. We have a Peugeot 306, which is a really nice car to drive, but suffers quite badly from that legendary French build quality. Bit just keep falling off. In the three years we have owned the car we have had the following faults to deal with.
• The exhaust fell off & the new one is noisey
• Fuel filter fell off
• Rocker cover gasket failure
• One radiator bracket fell off
• Front number plate fell off
• A piece of trim under the left headlight fell off & replacement keeps coming lose
• The clock leaked liquid crystal into the dash board
• The sun roof / light control panel fell off
• Built in swimming pool in the passenger foot well every time it rains (thus the title of this blog entry)
• And this week – Driver side mirror adjuster fell off
Despite all this it actually passed its MOT yesterday. Quite frankly I was amazed.
Why Peugeot Boat?
The car has had a small leaked since we bought it and the reason seems un-solvable. I’ve had the car apart trying to find the cause and was advised by an expert to replace the passenger door seal. That made no noticeable difference.
Last March I had an altercation with the drivers door of a parked Honda Accord. The women driver just opened it as I drove passed. I’ve never seen so much broken glass on a road before. After the headlight, front wing & bumper were replaced, and the side of the car repainted the leak became ten times worse.
The thing that really annoys me is that my insurance company offer a five year guarantee on all work, but the garage that did the repairs has stopped trading and no else will touch it. They say I’ll have to get a quote and get back to them. Like I’ve got the time to do that!
Back to the build quality - A colleague of mine often says,
“There’s the right way to do things, the wrong way to do things and the French way to do things”.
That phrase can easily be applied to all things French.
Your comments and experiences are most welcome. There is a ‘comments’ button at the bottom of this post, please use it as you see fit.
Regards
Chris
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I live in France and am sure that they even take apart those things that are not french in order to make them comply with the critical failure laws here.
ReplyDeleteThat is the more critical it is that something does not break, the more likely it is to fall apart.