No I don’t . Most car manufacturers are multi national anyway - seen who Stellantis own?- and stories of unreliability assume their own momentun. Of course I’m not saying that people make it up , but bad news is much more fun to post about than good. As I said , take ND gearboxes - some failures are enough to convince some key board nerds that every single car is affected.
True, but if you google ‘are Mazda’s generally unreliable’, and then google ‘are (given French brand) unreliable’, compare and contrast.
However, the thread isn’t meant to be a this manufacturer v that manufacturer, just a general discussion of whether French cars are great and nothing to see here (and maybe that is indeed the case, as as stated, I see shed loads on the roads, so people are clearly prepared to shell out their £400 a month on them) , and the years of back stories and ‘general’ impression is trash, or alternatively maybe, just maybe, they might not be the best place to put the PCPer’s £400 a month.
Regarding the ND gearbox, you’re correct about a certain percentage doom scrolling and thinking the worst, but on the same token, you maybe have an equal percentage jumping down peoples’ throats at the merest thought of something not perfect with ‘their’ ND.
Regarding multi national players etc, a given manufacture X still has the brand on it though, so as much as manufacturer X could play the victim concerning this and that partnership, their brand still is on the bonnet. A reputation don’t stand on fall on which manufacture supplied the suspension coils.
VW for example, are kind of the opposite. Despite whatever issues are associated with them, ‘it’s a VW’ is still typically considered by my many average joes, as a sign of quality. Indeed, I couldn’t tell you how any Skoda and SEAT owners I’ve known (and still do!), who say ‘it’s basically a VW’ as a way to ‘up’ their own car lol. A neighbour told me even the salesman said that very line to him whilst he was test driving (and eventually bought) an Arona. But I wonder how many VW owners said ‘It’s basically a SEAT’.
L 123 PMD Black 1.4 Renault Clio owed 1998 -2007
Had part exchanged her for a Fiesta [which was part exchanged for a Mondeo]…don’t go there as to why !
Only choose it because it was Black but it turned out to be super reliable ‘up hill and down dale’ in Yorkshire back in the days when I used to work full time and be all over …from Oakworth, Keighley to Bradford, Wakefield, Halifax, Leeds etc
Only issue I started having as she matured was having to get her tyres resealed regularly due to loss of air pressure. Never failed an MOT and reasonable prices to service etc
[Donated her to neighbours daughter who was learning to drive] and bought
BULLIT [2005 1.8 2.5 NB] as present to myself when I sold my house in 2007 to move in with late father as his full time carer in Whitby
and I still have Bullit even though she’s had to be welded, undersealed and her cills and arches replaced
The Clio didn’t experience any corrosion issues during my ownership …but she was always garaged…unlike Bullit who wasn’t garaged until 2019
French cars…an ex work colleague had a Citroen Diane 2 cv which he loved and I 
1 Like
I think Renault had a 4 year warranty going on until it was binned a few years ago? Who knows, maybe they weighed up how many came back in for warranty work in years 4, against how many new customers the 4 year warranty attracted? Or maybe they binned it as they’re so reliable it was pointless giving a 4 year warranty anyway 
Apparently as owners see no benefit from having a 4 year warranty 
Going from memory, a neighbour used to have a Renault van for quite a few years which I recall was fine. A neighbour, a couple of doors down, the daughter used to have an orange Cr*ptur, so when I see the neighbour I’ll ask how that was.