no french cars in the USA?

[danny_galaga]

i didnt know that they werent importing anymore. found this while looking for news stories about that deadly shooting in the other thread:

http://jalopnik.com/cars/sacre-bleu-talkin.-to-me%3F/spy-photos-a-peugeot-parks-in-brooklyn-260496.php

the US is missing out if thats the case. theres some mighty fine froggy cars around now (",)

[mccoy178]

I don't want to drive anything from the French.  I'm scared it would quit on me.

[TOK]

Peugeot pulled out of the US market in 91, and is contemplating a return with no set date.
Renault is scheduled to come back into the US market in 2010. Renaults advantage is a big stake in Nissan, so already have the groundwork in place for dealerships.

When they were here, they were both really crappy cars, and that was when US cars were much worse. They are going to have to make sure their quality is fantastic or they won't last 5 years in the US market.
 

[Dervacumen]

I don't know that all were crappy.  We had a 1985 Peugeot, fully loaded and it was nice.  Still running, too.  Good thing, 'cause getting parts is just this side of impossible.

[KevSteele]

Two Words sum up why they aren't here anymore:

Le Car

[ChadTower]

I don't want to drive anything from the French.  I'm scared it would quit on me.

It would suck to have your French car Found On the Road Dead.

[danny_galaga]

I don't want to drive anything from the French.  I'm scared it would quit on me.

It would suck to have your French car Found On the Road Dead.

hehe.

Two Words sum up why they aren't here anymore:

Le Car

maybe one word could sum up why there arent many american cars in france: edsel

but times change. people move on...

[ChadTower]

There are no French cars here because they are not attempting to sell them here.  That's pretty much the only reason.  If they set up a dealership and offered a decent looking car that got strong MPG and was reliable people would be all over it.

[shardian]

Hell, people buy brand new Kia's here. Not to mention DaeWoo a few years ago. If people buy that crap, bring on the Frenchie's!

i want that little car that fared better than the volvo station wagon from that other thread!

[ahofle]

I like the Citroen they use in the WRC:
http://www.kinetic.au.com/oldernews.html

I'll bet that would sell well over here.

[TOK]

Hell, people buy brand new Kia's here. Not to mention DaeWoo a few years ago. If people buy that crap, bring on the Frenchie's!

i want that little car that fared better than the volvo station wagon from that other thread!

Kia was saved here by Hyundai's buyout. Quality of Hyundai and Kia are way beyond what they were when they arrived here. Daewoo has actually been in the US for a while, but not as Daewoo. GM sold them as rebadged Pontiacs (LeMans). The got a well deserved rep for being crap as a standalone marque, but now Suzuki is selling them again (Forenza).
Dihatsu is another example of a car company that completely failed in the US. I'm not even sure they made it two years here.

[Glaine]

I just don't like how every car that comes over here gets a huge trunk thrown on, my pet peeve being the Austin Mini Cooper. I'm far from a car person, but I think that is a hot little car, but first thing the states does is give it a huge back. It's grown on me some, but I still like the original better.

I mean, I understand that folks need room for groceries and stuff, but if you have to do this to everything that comes here, maybe we don't deserve it...

[TOK]

You referring to that Clubman or whatever they're calling the Mini wagon? It doesn't replace the orginal Mini, its just an optional body style. I think what Mini saw is that they were losing sales to cars like the Honda Element and Scion XB.

A lot of the market these cars appeal to are into active outdoor stuff and like to have a little extra room to keep an expensive mountain bike or other gear inside the car instead of hanging off the back.

[grantspain]

i just bought a renault clio because the price was so good,its o.k for the town but to honest i could get more power if i shoved a tube up my arse and lit a fart

[danny_galaga]

There are no French cars here because they are not attempting to sell them here.  That's pretty much the only reason.  If they set up a dealership and offered a decent looking car that got strong MPG and was reliable people would be all over it.

yeah, i kinda figured that. but i was wondering why? is it political? they sell them here and in the UK so im guessing its not over the iraq conflict...

[danny_galaga]

Hell, people buy brand new Kia's here. Not to mention DaeWoo a few years ago. If people buy that crap, bring on the Frenchie's!

i want that little car that fared better than the volvo station wagon from that other thread!

Kia was saved here by Hyundai's buyout. Quality of Hyundai and Kia are way beyond what they were when they arrived here. Daewoo has actually been in the US for a while, but not as Daewoo. GM sold them as rebadged Pontiacs (LeMans). The got a well deserved rep for being crap as a standalone marque, but now Suzuki is selling them again (Forenza).
Dihatsu is another example of a car company that completely failed in the US. I'm not even sure they made it two years here.

GM canned daewoo after they bought them out. i used to own a daewoo matiz, surprisingly good quality. 800cc of pure grunt! always sounded like it was running on 3 cylinders though i did not realise suzuki took them over after GM had finished with them.

interesting you mention diahatsu as well. they arent a big company but theyve been selling them here for at least 30 years. they make small trucks as well...

[Cakemeister]

I had a Le Car in high school. I think the parents got it for me as a chick repellant. It worked. Later they got me a "K" car. Fortunately, I enjoyed success in spite of that handicap.

[AtomSmasher]

Hell, people buy brand new Kia's here. Not to mention DaeWoo a few years ago. If people buy that crap, bring on the Frenchie's!

i want that little car that fared better than the volvo station wagon from that other thread!

Kia was saved here by Hyundai's buyout. Quality of Hyundai and Kia are way beyond what they were when they arrived here. Daewoo has actually been in the US for a while, but not as Daewoo. GM sold them as rebadged Pontiacs (LeMans). The got a well deserved rep for being crap as a standalone marque, but now Suzuki is selling them again (Forenza).
Dihatsu is another example of a car company that completely failed in the US. I'm not even sure they made it two years here.

GM canned daewoo after they bought them out. i used to own a daewoo matiz, surprisingly good quality. 800cc of pure grunt! always sounded like it was running on 3 cylinders though i did not realise suzuki took them over after GM had finished with them.

interesting you mention diahatsu as well. they arent a big company but theyve been selling them here for at least 30 years. they make small trucks as well...

The Chevy Aveo is actually produced by Daewoo

[lokki]

yeah, i kinda figured that. but i was wondering why? is it political? they sell them here and in the UK so im guessing its not over the iraq conflict...

Hi,
I think of the reason is that the US has stricter environmental and safety requirements that other countries. So it is cheaper to sell in other countries. A lot of vehicles would simply not pass the EPA emmisions test and would have to be re engineered.

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/imports/quikover.htm

[danny_galaga]

yeah, i kinda figured that. but i was wondering why? is it political? they sell them here and in the UK so im guessing its not over the iraq conflict...

Hi,
I think of the reason is that the US has stricter environmental and safety requirements that other countries. So it is cheaper to sell in other countries. A lot of vehicles would simply not pass the EPA emmisions test and would have to be re engineered.

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/imports/quikover.htm

hmmm, so you dont have mercedes, bmw, volvo or saab in the US either? 

[ChadTower]

That's not what he said.  He said "a lot of vehicles", not ALL vehicles.  Note that all of those you mentioned are quite expensive.  You couldn't manage that same conversion on a lower end car and still make a profit.

[danny_galaga]

ok, but he seemed to imply that french cars have inferior technology which is just silly. like somehow american cars must be the cleanest in the world and french ones belch garlic...

all world class cars will pass EPA tests (even korean cars)...

[patrickl]

The US has different safety and emission regulations , but I'd say they are on average less strict than the European ones. The difference might require extra investments though.

[Level42]

How about Skoda ?  I never saw a Skoda in the US when I was there on holiday last year

Nice car, even though it's Chech built. It really just is a Volkswagen...and there are LOTS of Passats over there !

I have to say the US cars have come up quite a bit over the last 10 years here in Europe. Especially Chrysler has done their homework. Before that period, you only bought an American car when you had plenty of money, wanted a gas-spiller, wanted to be watched while driving (in a negative sense), wanted a terrible steering car, wanted it to "sponge" over the road, wanted quality that sucks.
I think US cars improved in almost all territories that I mentioned here....but they still are gas-spillers...

My cousin and I always joked (while watching American series/films) that the American police would catch LOTS more crooks if they would switch to tight-steering, asphalt hugging, light-weight, FAST european cars like f.i. BMW's.... you always see how the bulky police cars break-out in those movies while doing tight turns....loosing precious time and distance

[ChadTower]

Erm, yeah, and if they had the money to drop $70,000 on each cruiser (before specialized equipment), they'd catch more crooks too.

[danny_galaga]

The US has different safety and emission regulations , but I'd say they are on average less strict than the European ones. The difference might require extra investments though.

different maybe, but i bet not more stringent. i'm still at a loss as to why the french arent selling cars in the US. peugeot especially has something for everyone. you want a big car? 607 for you.



you want a lil hatch? 206.



 groovy lil sports car? 207



i myself aren't the hugest fan of french cars, but it looks to me they are missing out on a lot of sales. those that are saying 'they are too european' have never seen a VW or audi or the new mini cooper. all of which i believe are sold in the US...

about the police cruisers. much as ive been giving americans stick in the other thread, i think a big heavy fast car suits best in the US. best thing for nudging cars off the road. dunno what they use now. i thought no one made rear wheel drives in the US anymore?

[Level42]

I personaly love the Peugeot design of the last years. It's great how they maintain one very distinctive style across their prduct range. Whatever model, you instantly recognize it as a Peugeot. And the lines are simply beautiful.

They drive very comfortably too.

About the Police cars: A BMW 1 or 3 series should be big enough. You're not going to tell me that these cost 70,000 bucks over there ! But even so, a regular tuned up European car would beat most American cars in speed and handling easily as well. Dutch highway police uses Volvo stationcars. Big enough, safe, fast, good handling.

I am old enough to remember that Dutch highway police used Porsche Carrera's:


That was in a time where Police were still respected in this country....

O and BMW's are rear wheel driven still. Gotta love them for going totally their own way.

[patrickl]

The Citroen C6 looks kinda cool too. A bit too different for the US market maybe:


or the C4 (coupe)


I'm not a big fan of the styling of the current Renault models, but the Megane Sport is still a pretty cool car and the Megane Scenic would be a good soccer mom mobile:


Level42, that police Porsche brings back memories yes. Many kids wanted to be a police officer back then. Now kids want to be part of the police force as much as they want to be highway robbers ...

[danny_galaga]

I personaly love the Peugeot design of the last years. It's great how they maintain one very distinctive style across their prduct range. Whatever model, you instantly recognize it as a Peugeot. And the lines are simply beautiful.

They drive very comfortably too.

About the Police cars: A BMW 1 or 3 series should be big enough. You're not going to tell me that these cost 70,000 bucks over there ! But even so, a regular tuned up European car would beat most American cars in speed and handling easily as well. Dutch highway police uses Volvo stationcars. Big enough, safe, fast, good handling.

I am old enough to remember that Dutch highway police used Porsche Carrera's:


That was in a time where Police were still respected in this country....

O and BMW's are rear wheel driven still. Gotta love them for going totally their own way.

ahh, but you're missing the point of how they use them in the US. you watch any of those 'funniest police video' shows and they often nudge cars off the road. keep hard knocks sometimes. i don't know that they do that anywhere else. so for that sort of work you need something rugged but with some power to keep up. a porsche would be nice, but for some reason the crackheads and ice freaks never seem to drive anything faster than the police cruisers anyway...

[patrickl]

for some reason the crackheads and ice freaks never seem to drive anything faster than the police cruisers anyway...

Yeah I always wondered about that. In those american police chase TV shows they claim the driver is driving at ridiculously high speeds. Usually it's something like 70mph or even up to 80mph .  If it's not one of those 30mph chases with 20 police cruisers in a line behind a single car.

[Cakemeister]

Re: police cars

I think there are three criteria for choosing a police car. First, they want a fairly roomy rear-drive vehicle that can be easily modified to police standards. Second, police departments are typically under budget constraints, so they have to have a reasonably priced, inexpensive to maintain car. The last criterion, which hasn't been mentioned, is politics. IMO there would be a public outcry against an American police department choosing a non-American car.

Police car chases are actually pretty rare compared to the number of miles they drive in ordinary situations. Plus, that's what police helicopters are for.

[FrizzleFried]

Jesus Christ that is ugly...

[Level42]

Jesus Christ that is ugly...

What is ugly ? That Porsche ? Remember this is a 60/70's model.It was more impressive than anything they've driven since those days...

This was a later model: Around 1985:


Funny thing is that I remember them in this situation the most:

Signaling to lower speed That's why the had Targa's......those helmets were impressive too

Sigh, those were the days....no lousy traffic signalling systems that cause more traffic jams then prevent them...

Cakemeister I think you hit the spot with your third argument. It would be hard to admit Europeans build better cars wouldn't it....

Funny, if we Dutchies would stick to "we want Dutch built cars" it would look like this:


But I'm glad my tax money is not ending up there

[ChadTower]

There is pretty much one criterion for choosing a police cruiser:  It has to be a Crown Victoria.

That's about it.

[TOK]

There is pretty much one criterion for choosing a police cruiser:  It has to be a Crown Victoria.

That's about it.

GM, Ford and Chrysler all offer police packages... Most powerful engine, heavy duty cooling, battery and electrical systems right from the manufacturer. Crown Vic's are prevalent now that the Caprice is gone and the Impala is front wheel drive, but there is still a police package Impala. GM also offers a 2wd Tahoe with the police package for departments that want GM but won't buy front wheel drive. Our local police just got two Hemi Chargers. They look really cool.

None of those models pictured look like they have a lot of hope in the US market. The big Peugot one looks like an 8 year old Chrysler LHS. The hardtop convertible covers the same ground as the flopping Volkswagen EOS (Pontiac G6 seems to own the low priced hardtop convertible market right now) and the US hot hatchback market is full of cool, powerful little cars like the MazdaSpeed 3.

I'd like to see more manufacturers back in the US, but the reason they left still seems the same. They don't offer anything you can't already get in a less expensive (here) and possibly more reliable car.

Here is the LHS... This is a 1999 car, since replaced by a RWD platform.

[Level42]

And the low dollar rate to the Europe (a whopping 1.41 now !) isn't helping things for European brands either. US brand cars keep getting cheaper here though

[Dartful Dodger]

The US has different safety and emission regulations , but I'd say they are on average less strict than the European ones. The difference might require extra investments though.

An English guy in my race club wanted to race a car with right side steering, so he brought over a Ford Mexico from England.

It was a pain for him to ship it over.  At customs they almost rejected the car entry, he had to argue that it was a race car.  They told him it had to do with emission standards.   He was told it can never be a street car.  It might have been because the car was a race car, and race cars have lower emission standards than street cars, but on the reverse side of the coin... cousins of mine have shipped two American muscle cars to Ireland and there were no restrictions placed on them.  These were cars built in the 60s and they got a free pass Europe.  The ironic thing is my cousins got these cars cheap because at the time California had laws that would have scrapped these cars because they were bad for the environment. 

I don't know if Switzerland has stricter emissions than America, but you can’t speak for your fellow EUons.

[patrickl]

A race car has quite different emission standards from a street car (even if the street car is a muscle car)

A 60's car has to comply to different emission standards than a modern car.

Switzerland  is not in the EU.

California indeed has very strict emission standards

[danny_galaga]

There is pretty much one criterion for choosing a police cruiser:  It has to be a Crown Victoria.

That's about it.

well, that answers my query about what you guys are using. or should i say aboot, since they are made in canada! those things certainly seem to take a lot of damage. now i can put a name to the 'face' so to speak...

[TOK]

There is pretty much one criterion for choosing a police cruiser:  It has to be a Crown Victoria.

That's about it.

well, that answers my query about what you guys are using. or should i say aboot, since they are made in canada! those things certainly seem to take a lot of damage. now i can put a name to the 'face' so to speak...

Again, many departments use the Crown Vic, but not all of them.