So I do an oil change on a Peugeot 604 and take it on a test drive. First off the turn signal switch sticks out of the right** side of the steering column. Anyway I decide to turn on the head lights to check their function. Reach toward the left side of dash, I don’t feel a switch. Take my eyes off the road for a moment and don’t see a switch. Glance to the right of the steering wheel, and still don’t see a switch. I pull over and examine the dash from left to right, top to bottom. No fucking switch that I can see.
I drive back to the shop, and ask one of the other guys to show me how to turn on the headlights.
He laughs and points to what in a normal car would be the turn signal switch.
Lift it up = Parking lights
Then push forward = high beams
Then pull it down = low beam head lights.
That is just the first level of weirdness about French cars, they get stranger as the more you look at them.
I believe you’re thinking of the R16. It wasn’t that front and rear wheels were not in line, but that the wheelbase (distance from front wheel to rear wheel) was longer (~3") on the left side than on the right. In other words, the rear wheels were not in line with each other. This is the only car I have ever heard of designed this way. (And I used to know why, but I’ve forgotten.) Nevertheless, the car had a lot to commend it - functional aerodynamics, fairly roomy, clever folding rear seats, great weight distribution for a front-wheel drive. If only it weren’t so weird…
One offhand example of French weirdness: Renault wheels (in the 70’s, anyway) did not have a hole in the center, so as to allow them to be fit onto tire mounting and balancing equipment. They had 3 (!) lug bolts, and in the center a captive nut to affix the hubcap. Tire mounting had to be done by hand with prybars, and balancing had to be done with a dynamic balancer that clipped to the rim. Show up at your typical 70’s repair shop with a flat tire, and you’d be lucky if you weren’t run out of town on a rail.
The Citroen Pallas and DS21 models were amazing cars-they were plush and comfortable-the floors even were padded. also, even before airbags, they had a lot of interior padding-which made them safe in a crash. I agree, the french do things differently-but a lot of thought went into their designs-CITOEN used a one-spoke steering wheel-which allowed you greater view of the road/dash, and would break off in a crash. The main problem was:
-the french never had an adequate stock of spare parts
-trained Citroen mechanics were scarce
-they never had a fully-automatic transmission. the best they could come up with was “Citromatic”-it was a clutchless manual-you had to manually shift the transmission.
But, CITROEN was still amazing-it had a 4 cylinder 120 cu. inch engine (11:1 compression) and you could do 120 MPH!
I should add that my dream car above all others is the Citroen DS Cabriolet (as seen in the opening scene of the excellent French gangster flick Subway). It’s simply beautiful in its eccentricity. I have always promised myself that when I get rich I shall have one.
Re weedy Mexican Mondeos, quite often Latin American cars have cheaper, less powerful engines than their European equivalents.
I’d also echo jjimm’s surprise at the disappointing performance of American cars, at least the ones I’ve hired in the States, considering that they’ve been fitted with what to me are large engines. Perhaps it’s to do with losing power throught the auto transmission, but don’t you have insanely long service intervals over there too? I’m thinking that maybe US car engines are tuned for reliability rather than performance.
And one minor correction - PSA (Peugeot Citroen) and Renault are separate companies.
One thing to keep in mind is that US regulatory requirements for cars are much more stringent than European requirements. Things such as emission standards, fuel economy standards, placement and number of lights, various state requirements, etc. make it very expensive to get a car certified for sale in the U.S.
Unless the manufacturer can be assured that there will be a sizeable market, it’s not worth the time and money.
From that link, “the average for cars must exceed 27.5 mpg”. I don’t see how that would be a problem for French manufacturers, as even their biggest models (of which they sell few) easily beat 27.5 mpg.
I heard it was emissions standards. And it’s not that French cars have worse standards, but the criteria on which they’re measured are different between the EU and the US.
Disclaimer: this is purely hearsay from a mechanic when I worked in a garage about 20 years ago.
That sounds plausible. For example you’ve got the European penchant for diesels, which emit a lot of particulates that get them into trouble in the US.
In general though I doubt it’s being able to meet regulations per se, but the cost involved in jumping through the hoops to show that you do. If you’re a Spanish automaker, breaking into the US market would be a daunting task. No brand recognition whatsoever, no dealer network, no mechanics who’ve ever seen your cars, no parts distributors…that’s all going to make your car rather unattractive to the consumer. It’s difficult to see how you’d ever get beyond a tiny niche market, and a tiny niche market isn’t worth the effort of convincing the EPA your car meets specs. The exception of course is high end sports and luxury cars where the profit margin is high enough to make it worth the effort.
This is not true. The emission standards for Europe are somewhat different than the US standards, but are are very close to the US standards. A little loser in some respects, tighter in others. US standards are not that much different the current European standards.
Same with crash standards, for example the side impact standard. The European side impact test is different from the US test, and in many respects is more realistic.
Even though these standards are close, the car maker must still do all the tests and certifications in order to import to the US.
I remember them talking about some car’s engine compartment (I’m afraid I no longer remember which one) where it was not only awfully cramped but horribly laid out. Their remark was that the designers took some tips from the Japanese, who make engines that, while compact, are designed really well for overall ease of access and maintainence, and then crossed them with the French, who can’t lay out an engine at all.
And vice versa. (This is called homologation.) Hence, why so few American cars are imported to Europe, and why the only European cars imported to the US today (except for VW) tend to be luxury/sport cars.
Maybe things are different in the UK, but virtually all new cars sold here in Sweden have AC. And the Mondeo was never a large car, it was a medium sized car. Large Euro cars include the Beemer X5, the Mercedes M-series, the Range Rover (now Land Rover Discovery, IIRC), the Volvo XC90 and the Audi Q7. All of these are comparable in size and performance with their American equivalent.
**FRDE ** - Don’t forget Audi and Porsche. Volkswagen manages to make all their brands co-exist here, without canibalizing, so I would think they could do it in the U.S. too. It’s just that the Skoda and Seat (I have a Seat) are budget cars and it’d be nearly impossible to enter the U.S. market and compete with the Japanese and Korean budget models at this point.
Anyway I decide to turn on the head lights to check their function. Reach toward the left side of dash, I don’t feel a switch. Take my eyes off the road for a moment and don’t see a switch. Glance to the right of the steering wheel, and still don’t see a switch. I pull over and examine the dash from left to right, top to bottom. No fucking switch that I can see.