The French Mistake

Before my first alfa i had a Peugeot 305. Rolls Royce ride with what seemed like a Trabant engine!!

My Dad had a Renault 16 which was a great car.

Missus' had a 307 HDi as her last Co. machine. Few niggles, non-self cancelling of indicators, Etc., but apart from a few other minor irritations it ran well.:

My better half has had a Renault 19 and the famous Picasso, what can I say, the Italians have imagination, style and flair, the French take fridges with them when camping on holiday
I wouldn't buy one, but I wouldn't knock them either. Too much.

Megane for a while.. It was alright, with some good bits and bad bits. It was reliable but the trim and peripherals were a bit flimsy.


Ralf S.

The wife bought the 206 CC last year. Nothing to get excited about. The kids love it whenever we get the top down but with our weather that doesn't happen too often.

Had a 205 1.4 and a 306 DTurbo. Agile, lovely cars.

I could make room in my dream garage for a Citroen SM and an Alpine Renault A110 - no worries.

The only problem with French cars is when they go all bland and boring.

My Saxo VTR was a lot of fun to drive, very light, a nippy little 1.6 8v engine and lower/stiffer suspension than the smaller Saxos.

Compared to a 1.1 it was also nicer to look at, with standard alloys and a standard body kit (which incidentally clipped into holes punched in the body panels - several clips were missing on mine which looked pretty shoddy!). The build quality was poor though, panels flexed with anything but the lightest press - the metal was thinner than that on my old 1.1 Punto. The interior wasn't too nice either, made of very cheap black plastic and seats like deckchairs. And on top of all that the immobiliser only mobilised half the time - so quite often I was left sitting in the car park turning the key, only to have the starter motor turning and turning, with an immobiliser light flashing at me and no injection or ignition!

Oh, and the idle was really dodgy, often roaming between 400 and 1200rpm in traffic and occasionally just spluttering and stalling pathetically.

Despite its faults though it was a lot of fun to drive, and if push came to shove I'd probably have another one, perhaps if they made it a bit bigger so my tall lanky frame could fit in without looking completely ludicrous

C'etait bon

98 Renault clio with a very old-school 1.9 diesel engine. Was very noisy and not very fast but somehow it seemed more fun compared to the equivalent 1.2 petrol... Good uphill. The headlight glass literally dropped out though and smashed on the road

205 1.9 GTI in 1995, great car in its time, great car now if there are any good ones left

Ned

I owned a 96 P plate Saxo 1.4i SX. Absolutely great car, good to drive, very comfortable even for a taller chap like myself. Only small gripe is that the pedals were a tad close, but I got used to that within two hours of buying it. Reliability was never an issue. In the 5 years and 58,000 miles of ownership, all I needed to get done was a head gasket (bar the usual tyres, servicing etc). Kinda miss the little Chicken Paxo, was a fun little car

Originally Posted by Autolusso

205 1.9 GTI in 1995, great car in its time, great car now if there are any good ones left

Ned

Totally agree...near perfection in an everyday car

306 Gti-6

And it was actually very good! It never went wrong!!! Handling was.... well lets just say different... but it was an amazing car, I treated it soooo bad it got toped up with oil but that was about it. I covered about 35K without bothering to service it (I didn't like it that much can you tell). And in the end the only thing that stopped it running was when the cambelt snapped! And even then I still managed to sell it for a fair old amount
So all in all I thought it was very well put together! And you don't hear that often about a Peugeot!!!

I did have a renault 19 16v a long time ago too - but lets not go into that

Originally Posted by jabberwocky

id love the old citroen with the maserati engine, the DS i think. mad car with a mad engine.

jabber... its the Citroen SM youre thinking of, from the 70's, see the attatched pic. IMO, one of the most beautiful cars ever made.

French cars; I got brought up on them, mainly old Citroens. My dad used to specialise in fixing old Citroens for a living and we always had them too. We used to go all over europe to the 2CV/Citroen meets, camping. I was always especially fond of the CX's, still am today.

My first car was an E reg AX 10E, went through about 6 driveshafts, they always started knocking after a while on all of them. But the TU engine was sweet as a nut, put up with endless abuse over about 3 years and was still sweet when i got rid.

Had a 2CV which i bought off ebay for £40 about 7 years ago, had no brakes and the steering column snapped on me and i crashed it into one of them illuminated plastic bollards u get at roundabouts. had my fun and scrapped it cos the chassis was too rusty.

Then had a G reg CX 25 DTR Turbo 2, loved it, my mates thought i was stupid (cos i was 24) and i blew the engine, gave it away after it was sat for about a year on me mams drive. I'd still have another though, but i'd want to restore a Series 2 (86 onwards) CX 25 GTi Turbo 2 in either black or florentine red (yes, ive thought about it).

Then a J reg ZX Volcane with the 205 GTi engine - 130bhp, bit of a wolf in sheeps clothing that one, couldnt fault it till I blew the engine - scrapped.

Then a ZX (not a volcane) 2.0 16v (same as a 306 S16 or GTi 6, but missing a gear), had a lot of fun in that and didnt blow the engine. A competent, fast for the time hot hatch. Nowt really went wrong either. Liked them cos I never seen another one on the road when I had mine, really rare. Probably more rare than the 147GTA is nowadays.

And that was it for Citroens for me, I love all the old stuff from the 60's, 70's and 80's but i dont like what the brand has become now.

I kind of grew out of Citroens cos they didnt offer anything that was fast enough for me so I went and bought a 156 2.5 V6 (now Puds) bout 4 years ago, modded/thrashed that (but didnt put that silly wing on), sold it last november and now I have me GTA.
And that my friends is my complete car history. Attatched pics are...SM, CX GTi Turbo and a ZX 2.0 16v just for good measure.
Cheers.

Originally Posted by Alfa Vincent

306 Gti-6

And it was actually very good! It never went wrong!!! Handling was.... well lets just say different...

That makes it sound like a bad thing? Its well known that the GTi6/Rallye is one the best handling cars you can buy. In fact i'm pretty sure that Siverstone racing circuit used them as trainers they are that good. They make superb track cars and even though short on power (167bhp)

Friend of mine at the Nurburgring:

YouTube - Lap of the Nurburgring in a Peugeot 306