Why aren't French cars being imported to the US?

The incarceration of the French car executive reminds me of his failure to bring Renaults as a name brand back to the US. I miss the French brands--Renault, Citroen and Peugeot-- because I feel they could put pressure on Detroit to match their innovation. I know Trump is talking huge tariffs being laid on importers but why not have invite US cities to compete in offering a package deal to a French automaker to set up an assembly plant here? I know there will Francophiles who protest a French car made in, say, South Carolina "won't be French" but German car fans don't say BMWs and Mercedes assembled in the US aren't German. When I see the beautiful French concept cars reported on from European shows I wonder why the parallel reality--the rest of the world sees French cars except us. Why aren't French cars here when we have French fashion all over our stores? I would even be willing to give a French automaker who sets up an assembly plant here waivers to meeting the myriad of US laws regarding headlights and such for three years until they had time to re-engineer the cars to conform to our laws. We need the influence of France on American car design and engineering and can't get that if Americans are ever more denied the chance to see and own French cars.

 

Whoops I forgot Bugatti, they are imported to the U.S. I've even been to their parties at Pebble...but although they are a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, it is a French automaker with its head office and assembly plant in Molsheim, Alsace, France. Volkswagen purchased the Bugatti trademark in June 1998 and incorporated Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. in 1999. But my original posting was meant to apply to cars of all price ranges from the lowest buck to upper middle. Here's a Renault prototype for an autonomous car.
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I'm not sure the US driving public is missing anything without French cars. While I am a Ferrari fan they won't miss anything if maserati or fiat or alfa go away. I love BMW's still own 2 but there is absolutely nothing in their massive lineup that I would buy. My daughter has drives a BMW and looking for a new car. She drove 3 different BMW's and her response was "blah...no way." I see this time as very similar to the very lame cars we had during the 74-79 time period with gas lines, Japanese cr@pboxes coming to the fore, and wonky smog controls! Now we got too many EV's, hybrids, and gutless 4 cylinder turbos.

 

Because they are ****

 

No thanks. Americans are still trying to get the LeCar and Fuego out of their minds. It might be fun to drive a car that goes faster in reverse than forward, though.

 

I'm older than you... still trying to the the Dauphine out of my mind.... They sold tons of them.

Later, Dad had a Peugeot 505 turbo diesel.
Nice car but ALWAYS something broken. Dealer could not get parts.
Then the dealer closed.

 

And there is the issue. Not a single French car producer has ever done a serious job of setting up a distribution and support network in the US. With a bunch of half ass dealers and no service or parts support no brand would succeed.

 

Must be because of those damn yellow headlights! Ugly
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Zero to sixty in two minutes!

Joe

 

They’ve actually been importing them here for years they just keep getting destroyed in protests and riots before the leave shore.

 

Oh, I don't know. I wouldn't mine one of these . . .
https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/alpine/a110

They'd probably have to jack up the weight by 200 lbs or so just to meet crash standards, assuming that it could meet CARB emissions standards.

 

I had a Peugeot 406 mi16. It was awesome!

 

They imported them in the 80s. French have a lot diesel small cars, doesn’t seem to play well in the states?

 

You're welcome the the ones we get in the UK. Not sure why anybody wants a French car.

 

The new ones aren’t as whimsical as their forebearers, and unfortunately, whimsy covered many of their shortcomings. Shouldn’t be unfamiliar territory for many on this site. . A shame they’ve all slowly been amputated into poorly stamped versions of Galants.

 

Their cars suck, simple as that.

When Renault and Peugeot we’re here, their cars weren’t known for their reliability. That’s pretty much a recipe for disaster when selling against Toyota and Honda.

 

Remember the Renault Alliance/Encore? When Renault and American Motors were partners?
Sold a ton of those...
They were reasonably reliable, I think... but AMC is long gone, taken over by Chrysler.

 

When Renault and Peugeot were here they had a disastrous dealer network and matching factory support. No brand has a chance to stay on the road that way. Both have produced cars that were popular and well though of in other markets.

 

I think if the cars were better built, they could have survived that to a degree. Similar to what happened to Ducati (at least from what I was told by the dealers in my area), but if the reliability were there it wouldn't be such a sore spot. It's a shame because Renault is at least a sporty company, I'd love to have an R5 or Alpine, but they didn't really bring cars like that stateside (we had Le Car, which was merde).

 

French parts suppliers and sub assembly suppliers are some of the best in the world and used in most of the famous makes in Europe and USA.

 

Incredibly, they sold over 600,000 of these!!!

 

Do I really need to write a list of cars from GM alone that made Le Car look good? There are a lot of crap cars built by every company. There are also good ones and the French have had their share of both.

 

Yes, GM went bankrupt. They are crap.

I like Toyota and Honda - always have, and although Honda has some more recent snafus, you can't compare most of the manufacturers to them.

Above and beyond that - perception becomes reality. You could show me any list of stats declaring Renault as good as Toyota, I would still have a hard time believing it. Confirmation bias maybe, but I've owned a **** ton of Toyotas and every one of them has been a tank. I can't say that about any other manufacturer of the cars I've owned.

 

Toyota and Honda make great transportation units for people who hate cars and hate to drive. Life is too short. I could restrict my diet to similarly boring foods but at the end of the day I'd rather be dead. Besides I do my best to avoid supporting a country who holds the record for killing Americans in captivity. They beat out all other countries combined on that score.

 

Thankfully, we have choice. Neither of us will convince the other, but at the end of the day neither Renault nor Peugeot will sell many cars here in the US.