Mokos23

1. Peugeot and Citroen

Why is there no Peugeot in the USA anymore? I've never seen a Citroen in the USA ever. Are the French shunning us Americans?

2. Renault

Same as above, but you can say that there is the Renault influence with the Nissan/Infiniti cars currently.

3. Seat

Saw some Seat cars in Europe, why aren't they sold here?

4. Alfa Romeo and Fiat

I did rumors that Alfa Romeo is coming back after reading on the web, but what about Fiat too?

SRK85

What about Skoda too.
I guess these cars are like the chevys, and saturns. Sold only in their domestic country and not really sold internationally. But none of the citrogen cars look good, and I've hardly seen any renaults.

brizey

1. They are French.

2. See 1.

3. Mostly rebadged VW's anyway.

4. Japanese brands drove them out.

Really 4. is the answer to all of them.

odessa

Peugeot and Renault used to be sold in the USA until mid 80's, but were pulled of the market due to poor quality.
Alfa Romeo and Fiat also were sold here at the same time, I do not remember why they pulled out.

Will Y.

Poor quality, weird looks and underpowered for the French cars, and just horrible quality for the Italian cars. The Alfas and Fiats were generally great looking cars, but really unreliable with a terrible parts pipeline (I had to help a buddy in 1983 or so with a Fiat 124 convertible diagnose brake system issues, then get the various parts from the dealer... my buddy did a lot of hitching and walking before the parts arrived).

ludachrisvt

iTrader: (2)

my mom had a really nice 89 Peugeot ... it was really terrible on the reliability side. She traded it for a 92 Accord. That thing lasted forever! I traded it in 2004 for my TL

S14 n Tsx

Peugeot got some nice slection.

GreenMonster

Because they suck.

F23A4

^^ It really is that simple. The only models that I took a slight liking to was the Peugeot Mi16. (For about 10 seconds, the Alfa Romeo Milano seemed like a reasonable alternative to the BMW E30.)

But the quality of these brands reportedly made mid-80s GM products seem not too bad.

ZtotallynakedZ

My grandparents and parents rocked the Peugeot's for years, and then it became too hard to get parts for them

iTimmy

How about TVR?

fdl

They were building small cars when Americans wanted big cars.

iTimmy

True, but I still like them.

AMGala

iTrader: (4)

They are supposedly going to start selling cars in the U.S. in the near future.

Deity711

I've seen a Peugeot or two around here in the past few years.

All with Mexican plates.

Whiskers

I could of got any of those but I got a Ford

Mokos23

Why didn't you get a Smart car instead Whiskers? I was walking around London and I thought parking in NYC was bad.

Whiskers

I begged my wife for one, but she wanted something bigger to carry groceries...oh and our son...

cambo

They dont want to try and pass US safety/emission regulations?

Python2121

My old peugeot 505 wagon (drove in high school) was almost too reliable. I itched for that car to kick the bucket, even taught 10 people how to drive stick on it (and my brother probably taught about 10, no joke) and even the clutch wouldn't go. Like I mentioned in another thread, it drove like a tank (which it basically was) and had the overall worst driving dynamics of any car I have ever driven....ever. The engine (a naturally aspirated 4 cyl) was a piece of shit. If you rev it over 3k rpm it would sound like you had no oil. I had buttons and shit for every option...but had none of the options. I always wondered why the hell the seat warmers didn't work, didn't have them but they couldn't be concerned with taking the buttons out, if you work 40 hours a week you need to focus on merely finishing the car. Anytime there was any light in the car you could see all the shit on the dashboard I didn't have....lots of stuff. The car rattled like like a percussion instrument. The leather (plastic) started cracking within 3 years of purchasing (it was black on black though). There were metal rails in the bed of the trunk. Why? So it could scratch anything you wanted to put in there.

After those embarrassments they left the USA market with their tails between their legs. Obviously times have changed, but I would never buy another.

Black Tire

Peugeot and Renault were sold in Canada back in the 70's and early 80's. I think emission standards drove them away. Renault is a parent of Nissan, so I would assume they can use Nissan network for a comeback. Or just rebadge all their cars and sell them as Nissan.

I have seen a Citroen c6 in the UK in real life. OMG that thing is so unique and beautiful.

Dan

Have had or friends who had 1, 2 & 4. Be thankful they are no longer sold here!

hemhaw

As embarassing as it might be to be stuck driving a minivan or a new beetle, rockin' a Peugeot or a Renault would be reason enough to walk.

I'm sure these cars are now better than we remember them, but.....

....we remember them!

jupitersolo

Same as your first sentence, have you ever heard the term Fix It Again Tony ?

BustedJack

They were pulled due to poor craftsmanship, and had terrible reliability. They are too underpowered in the American roads. Most of them are way too small for the average Americans anyway
Trust me, you better off driving a Chevy or Ford than those in the U.S.

SRK85

HAHA that reminds me when I was in London, I saw 4 people in a smart4two with 4 people in it. 2 people up front and 2 people in the back it was so funny. Its a shame I never got a pic of it.

GreenMonster

My dad had a Renault Alliance... not a bad car when it was new, but he ended up having lots of issues with it as it got older...

I drove it down to FL and back in it one year with my dad, and it sucked as a road trip car...

herbalist

hopefully not the Ford Ka

Mokos23

Gosh the Ford Ka is ugly

JensH1963

Hahaha,

Mmmm just to clarify Seat is a Spanish brand not a French brand. Alfa is returning the the US marketplace. Fiat is not nor is there a current plan to bring Citroen, Peugeot or Renault back.

Seat is owned by VW hence the concept of sharing the powerplants and much of the understructure. However it is unfair to say these cars are twins, they are decidedly different vehicles.

Skoda is also a sister of VW and also uses VW components. Skoda due to the lower labor rates in it's home country the Czech Republic is often a better deal than the much pricer VW. The quality is by the way excellent.

Fiat and Alfa are both on the roll here with their cars. Lancia still lags behind and desperately needs some new products.

The French remain as always the producers of cars that are often to be polite ....unusual in either styling or features. But having driven a few of them here I can say they are damn nice cars even if the interiors often require a major adjustment from the driver.

As to why they are not sold in the USA... lots of reasons. Then again Infiniti and Acura are not sold here.... but Lexus is..... and we all know that is just a Toyota with options. We do have the Legend here (your RL) but the car is virtually unsellable. Big, expensive and simply put no match for the competition from BMW and Co.

Jens

Mokos23

Thanks for the clarification. Not surprising that even the RL doesn't sell well in Europe. I guess the Legend (RL) is a global problem for Honda/Acura now unfortunately.

is300eater

I thought Renault and Nissian were "together"?

Whiskers

4 door Focus....

JensH1963

Yes they are but this does not mean they will be importing them into the US anytime soon if ever. America is an important market however I think the high cost of starting a new car line there and the lawsuit driven mentality there makes it unlikely that an attempt to sell cars there is worth it. In order to succeed you need to either make a ton of cash per car or sell enough cars to arrive at a good profit. The American market is difficult to start in, the Dollar is not worth much these days against the Euro so the exchange rate is the first problem. Then you need to build cars specifically for the rules and regs of the American road which again implies costly certification plus you need to establish a working infrastructure for parts, service and ofcourse sales. None of this comes free and in a country such as the USA where Litigation with frivolous lawsuits is simply a fact of life you end up with a situation that makes the USA a decidedly unattractive place to sell anything at all.

Better to go to China, that is a real opportunity :-)

Jens

Shoofin

...And they smelled bad too..



Ed

Mokos23

Just wondered why GM didn't just keep the name Opel and come up with a new name like Saturn instead for their cars sold in the US?

Will Y.

GM sold Opels here in the US- the Opel GT and the Opel Manta, and maybe one other- in the '70s through Buick, IIRC. As with usual GM (or all Big 3, actually) practice, the imported Euro cars got short shrift, minimal marketing and it only imported the least reliable ones.
The Opels were not reliable, and a new Opel Coupe got a famously derisive write-up in Car & Driver ("POS > walking > Opel," or words to that effect).