Simply put, the French cars just didn't really fit the US market. Here in Europe however, they're everywhere. Peugeot has a solid lineup currently, Citroen has DS as the luxury division which has some pretty good cars and Renault is also pretty successful. Here in Greece Clios, Meganes, Captures, 308s, C4s and 3008s are all very popular as well as older models. My father alone has owned 3 Citroens, first a 2CV he still has, then a BX and then a Xanthia.
It's simple the french automakers came to the US without a strategy. They tried to hawk a french product even people in france didn't want. Renault nearly went bankrupt
that's right , i'm french and i can confirm that : Renault 9 (and 11 its the same cars the difference is just a tail-board) was very unpopular in France at the same period (1990-91) , selled in France but just because low prices, but all french who buyed a Renault 9 or 11 was not contented by this car ! Its the worst period for Renault and their products even in France then Renault re-ascend french market with the Clio (1992-93) to rebuilt a real success in France with Renault cars
For Renault since 2000, there was almost no point to sell cars in the US because of the presence of Nissan. Nissan light vans (like the NV200) are based on Renault designs (Trafic) in addition to share many mechanical parts on most of their cars, including the Nissan Versa. And due to the recent schism inside the Renault-Nissan alliance, it's very unlikely Renault will make a comeback in the US in 2027. And due to the collaboration between Fiat and PSA (Peugeot-Citroen before Stellantis) Dodge light vans (ProMaster) are also based on the same design tan the Peugeot Boxer/Fiat Ducato. 3:09 15%, not 49% (source : Citroën French wiki) 7:36 It's almost impossible to find a new French car without A/C in 2023, except for basic entry level models in small cars. 8:47 Not a standard Renault 9 : the front has been modified by a "Jacky tuner", in France this kind of (illegal) modification gives this type of car the nickname of "merguez" (spicy sausage). There was a car sold by Chrysler in the US that has been designed in France : the Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon (originally sold in Europe under the name Simca Horizon, then Talbot Horizon after PSA bought Chrysler European operations) although the engines were from VW for the entry level and fromChrysler for the 2.2L versions.
French cars mirror the engineering brilliance of the French people. Only recently have they focused on touch point quality aspects like the interior (except always providing comfortable seats) with models that have German levels of fit and finish. But the underlying mechanicals have always been solid. Tax laws in France discouraged big engines and French culture generally places less emphasis on “status automobiles”. Finally, pre-war luxury marques like Delahaye, Delage, Voisin, Bugatti, (and others) were not encouraged by the economic climate to pick up where they left off after the war, so French leadership in the ultra luxury car segment was ceded to the Germans and Italians. Bottom line. French cars, even the inexpensive ones, always have something special about them. Always.
…as a proud owner of 2 French automobiles and a German Diesel all of which I inherited from my family, i just wished I had more in my aging fleet. They are great cars with very unique needs. Oftentimes when I drive the Citroen 2CV, it gets a lot of smiles and thumbs up and a few ask for a photo op which is funny for back when my Mother drove that thing around in the late 70’s in Palo Alto they thought she was mad. And there’s my late Father ‘s baby the cool beast, a 1959 Facel Vega FV4 Typhoon which is still a head turner even to a super car owner. So glad my folks liked unique things.
My first car, in 1990, was an '83 Renault Alliance. The rear window decal proudly proclaimed "Motor Trend Car of the Year". I have no idea how it won. This car was the lemon of lemons. The power door locks didn't work, the automatic transmission had no 2nd gear, the radio randomly stopped working, I replaced the head gasket, the thermostat, and the water pump, and it would still overheat during summer unless you ran the heater full blast. This car was only 7 years old at the time, it had about 60K miles when I got it. These days, this level of unreliability in a car from 2016 would be utterly unthinkable, even in a Kia or Hyundai.
I shopped for a new car in 1987. I looked at Yugos, Chevettes, and tried to look at an Alliance, but they just went bankrupt, and the local dealer had only one which he seemingly had given up on and parked out back. So I ended up with a Dodge Omni.
There were a lot of Renault Dauphines running around Dallas in the 60s. Texas heat and long distances were murder on them and I never saw one that didn't leak oil. I think they also had some kind of electric clutch set up. Haven't seen one in ages.
I actually do see French cars here since I live close enough to Mexico that people drive them from there to here. Bonus: sometimes you'll even see a SEAT.
I think this might be the only video online i've found so far that manages to compress all the variables that make up the failure of the French car in the states, rather than just focusing on one. The cars they sold weren't necessarily much more unreliable, expensive or poorly packaged than others, it's just a combination of a few along with no dealership network, freaky engineering (to an average joe mechanic), and Americans not yet being entirely accustomed to europeans cars that weren't up-scale like Mercedes Benz, BMW, Jaguar, Rolls Royce and such, the only european brand that made it selling affordable cars in the states was VW, that could lean on its history with the Beetle. The French never seemed all too bothered about the American market to actually invest into making their cars work in the states, always seemed France first everyone else later, which i can respect just from how hilarious it is. I'm from Finland and am a French car enthusiast, i've owned 4 Peugeots just buying my latest one last tuesday (30.8.2024), also own 1 Renault and have owned 1 Citroen... on the other hand i've owned 1 British car, 1 German car and 2 American cars.
You got a lot of the main points. A couple of other key issues: 1. Engines. France heavily taxes big engines, so French cars have always had small ones. The Citroen DS had a 2.1 liter 4 and this was typical. Americans preferred larger engines, especially as many of these cars were expensive. 2. Rust. Renault was very successful in the US in the 1950's--but their cars got a bad reputation for ruting away. Some French cars (notably Peugeot) were better on this, but, in general, it was a problem for owners and brand reputation. 3. Eccentricity. French cars had a reputation for being quirky and oddball. Some people loved this, but most Americans just wanted a "normal" car. This was especially true with cars like Citroen, whose unique design and engineering were understood by very few mechanics. Even Peugeot--the most conservative French company--put the turn signal on the right side and the horn on the turn sinal. People just couldn't get into it. 4. Marketing and Image. People had a hard time defiining what French cars were supposed to be. Were they economy cars? Luxury cars? Sporty cars? The answer was not exactly any of these. Mercedes was luxury. BMW was sporty. VW was economy. Volvo and Saab wee safety and hardiness in cold. Peugeot was ???. And you're spot-on on the issues of parts cost and availability and weak dealer networks. It's a shame as my family had several Frenc cars and they were charming, comfortable and fun.
~10 years ago there were car sharing in San Francisco that used the Renault Twizy 2 seater EV, but it was rebranded as a Nissan Scoot. Kyle Conner from Out of Spec Motoring has an actual Renault Twizy in US.
I owned an auto repair shop in the 80s. The Renaults were very unreliable and were the worst cars to work on. I remember the Renault "Le Car" required either the engine removal or cylinder head removal just to replace the starter. The Renault Alliance used to strip the plastic speedometer gear in the transmission and you had to remove the transmission and dissemble it completely to get to the plastic gear. We finally refused to work on them at all for anything.
here's an old brazilian joke about french cars: Hey did you know they renamed the peugeot 206 to peugeot 209? It's because they have found another 3 ways it can malfunction.
Yep. That's what I remember about owning French cars in the '80s, little to no support and pricey parts when you could find them. The cars I recall rode nice when they ran. :P
seriously the vast majority of french cars that came to the USA were absolute trash. The reliability was far worse than the American cars of the same time.
In the 80s, my old many needed a new set of wheels. Took a look at the AMC dealer. Did they call it the Renault 18 here? We took it for a test drive. Underwhelming with Fisher Price toy interior quality. He bought a Honda Accord.
Living in a small part of North America where we speak french.🇲🇶 Citroen and Peugeot were not really common cars but I saw plenty of Renault Alliance and Renault 5 in the 80's. But the Renault Fuego 🔥 leaves the consumers quite cold for good reasons.
I was stationed with the usaf in the U.K. IN 92-94. I remember a Brit telling me a joke. …. In heaven the police are British, the engineers are German and the cooks are French. In hell the cooks are British, the police are German and the engineers are french😅
well i think you have your joke in the wrong order as this kind of jokes is very famous and has been around for so long. i think "the hotel manager is French in hell", which has some truth in it. but France is a nation of engineers and has been recognized as such for centuries. from the invention of the first combustion engine to the invention of photography by Niepce, cinematography by Leprince and the Lumiere brothers, dentistry by Fauchard, chemistry by lavoisier, or to giants of engineering like Gustave Eiffel, or the invention of the metric systems itself on which modern engineering is based, among other things. even the most famous English engineer, isambard Brunel, was of French origin and had been educated in France so I doubt an Englishman would say that. what has been hindering french cars in the US was a huge ego, as welll as a constant bashing, especially in hollywood productions. Columbo obviously comes to mind. i also remember an episode of McGyver where they mocked a 2 cv, which is actually a masterpiece of a car, in terms of its robustness and simplicity, revolutionary suspensions, and the first time the radial tyres were used in a car ever...although it is not a car made for the highway. never was. and then you have a couple of videos by car enthusiasts like Jay Leno about the DS or about the SM and suddenly the American audience realizes all that crap was just that. Baseless crappy bashing.
France invented the "car" look up Fardier of Joseph Cugnot, there is videos of one that was built in the USA to present the first car from 1769, Peugeot was created in 1810 during the height of France Empire, Carl Benz born a French Huguenot in origin was German from 10 km away from France border.
Mechanic here: French Cars Are poorly designed and mechanically Bad. English cars are mechanical disasters and operate off of the old "if it isnt leaking oil then it hasnt got oil" adage. German cars are overengineered in a bad way. Italian cars are 100% form over function and get regularly outclassed by other vehicles for half the price. Japanese cars are 100% efficiency. In all ways. The reliability is a product of efficiency. Korean cars are just "yeah you can copy but just change up the answers" japanese cars. American cars are big and typically have an engine and drive train architecture that's already a decade outdated at release.
It depends on what french car it is. Some older german and french cars are simple and reliable, at least thats what they are known for over here in europe. Like the old vw golfs (1-4 gen) or the peugeot 205/206. And japanese cars are known to rust badly over here in europe, so even if the engine is good the body isnt. Hondas are known to have oil burning issues aswell
@@foxy126pl6 Pre-96 Japanese vehicles notoriously rust as the steel is outright inferior. But yes, up until the mid-80's the German cars were about as complex as anything else globally. The Germans have a terrible habit of just adding unnecessary sub systems to kind of 'smooth out' general operation. As far as daily driving goes, ill take just about anything Japanese or American over euro cars as a rule though. American vehicles are enormous and use older style drive trains and engines typically but the roominess and older design philosophy typically just gives it an ease of maintenance and parts availability.
@@tinoduran4557 well, its not just pre 96 in europe. The 7th gen civic and 1st gen fit/jazz rust a lot, same like all mitsubishis and most toyotas. Korean cars are better at that usually, becouse rust proofing is better. Also i agree that euro cars are usually harder to maintain, but at least in europe as long as you know what to avoid (anything petrol thats turbo and direct injected really, plus some others) they arent that unreliable. The new volkswagens 1.0 i3 MPI engine can do over 300 thousand miles without lots of issues if maintnance is done on time and on goof quality parts. Same with PSAs "ET" engine
I worked on many Peugeot bicycles whan I was a mechanic. They do things differently than others, and nobody copies them. Pain in the ass to service, and no upside.
Dude why did you have to put a clip of subway surfers when you're explaining emissions standards? Literally fucked up my Gen z brain trying to read stats 😂
This would have been more informative, if it weren't for dozens of 'nobody' images and clips, constantly shoved in. 5:22 - Apparently, we needed a 'nobody' nodding ( _slow motion_ nodding), to demonstrate "not a terrible idea" or some equally complex concept. 😑
my guess: it's mainly because french cars sucks, we have a lot of them here in brazil, they break more often than a glass of vodka in the hands of drunk homeless people.
Agincourt ? I was under the impression that the French won the 100 years war, but whatever.... Why not talk about the battle of Hastings where it all began. Or that of Chesapeake? The reason the French did not focus on the American market is probably the same as to why there were never that many French men immigrating to the US. The heart was not in it and other priorities were more important. Now regarding the racism against the French, im afraid there is some truth in it though. remember the Irak War of 2003?. The Germans, the Japanese and the French were all opposed to this war. The bashing was solely directed towards the French.
I am from the UK, and have had several French cars, which were all lousy, unreliable, and had gutless engines! Luckily in the UK, GM sold the Camaro SS, with the 6.2L V8 engine, which was the best car I ever had, compared to earlier US cars which were gas hogs, and poorly built!
Fun fact: Renault buying into AMC also got the parent company in trouble with the government, because they produced the AM General Hummer for the military. The DOD requires that companies selling vehicles to the military, with very few exceptions, must be American companies. They ended up having to sell AM General off, which was not good for AMC/Renault.
The rule is that the company can't be owned by a foreign government. Renault was owned by the French government at the time. Ally or not, that was a no-no, and AM General had to be sold.
I remember growing up and seeing the odd Renault or pugeot in the late 80s and early 90s. It's too bad too French cars are quirky but I feel like we missed out in the US especially on the 90s citroen models.
Other than the XM which was an 80s design, 90s Citroens were mostly pants; humdrum and boring. The Xantia and Xsara were sort of good cars but they were pretty dull and the early C models sucked. I did go out with a French girl who had a zx and like all French people drove the nuts off it. It was a very fast car but mainly cos the owner was nuts. I think it has one straight panel.
@@Whatshisname346 I had a 2000 Citroen Xsara wagon with the 2.0l engine, and apart from not really making me think that i was driving a Citroen, it was a tremendous car. Had it around 2022-2023 and it was entirely rust free, very large interior and rather quiet for a wagon, comfortable and reliable, nothing else wrong apart from old doorhandles breaking off and my driving style eating the exhaust up. 1st car i got up to 200kmh and above (on a closed road in mexico of course...). Now i have a 2002 Peugeot 406 with the same 2.0l engine and its a bit more worn and not as quick, but feels more planted seeing as its a larger car. And oh yeah Xsaras cost absolutely nothing, traded a 2002 Ford Ka basemodel for the Xsara which was listed for 555€
@@VigilanteAgumontrue, here in Brazil, Peugeot recently rebadged a few FIA Chrysler Carrier Products, like the Citroën Jump and the Fiat Fiorino as the Peugeot Partner and Partner Rapid, and I think in Europe, Fiat rebadged the Citroën Ami as their new EV Topolino Mini Car
My first car was a Versa! Those things do NOT age well in Upstate NY. Surprisingly they are decently capable in the US, well able to get above 65mph (NYS speed limi, I took mine to 120!) I would've preferred a manual diesel over my four speed petrol version. Very goofy car
I was a huge fan of top gear when I was younger, and I was always so confused why they would talk about the French brands so often when I had never seen one. Later in my life, while visiting the Dominican Republic, I finally saw my first Citron, probably at the age of 18 or 19. I was so hyped, I remember my brother was with me and I struggled to explain how rare french cars are, but he didn't really care.
My dad has a Citroën 2CV that he has replaced a lot of old parts and improved the engine on. It is a brilliant car to ride on bumpy roads or fun small roads with a lot of twists and turns. It is not something that is enjoyable to ride on the Autobahn or bigger highways, and it has to stay in the garage during winter. It is a car that is perfect if you like weird cars that you can work on yourself and ride with the roof down in the summers. I totally understand why it was not suited for America and it's interesting use of space.
Theoretically there is 1 french "car" that have been selling in America for years now and i mean the Ram Promaster. It was born from a Fiat-Peugeot-Citroen cooperation and rebadge Ram in the Us. In the future Fiat will import the new promaster city which is based on a Peugeot and Citroen platform.
I hope that, with this union, the bring to you guys some of the good Fiat stuff all together with Citroën and Peugeot, y'all have been missing up a lot with Fiat here on South and Central America.
But the Promaster is mostly Fiat and it’s the descendent of the Fiat vans and trucks of years ago. I think they were called Pongos or something. They were strange, front drive, diesel with a 5 speed manual transmission. The odd thing was it was a column shift transmission. When we needed “low profile” vehicles we’d get VW Transporters or the Fiats. We also had a Mercedes D309 bus with a armor package on it. The dam thing was over GVW before we added people, luggage and fuel. Ah yes the joys of being an American GI in Greece in the 80’s
@@Marius-jg6slwell that was one of those merger deals, sometimes they’re not real clear who was the merger and who was the mergee. Like Chrysler and Daimler Benz was supposed to be a “merger of equals”, that lasted until Chrysler started loosing money then Daimler started acting like the new owners (oops, boy I hate it when that happens)
If what you say is true, then I am surprised that Nissan would go that route with French parts. Is Renault the biggest member of the group and has the facilities and mgt to make these design decisions? I would consider a Versa if my car quits. I thought it was still Japanese and not French and is doing very well in world wide sales because of such. Now I will research all this more.
My older brother had a LeCar, and my dad had a Peugeot 504 in the early 80s. The LeCar would be an okay 2nd car but wore out quickly, and the engine died at 90k. The Peugeot was not a cheap car, stripped out and very plain. The problem was parts. This was pre-internet, so you had to drive hundreds of miles to get parts. So French cars are great if you are in France.
Found this channel on a doom scroll through my recommended, I originally clicked on the UnBEARable amount of Bear Knowledge video, and I absolutely loved it. So, I proceeded to binge watch all of your videos back-to-back, really amazing shit! One of the only channels I check for uploads!
My grandfather bought my dad a brand new vehicle when he graduated high school in 1980. He was given the choice between a Le Car, a Celica and a Cavalier since those were the only manufacturers selling in his town. He choose the worst one and wound up getting a Plymouth reliant by 84.
