French car industry struggling

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6276590.stm

Apparently Peugeot and Renault have both seen drops in sales in Europe.

I think Peugeot's current range is very uninspiring. During the 205, 306, 405-406 period their cars were very attractively styled. Now they have these huge low-slung gaping maws and long noses.

Renault seems to have shot itself in the foot with the Modus, a car which is smaller that the Clio, but taller and more expensive.

Meanwhile Citroën ( hurrah ! hurrah! ) are selling so many C4 Picassos that they have had to move production of the still excellent Xsara Picasso from Portugal to France to keep up with demand. And the 3 door C4 is hugely popular second-hand for its futuristic styling.

And the Dacia Logan, designed and built by Renault in Romania, is hugely popular in France because it is cheap, simple, reliable and big. Especially the 7 seater estate car that looks as long as an aircraft carrier ( but probably isn't quite ).

Comments

Andrew and Cora said…
We are thinking of buying a Renault. Brazilian made, of course. Curitiba, just north of us (3 hrs) is home to their factory, and because of this the most violent french-style rugby team in Brazil.
10:31 pm
Alan said…
Sounds good to me. What would it be?

The VW Fox that is sold in UK and in France is made in Brésil, I understand. Supposed to be very good, too.
10:34 pm
Liz said…
A Renault is fine, just so long as you don't need to visit Renault Croydon or Coulsdon, which of course you won't in Brasil or France! Also, make sure you're in France if you need to buy a spare key!
7:51 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit about music exams in UK and France

They're really different. I think I have already mentioned that while in the UK people generally find a private teacher for their instrument, or do it through a school scheme, here there are municipal music school, conservatoires and so on. The situation is a little more complex than I had first understood, because the schools vary in the rigidity of their organisation: the most, the conservatoires, next the municipals, then the associations. Our music school is an association, but it tends to apply the standards of the municipal schools with its programme of cycles, etc. Britain - grade 1 to 8, grade 8 being roughly equivalent to A-level, pre university/conservatoire. France - 3 cycles, each taking about 4 years, with 3ème cycle being roughly equivalent to grade 8. Theory of music - UK to take grade 8 you need theory grade 5. In France you study theory alongside your instrumental studies, very slowly. Catrin's flute music is MUCH more difficult than the stuff she does in theor
Read more

A brief sortie to North Wales

 Following the Great Keswick Debacle, when our volunteering at the Keswick café was sabotaged by our assorted indispositions, we had airline tickets to use up. Yes, we had not taken travel insurance, so we paid even more money to change our tickets to fly for a short visit to North Wales. This time we were able to go. We passed extremely slowly through a very crowded Bordeaux airport but in good time to get our plane. All seats in the terminal were taken so we leaned against whatever we could find while waiting to board. Hey, bags need seats, too! though sometimes pointing out to Pat, "No, that's a bag seat", makes the bag find a new refuge on the lap of the person sitting next to it... Once on the plane we quickly found our allocated seats - right at the back on the left hand side - stowed our bags and the flight was smooth and uneventful.  We had 30 minutes in Manchester to disembark, get through immigration , hustle off to the station and board our train for Shotton. I
Read more