Why are French cars generally poor quality?

[Starscreamer]

Because it is not Opel (German quality)

Ok, since Citroen/Peugeot have now taken Opel off GM's hands, will their quality improve,
or will Opel inexorably drop to their level?

Opel isn't Opel anymore

My Opel's:

[J.A.W.]

Cool SS, & here are a couple of their cousins on steroids ( GM factory V8s)..

[J.A.W.]

& the Chevrolet variant..


Since Vauxhall & Holden also had close ties with Opel, will PSA also be taking them over, I wonder?

[Greg Locock]

"Since Vauxhall & Holden also had close ties with Opel, will PSA also be taking them over, I wonder?"

Vauxhall probably, Holden, no, is my guess.

[lebesset]

vauxhall included in takeover like opel
holden and ford australia no longer in business

[J.A.W.]

vauxhall included in takeover like opel
holden and ford australia no longer in business

Not quite.
Ford & G.M. no longer manufacture cars in Australia, but they are still "in business" & retain an R & D operation,
to ensure the overseas sourced vehicles they will sell instead - will meet Australian design rules & operating conditions..

The Opel ( as with other G.M. affiliates, such as Isuzu) models chosen by G.M. for Australia, will be sold as Holdens.

[Greg Locock]

Since Opel is up for sale to PSA that leaves Holden as a badge job for Daewoo and the Chinese GM plants.

[J.A.W.]

Greg I have seen a 'picture' of the next Commodore, which is a rebadged Opel, &/or Vauxhall ( being RHD)..
I expect part of the PSA deal would include such 'accomodations' - akin to the 'Toyota Lexcen' & whatnot..

[Greg Locock]

Good point.

[SuperCNJ]

I don't think it is limited to French cars. It may be model dependant. Even the most reliable manufacturers will have dud models. I had a Honda Civic for almost 10 years and it was the most unreliable car I have ever had. Pretty much all mechanical parts on the car was repaired/replaced at some point including; engine, suspension, gearbox, clutch, brakes, steering rack, headlight, CV joints etc.

But the honda jazz that my wife has, has been one of the most reliable although it too has had a couple of issues over the years.

My BMW at the moment is probably the most reliable car I have owned, no major issues to date (touches wood ) but I do drive it a lot less than my previous cars now that I do not drive to work.

[Andres125sx]

I don't think it is limited to French cars. It may be model dependant.

And even day of assembly dependant

A friend of mine who race with bikes once told me there are friday (or it was monday?) bikes and normal bikes, refering to the fact that even same model can show dramatic differences between units due to the mood of the workers who did the assembly

When he acquired a new bike, the first thing his mechanic did was dissasemble the whole bike and re-assemble, with no mods at all, only reasembling to be sure everything is assembled as it should be

He said it made a difference, and he actually could compete with same model bikes with some mods, when his had no mods at all (and he´s a 100kg rider!), only everything correctly assembled, bearings with just the neccessary grease and no more, every movable part tightened to the correct torque, etc. This does remove a considerable amount of drag/friction in the whole drivetrain, wich equals to a standard bike with some mod to increase power

This is perfomance related more than anything else, but I´m sure long term reliability is also severly affected by this on production cars

[qwop]

One thing thats make your brain hurt, a coworker had some kind of mid 90s citroen, they tried to get new wearparts for the brakes, the same car model with the same engine and the same modelyear had none less than 5 different types of brakes, for the third party parts store it took 3 attemps to get the right brake pads. Figure they took whatever was on the shelf for the moment!

[J.A.W.]

One thing thats make your brain hurt, a coworker had some kind of mid 90s citroen, they tried to get new wearparts for the brakes, the same car model with the same engine and the same modelyear had none less than 5 different types of brakes, for the third party parts store it took 3 attemps to get the right brake pads. Figure they took whatever was on the shelf for the moment!

Seems a bit like an 'urban myth'..
.. since its been S.O.P. to quote the specific VIN ID of the car, on the parts order, for quite some time now..

To be fair though, way back in the day, prior to regular computer data base use, it was always sensible to take in the
actual part you wanted to replace, for close comparison, whenever possible..

[qwop]

You could hope it was. This was 5 years ago, Citroen isn't the most common brand in sweden, probably why they don't have it totaly figuered out in the system, it was a third party store, it probably wouldn't be a problem with a citroen dealer. Another friend hade the same problem with a peugot 205 (mid 80s?) he bought another spare parts car, it was more than one thing that differed.