As a burger i have to ask, are we really missing out on anything when it comes to french cars?

Not really. They're unimpressive cars, just small hatches and SUVs with turbodiesel engines or anemic gas engines. The most "interesting" french car is the Megane RS but it's 3 door and slower than a Focus ST.

(OP)
Only cars from Citroen.
Peugeot and Renault only works 50% of the time.

Unreliable cheap shit.

Better than american cars, but so is walking.

Reliable and fun cars to drive

Citroën and Peugeot are in the top three of the WRC constructors champions

Nothing in particular. At this point they're your average consumer cars, with a few interesting quirks like the C4 Cactus

>Megane RS but it's 3 door and slower than a Focus ST
no

Peugeot bought Citroën and told them to stop being utterly batshit, so they're only sort of weird nowadays.
Peugeot seems to be well on track of unJUSTing themselves, though they still have some way to go. At least they build a proper fun little hot hatch again with the 208 GTi.
Renault is still king of the hot hatches, or at least the Megane Trophy R is.

>The greatest suspension off all time.
>Sex

>tfw hydropneumatics are kill

basically shit buildquality but interesting styling. its like a 50/50. for every weird-ass-ugly car, there is one really great and interesting looking car with character.

french cars were never reliable and the fun part stopped in the 90's

feels good because they're fucking shit

Citroen DS3- cool looking hh
Peugeot 208 gti
Peugeot 308 gti- has a Torsen lsd
Renault Megane RS- it was the fastest fwd hh for a very long time
New Twingo

So mostly compact and small cars

youtu.be/dz8iKeHAckg?t=1m38s

Is the DS3 a hot hatch?
I didn't think it was even a warm hatch

DS3 Racing has more power than Fiesta ST

There's a 200+hp "performance" model, I guess that qualifies.

It is, it has 1.6 turbo 165 or 208HP engine they developed together with BMW. Bmw uses them in Minis , maybe in small BMs as well, I;m not sure

Ah didn't realise that there was a hot DS3
It must be EXTREMELY understated compared to other hot hatches, hasn't sold well at all in my area, or I just don't pay attention to other cars on the road

Well my cheap DD econobox is a Peugeot 206.
I wouldn't say it's fun but it's comfy and reliable, it had no problem during its 198k kms, and usually I get around 67 mpg so it's basically cheaper than a bus lmao.
Also I like the looks of it.

Says who

>pic related my shitbox

I don't think it has like GTI badges or special bumpers or anything along those lines, just the 200hp engine.

>C4
alright grandpa?

Burger boyracers missed out on getting killed by these things by lifting off in a corner.

Just bought a 208 GTI, never thought there'd be a thread about small french cars. Here's what i think:

Let's face it, it's not blazingly fast but it's extremely fun to drive. There is something satisfying about driving a small hot hatch, and i've test driven bigger cars e.g. Focus ST, Civic type-r, 308 GTI, Golf GTI but for some reason the Peugeot was the most fun to drive. The styling is subjective but overall i think it looks pretty good for what it is, and for someone who doesn't do that many miles (3-4k a year) but wants something fun and relatively cheap to run it fits the bill.

How many l/100km or mpg's do you get?
I can't imagine that your fuel efficiency would be fantastic if you're only doing 4,000 a year

Mid to high 40s MPG with careful driving, 30-35 if i drive with a heavy foot. Journeys are not that short, just not very frequent as i commute mainly on a motorcycle

My dad had a Renault Fuego back in the late 80's into the mid 90's. I know AMC did a partnership with Renault in the 80's to sell them here.

It was a great hatchback. the shit he loaded in that thing was amazing.

unfortunately, once it started to get older, it started falling apart. Dad liked to tinker, so he would patch it up, but when you stop being able to get replacements, it was time to let it go.

as for peugeot, I was always fond of the 407 Wagon's design

Peugeot could pull themselves out of the ditch if only they made the rcz rwd or awd rather than ff

>big cars
>golf/focus

Fucking teenagers and their hatchbacks. Go test drive a bmw m3 or something...

The Focus is a pretty big car in Europe. Sometimes I can't find parking for my Focus Sedan because it's too long and wide.

quality bait m8

Good God yurop sounds like a depressing shithole.

The last two generations of Golf and focus are bigger than a Foxbody Mustang and whatever the one tgat came aftef is called.

They're also bigger than a 90's 3 series BMW.

>falling for the bait

>implying I'm trolling

My Focus is full of paint transfer marks from the little streets where you have to squish between parked cars on both side

Not the person you replied to or anything, but yeah my gf's dad has a
>audi
A6 allroad quattro. It's big as FUCK compared to the size of the parking lots here in the Netherlands. Basically for that size car, or bmw 5 series or so, you get complimentary parking tickets

mexico here

we get renault and peugeot

it's ok. peugeot doesn't really bring anything decent here besides the GTi, and renault doesn't do anything but bring dacias and their clio RS.

I really wish we got citroen instead of either of those. Citroens are such weird, quirky little cars.
>and comfy cars

I believe you guys really are missing out, French cars in the 90s where proper good cars some of them with air suspension and swayed as standard makes for good cheap shit boxes.

The Renault RS line features some awesome hot hatches, twingo, clio, megane.
Peugeot has a good solid line up of sedans/wagons ex. 508sw, second hand can be found with all the options a 5-series could ever have for half the price and twice the reliability. They also have the DS branch which features a hot hatch exclusively for woman and their own small crossover which looks good and is extremely comfortable.
Citroën is the quirky one of the three with more of a hipster design and radical concepts, given to them is the fact that they think outside of the box and pioneered quite a good bit of technology in the 90s, the try to keep up.

The general consensus of French cars vs. German ones here is done you want comfort or speed and driving. On the comfort department, French cars are known for having a lot softer suspension then their german counterparts. Grown historically by the fact that the French have worse roads than the germans.

Also, please don't forget the rallying, French have some gods tier rally cars.

Pic related, 508 rxh. Doesn't get the appreciation that it deserves, 'offroad' four wheel drive wagon with an awesome interior.

Truly the end of an era, the future is nothing but rockhard suspensions that will break your back every time you drive over even the smallest bump.

Supposedly they're working on something to reach the same insane levels of comfy, but the engineering magic known as hydropneumatics will never come back and that's truly sad.

>Renault Fuego
wew, that's a quite rare car in europe

No, No, Yes sometimes.

>my fat american ass will never have a meme machine
i just want a fucking twingo goddamn it

>implying i said big cars

Read again burger, i said BIGGER (than the 208)
i purposefully omitted to add M3, S4 etc.. as those cars are in completely different leagues, and for the mileage i do why the fuck would i want to spend that much money on such a depreciating asset

I'm not going to say that the car isn't shit because it's yours.

is it?

well, imagine how rare it was in burgerland. I mean i think the AMC import deal only lasted a few years in the early-mid 80's. I imagine not all dealerships did it either, idk. but he got one regardless, and i NEVER saw another in the US.

If you like hot hatches then you're missing on all those 3 brands, especially 80's and 90's.

They'd be hard pressed to create something that is both just as comfy and performs as well, but lets hope for the best.
It still makes me sad though

No, not at all. There's a reason Citroen went bankrupt in 74, Renault in 86 and Peugeot in 91. They were all universally shit.

Gone, forgotten, never to be thought of again.

The Megane RS is pretty much the fastest of all hot hatches though

It's covered in bright fucking orange racing logos, it's not understated - they just only made a few

I was talking about the current Performance model, not the old Racing.

>that is both just as comfy and performs as well, but
google Xantia Activa

That's what he said, it's gonna be hard to match hydropneumatics in every regard.

iv'e driven one of those, they are amazing but the system makes steering feel numb

Oh, sorry it's quite late here.

You'll be able to import it soon-ish.

>mfw it won 3 recent WRC championships

desu, as an american, i would absolutely buy a peugeot RCZ

>fun cars

Post a Clown Williams from the 90's when we're living in 2017

or just buy coilovers

Are you missing a french Golf rip-off with a torsional beam on the rear axle plus fake cabin syntethic engine for the top GTI model?

youtube.com/watch?v=w-WIxKUq66s

What is that from?

We can import these now though

Coilovers are firm as fuck. My tein street flex's have 7k spring rates and are still rough some times. I don't mind as I value sportiness but most people wouldn't like it.

the peugeot rcz (a TT ripoff) looks pretty good I think

front

>the peugeot rcz (a TT ripoff)
>(a TT ripoff)

Literally nobody wants to copy Audi

Main problem is no French car maker knows how to make good BIG cars anymore.

They have focused so much on little shitboxes that they don't have any engine bigger than a 2.0 4cyl turbo with more or less 275hp.

It's fucking ridiculous. Only Renault still have access to somewhat big engines thanks to Nissan, but they don't even use them in any relevant car (like in the Laguna V6 before).

Honestly it's a shame since their compact cars are really good handling wise, but they don't have any engine for bigger cars, unlike the Germans, the Brits, or the Italians, so any attempt to make a big sedan (or SUV) becomes an underpowered turd.

It's like they don't want powerful engines, because muh emissions and muh political correctness, since speed is evil.

As long as they don't have anything more serious than a 4 cylinder they'll just manage to make entry level cars.

I guess this is an Audi copy too.

They're great fun, but they're probably gonna cost quite a bit to ship over, and they're not fast by any means. I'd never trade mine in for any other car though, it just has so much personality and it's fantastic if you live in the city, you can park it pretty much anywhere.

There’s the Latitude, which seems to be only sold in the east. Looks like a weird Toyota/VW hybrid though.

Do want.

...

>Renault-Nissan partnership
>still no Clio V6 with a GTR engine
I get that the GTR is supposed to be the special snowflake Nissan but just rename the engine and slap it in the back of a Clio and it would be the best hot hatch ever made

>slap it in the back of a Clio and it would be the best hot hatch ever made
Wouldnt be a hatchback if it had the engine in the back tho.

Nah hatchback just refers to the shape of the car, the R5 turbo was still considered a hatchback even though the engine was in the rear

Supposedly their handling and steering feel is good especially of older cars (10+ years).

Their power steering system use a combination of electric pump and hydraulics which according to many makes for a nice steering feedback and overall feel..

Plus they are quite innovative with suspension from active hydraulic suspension to passive rear wheel steering both of which make for faster cornering.

Generally their cars have nice handling.

The Above are true for Citroen and Peugeot I don't have any experience with Renault but I hear that their build quality is better but at the same time they are less reliable (go figure that)

very costly to fix engines
a shit load of rust
hectic engine sounds
mad drifts
some decent interiors on the pre 1990 models

what's up with bong car reviews and their allergic reaction to hard plastics?

they are still recovering from the shock of cars not being made of leather and wood

also aside from durability plastics really have gotten bad lately
they vent much more fume
are hard and brittle
and worst of all they rattle profusely

Its not an Audi ripoff just because its a FWD coupe. The Audi is superior not just in price, but in almost everything, ride quality, confort, feels more solid, but it also feels dull and boring to drive as a "sports coupe".

The Peugeot not only is cheaper, its also a lot lighter and more powerfull, it got a 6spd manual with a LSD, feels more like a drivers car, and its suprisingly well built as well, for me its a better deal all around than the Audi.

Feels good that some baguette mobiles are still worth considering over the germans