Volkswagen's invasion of the U.S. started in the late 50's. At that time the average price of regular gasoline was about 25-cents a gallon. It was difficult for me to understand why anyone would want one of the noisy, uncomfortable little cars. Now I understand a little better-
As a second car they were somewhat like a motorcycle, only you could use one in the rain or snow and not be wet and miserable.
The car in the photo is a Renault "Dauphine", France's answer to the Beetle.
A friend's Father bought one for her because he had fought in the European Theater during WWII and could not bring himself to buy anything made by Hitler's minions. Dauphines were TERRIBLE little cars. They broke down
A LOT, and Renault had little to no logistics chain set up to support the car.
My friend's car sat for weeks waiting on some part. While the Beetle just got more and more popular, Renault got run out of town on a rail until they reappeared in the U.S. with the AMC/Renault "Alliance", (another raving success of an automobile).
Renault. Citroen. Peugeot.
What is it about French cars in the U.S.?
4 comments:
I've owned two French cars. The first, bought new, was a 1972 R-16. Reliable, but the local dealer was terrible and I got tired of working on it. That was traded in on a Dodge Charger.
The second, bought used, was a 1979 Peugeot diesel powered station wagon. Built solid, heavy sheet metal, and something I felt my kids had a chance of surviving their mother's driving. Only problem was the mother kept putting gasoline in it. I bought it as a trade in at the car lot I was working and, a year later, some "collector" wanted it. If memory serves, I bought it for $300 and sold it for $2,700. New in 1979 that car was $12,000.
Preventive maintenance, as performed by the mother of my children, was to let me know a red light was flashing on and off for two days.
Had a Nurse (Iraqi war Veteran) friend that had a Peugeot diesel, WSF, and spoke will of it. But they too have never gotten a real foothold here.
Wonder why?
Spent five years at a Ford store adjacent to a Subaru/Peugeot store owned by the same man (he had 12 stores) and was on friendly terms with the people. The Peugeot carried a near Mercedes price and was on par with Lexus without the (oh look at me) snob appeal.
They were low sales numbers and that meant service and parts were hard to come by. If you're deciding on a car outside of big cities, you want something common enough that it is serviceable and reliable enough to depend on. Add that to large size of the country and higher speeds on most roads and a Renault doesn't make the short list.
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