owned a Nissan for once, to try something else than a French car, we could never get used to it and eventually ended up buying French again.

[@iulianiulian2747]

I have had a lot of French cars, Renault, Peugeot and all of them were verry good for the price. Now I have a Mercedes and I can tell you that is inferior in everything comparing with Peugeot. Mercedes is oldish technology, a car for old man, in the same time Peugeot have all the technology in this moment for a fair price.

[@vzgames]

I have very unpleasant experience owning a 2020 Renault Duster(less than 100000 kms) Reliability zero. Car had chain of issues one after other, transmission issue, suspension, interior cheap parts breaking.. list goes on and on. When i started spending more time in garage than at home i decided to sell it. No one wanted to buy that piece of shit. I had to sell it to scrap buyers to get at least something. I would happily go for any Chinese brand rather than buying a Renault at the same price point

[@ahmetmertozturk7099]

To be fair, Duster is actually belongs to Dacia. Renault rebranded it since they also have that brand. People are buying it just because because it's cheap.

[@Killerx-dd9rs]

Trust i never heard somebady say"yeah i would to get a clio " In my country its the only option

[@doordedeur]

I hear things go wrong on colleague's Renaults like 2 colleages having to exchange a steering column. That's something that never goes wrong with other cars. The original Renault Twingo was so simple that people said: nothing can go wrong with it. I testdriven a cheap second hand one and there was more wrong with it than there were parts on the car. I had two Peugeots. On the Expert the engine died and the 405 used more oil than gasoline. With my Japanese cars I never had issues.

[@adrianomari9820]

Do people really think that French car are less reliable than the German one ?

[@olisipocity]

You talk the talk, but you don't walk the walk. The truth is people, especially in the English speaking world have always been bias against French cars, particularly when compared with the Germans, but if looked under the objectivity lens of the Consumer Reports Car Reliability Survey you will see that in fact that they are more reliable. They usually lack on power, comparatively, but that's due to the system of taxation in France.

[@x.kasiouris5503]

I was between Skoda and Peugeot (Fabia vs 208) fabia won me over

[@vedrankatic8213]

Renault Talisman Grandtour Initiale Paris....👌

[@vipinvipin4288]

Renault is good car more people buying in india

[@jelleversteeg4700]

I choose a French car over a boring German ANY DAY!

[@banderastube]

Or when you hear : i want an american car ? Never

[@Paul-gu2lv]

Not as nice as the German cars, but much more reliable.

[@_B.M_]

Italian cars are known to be more unreliable. Fiat are a classic example!

[@JohnDoe-uw9nq]

Bullshit, fiat engines are way better than crap psa engines. Good luck with crap oil immersed belts

[@Paul-gu2lv]

Fiats are mostly reliable. At least after year 2000

[@waelltifi-2023]

they are using low quality materials and they cram everything without a clear structures ! my experience with old and new french cars is the same , they will make your life hell !!! imagine getting a cooler fan just melt , just imagine !!! what kind of problem is that !!!

[@meyrickface]

What was the point of the video

[@Walid.]

BMW is not reliable…and Renault is the best French brand and not from Stellantis (PCA)

[@MeRacko]

what you call unique i call weird

[@EngineWise]

Difference in terminology

[@StephenBlythe-p2g]

French cars used to be my favourite car until they started to use wet belt

[@velkine7259]

Bugatti

[@velkine7259]

You forgot Bugatti

[@arandominternetperson4462]

I've grown with French cars. We recently sold our 2001 Renault Scenic, and we now have a 2014 Peugeot 5008. My dad liked french cars a lot. I don't. Especially after I found out that for their newest models there are no longer Diesel options. It's either tiny overpowered Gas engines or full EV's. French diesels were the only saving grace in their mixed reputation in my opinion. The Peugeot is horribly unreliable. Electrical issues, FUEL INJECTORS, and the heater mainly give issues. We've owned it for 3 years and the ammount of issues compared to the old car is staggering. As for the Renault. It was mostly a tank. Rarely gave us issues. Inconsistency is real in the world of French cars.

[@Clémsdu37]

Les dernières normes antipollution sont tellement contraignantes que que les constructeurs français de mettre fin à la commercialisation de moteur diesel. À l'heure actuelle par exemple avec Renault seul la Clio est encore disponible avec le 1.5 blue dCi (ce moteur à 23 ans cette année et a été amélioré au fur et à mesure du temps). Vraiment à l'heure actuelle il n'est pas conseillé d'acheter des voitures neuves essence et diesel chez stellantis qui rencontre de véritables problèmes de fiabilité. Et donc en ce moment Renault et Dacia sont parmi les meilleurs, seul des mise à jour calculateur sont souvent requise chez Renault (c'est ce que j'ai constaté sur la Mégane 4 PHEV de mes parents). Côté technique les hybrides de Renault sont rassurantes surtout pour le 1.6 E-TECH Hybrid 140CV (HEV)/160CV (PHEV) il s'agit en réalité du 1.6L Sce 94Cv est un 4 cylindres atmosphérique ( il existe depuis 2009 sur la Mégane 3 ) et couplé à une boîte à crabot qui était simplifié au maximum grâce aux moteurs électrique.

[@TTBOn00bKiLleR]

Yes they do

[@chriskappert1365]

Sucks ? Citroën SM , Peugeot 504 coupe , Alpine A110 , Facel Vega , Clio V6 ......to name a few .

[@ThePapaja1996]

Reanult 5 turbo