Although I had a French car and now I own a Vauxhall, I can't deny you're wrong there even though I was in denial when I owned a Renault (mind you, the engine kept going but the suspension parts kept giving all sorts of noises). The way French cars are built is appalling. I only happened to go up north last weekend to see my relatives and while I was there, my uncle had to fix two cars - one of which was a '53 reg Renault Clio. The state of it mechanically-wise was appalling, and it had only done 30k miles. The job that was required was to replace a knackered driveshaft (I even had a look at the knackered one, and it was all rusty and broken) as Renault wanted 200 quid to replace it (my uncle charged £40 for whoever this customer was). Terrible customer service, and the customer wasn't exactly happy afterwards as the problem was to fix an ABS light on the dash, and a new driveshaft (like Renault recommended) didn't fix it. Beyond a knackered driveshaft, you could spot other things wrong such as green and black coolant (looked very dirty towards the bottom). Now I own a Vauxhall, I certainly won't be going anywhere near another French car. Anything's bound to be more alot more reliable (maybe not for some Italian manufacturers), and it doesn't necessarily have to be Japanese.