I had to convert those mpg numbers to metric to understand them. I then ran them again as I didn’t believe them. 15 mpg is roughly 15.7L/100 km. That is... Impressive. I thought they stopped selling cars with such horrific numbers in the 1970s.

Additionally, the 2CV was about the cheapest car you could get new in the 80s. And it sat 4 and could be fixed with a hammer. A very crude car for the era, but given the context I'd argue it's forgiven.

Exactly. Besides, Europe got a fwd Escort in 1980, so the MK1 and MK2 are a lot but not cars from the 80s and thus by definition not part of this list.

Honestly, that tells me you’ve been hanging out with a rather limited crowd. The French have built some properly great cars. And some horribly shitty ones as well. Basically like manufacturers from every other country.

That’s what GM tried with Daewoo/Chevy in Europe early this century. They failed so miserably, GM retreated from Europe a few years ago.

This is true. Not sure why this is though. I tried it once, and in my experience it requires you to adjust steering wheel and seat properly, and you should give yourself a little time to adjust. All of which is not too much to ask, imho.

There i a better way to do this. Like mainstream Peugeots do this. Smaller size steering wheel, and the cluster moved up. So you simply look over the top of the wheel to see the cluster.

In the Netherlands, these tend to be leased company cars. So as long as the resale value is decent enough in 3 years time, nobody cares.

Very true. Although, to be fair, it was also about the cheapest car you could get, new. Well under €10k base price, new. So you cannot expect too much.

Well, when a competitor can offer a similar $75k car which achieves 30 mpg US, the guzzler tax would be ‘only’ $18k (all of this is based on pricing per gram of CO2 emissions per km over a certain threshold). And as such, it would be 61-18= $43k cheaper than this Genesis. Which does matter to buyers. The Genesis would…

The Citroën C1 is a rebadged Toyota.

This sounds like someone who has experience with the story of one car, on which he judges many decades of output of multiple manufacturers.

“20 mpg. (...) Neither of those numbers will really matter much to owners of a car that starts at $74,950.”

Exactly. It also makes it much more international. The F150 and larger are kind of like Kei cars; they make sense in one country and are like clown cars elsewhere. The Ranger however is more international. Which makes the EV investment more useful.

Built by Daewoo; Korean car. Or American, as it was GM.

Modern french cars, like most older french cars, are mainstream cars. This might be odd to Americans, but it’s true. The engines, reliability, practically, power and more tend to be on par with the German, Japanese, Korean and whatnot competition. Which is why they are still in business.

The drivetrains for the Multipla were exactly as expected and totally competitive at the time at the price segment. Obviously, there were a few diesel options as well.

More hp in a work van? In Europe these have engines between 75 and 120 hp (2018-2021 Transit Connect). Biggest displacement is 1.5 liters and is a diesel. The only gas engine is the 1.0 triple, an ecoboost. Your 165 hp seems like plenty, for normal use. The 2022+ one, the new gen, goes up to 122 hp from a 2.0L diesel.

It does depend on your definition of ‘comfort’ though. The most uncomfortable non-worn seats I’ve experienced were in the most American of American cars I’ve ever driven; a brand new rental spec Chevy Impala (9th gen), in 2016. They had zero hold and zero support. They were merely soft. My wife and I both got…

Good sightlines with limited to no blind spots.