Canada and USA?

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ActivaV6uk
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Post by ActivaV6uk »

2 facts (my wife is American and I have looked at purchase and export issues).
Fact 1 the main issue with the US rules for Citroens is ride height, all cars sold in the USA must have a constant ride height (this is due to some sports car accidents ware there poor roads caught on low sports cars etc and cause very nasty accidents. You will find that even your VW golf rides a lot higher in the states (about 20mm). Apparently the other stipulation is that this height should be specified at the factory for all cars of that model and should not be adjustable by the driver.
One question that lots of people will ask is what about all the cars with pneumatic suspension and of cause the boy racers. It’s worth remembering that like us they cannot use under car neon’s or in
car neon’s its also illegal to lower your car past a certain point and you have to have someone qualified to fit any parts which change suspension settings and it must be documented (failure to do so will get your car crushed.)
Antisink got rid of some of this problem and there were XM's shipped to the states with there height correctors bar effectively disabled. The cars never took off and flopped since then Citroen have showed no interest in the states what so ever. Peugeots are available ive even visited a dealership and driven a US speck 405 which was like driving a boat from the look out tower...
Fact 2 when I went over there last I went looking for fuel injectors for my Activa and V6 (wanting some huge flow injectors). I was amazed to find that every car since 1986 has an EGR system on it, that’s petrol and diesel! Now I at that time thought this was a European thing but it turns out it was used there as long ago as 1970!
Andy
P.S. i am still unsure about shipping an activa to the states it may be that i have to suply 3 for testing in which case should i ever end up in the states i wont drive a Citroen... (Nissan Skyline / Ford Mustang here I come!)
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Post by ivan olsen »

ActivaV6uk:
are you sure about this variable ride height issue? because many cars that are currently being sold in the us are equipped with variable ride height suspension, like the bentley continental gt, ferrari enzo, just to mention a few.
ActivaV6uk
Posts: 650
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Location: United Kingdom
My Cars: C5 X7 2.7 hdi

Past cars
Activa, silver MK1 (221bhp stock) stripped out with twin sparcos Evo seats. 95
Activa, light met red MK1 98
Activa, dark met red MK1 98
Activa, dark met blue MK1 (202bhp stock) 96
Xantia exclusive V6 auto 3l 98
Xantia 2l 8v auto
BX 4x4 GTi dark met silver
BX 4x4 GTi white
BX GTi 16v white fibre bumpers
BX GTi 16v black fibre bumpers
BX GTi 16v hurricane (doa)
BX DTR estate

Post by ActivaV6uk »

yep it was the main issue with importing the activa
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Post by VisaGTi16v »

Kowalski, I was reading about that just last night, apparently we use ron and they use an average of mon and ron or something so your statement above is right. Reason for the post is that I am in Canada at the moment on holiday (for another 24.5hrs anyway!) and I was shocked at how low their petrol was until I read and understood what their figures actually meant on the pumps.
Petrol here is about 43p a litre currently! diesel the same. As for the cars oh my god! Some of them are just so awful! They dont have mot's like us, just emissions so loads of the cars here are in a right state, rusted away totally due to the -30C and worse winters and tons of salt. They also have hilarious names like my Aunts is a Plymouth Sundance.
Dont even start me on the speed limits! Most "a roads" are 50mph, some of the big main will be ~55 ie 90kmh. The highways (motorways) are only 110kmh which is 60mph if I recall right. 60?! even we are not that bad in England and I recall cruising at 150+ through Germany in April!
I have the long journey home tomorrow but im itching to get back in the Visa :D
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Post by DoubleChevron »

Guys,
I know some people that I consider good friends on the Citroen Lists over in the USA. Much like any other country there poeple aren't what they are portrayed to be on TV.
The real reason is no doubt the sheer size of the place. To setup a service network in a country as MASSIVE as the USA you would need thousands of service centers, mechanics and dealers to back them up... You could probably sink billions of dollars into laying the groundworks/infrastructure before you even sold the first car (if you were to try and sell any quantity of them).
The alternative is to be an oddball manufacturer (much like they are in Australia), have one or two service centers in each capaital city and sell only 1or2 thousand cars a year. Given the size and regulations of the USA a small venture like this would be sure to fail. Were not talking DS's or SM's here, were talking Xantias, C5's and Xsara's. They aren't that different to the other cars on the market, good cars but not massively better/different.
Just think how the DS would have been MASSIVELY beter in every department as compared to a bloody great yank tank with no brakes, soggy suspension and terrible steering back it the 60's and 70's. Yes it would have been worth the agro to keep a DS in your drive.
seeya,
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Post by oscarloco »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by ivan olsen</i>

ActivaV6uk:
are you sure about this variable ride height issue? because many cars that are currently being sold in the us are equipped with variable ride height suspension, like the bentley continental gt, ferrari enzo, just to mention a few.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Yeah, I think so too. The new Porsche Cayenne and some Range Rovers also have variable ride height.
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Post by madasafish »

The trouble with the US and Canada are the coast to coast distances ar about 3,000 mile.s The trouble with Citroens is that the electrics will not last that long in US extreme weather conditions to drive 3,000 miles without breaking down.
Americans and Canadians are smart: unreliable cars do not sell there..hence no Citroens...:-) (or Rovers:-)
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Post by TomH »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by madasafish</i>

The trouble with the US and Canada are the coast to coast distances ar about 3,000 mile.s The trouble with Citroens is that the electrics will not last that long in US extreme weather conditions to drive 3,000 miles without breaking down.
Americans and Canadians are smart: unreliable cars do not sell there..hence no Citroens...:-) (or Rovers:-)
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
exactly. They have those "lemon" laws whereby if the car develops a fault and the dealer fails to fix this successfully after three attempts, the owner has the legal right to demand the full price of the car back, including any contract/interest payments. Looking at the performance of French cars on customer satistaction and reliablility surveys in this country it looks like they would struggle in this respect!
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Post by Kowalski »

There are worse built cars than the Citroen, my Dad has a Jeep Cherokee and it makes the Citroen look absolutely luxurious, it's very crude in a lot of ways and a lot of the engineering lacks refinement.
The US car industry made things cheap by cutting materials costs, i.e. use cheaper materials and simpler parts. The European and Japanese car industries automated their production lines so they saved on labour costs. The end result is that we end up with the same quality as before and pay for less man hours to put it all together, where as in the US, they get cheap materials and outdated engineering.
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Post by oscarloco »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Kowalski</i>

There are worse built cars than the Citroen, my Dad has a Jeep Cherokee and it makes the Citroen look absolutely luxurious, it's very crude in a lot of ways and a lot of the engineering lacks refinement.
The US car industry made things cheap by cutting materials costs, i.e. use cheaper materials and simpler parts. The European and Japanese car industries automated their production lines so they saved on labour costs. The end result is that we end up with the same quality as before and pay for less man hours to put it all together, where as in the US, they get cheap materials and outdated engineering.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
That's true. My father had a GMC Jimmy, 4.3 liter engine and about 16 mpg on the highway! Rear suspension was live axle with leaf springs, and the interior plastics were VERY cheap looking. And the ride, felt as if you were on the top of a pole, leaning like crazy in turns even thoug it had Auto 4WD.
Now he owns a Toyota Highlander with a smaller engine (I don't remeber the exact size)that has more power, better fuel economy and fully independent suspension, driving it feels like a normal sedan.
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Post by BX-Basis »

As far as I know, there were some regulations in the US, that concern the reliability of hydraulic brake system. In order to comply these regulations, a lot of modifications would have been necessary. I thgink the "CXA" do have a modified hydraulic circuit.
@ActivaV6uk: the EGR should not have been the problem, as even on a 1986 BX you can find an EGR system in some European countries. Sweden and Switzerland were the first countries, Germany followed up a little bit later. The BX 1.9 Diesel were sold with EGR since 1986 (DJZ engine, 64 hp), a lot of petrol versions also had a similar system called "Pulsair". There were some BX14 (both XW7 and TU3 engine), the BX 16 TRI (105 hp) and the BX 15 RE (80 hp) for example with this system.
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Post by ivan olsen »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Kowalski</i>

There are worse built cars than the Citroen, my Dad has a Jeep Cherokee and it makes the Citroen look absolutely luxurious, it's very crude in a lot of ways and a lot of the engineering lacks refinement.
The US car industry made things cheap by cutting materials costs, i.e. use cheaper materials and simpler parts. The European and Japanese car industries automated their production lines so they saved on labour costs. The end result is that we end up with the same quality as before and pay for less man hours to put it all together, where as in the US, they get cheap materials and outdated engineering.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
i agree, us cars are not more reliable than citroens, i think they're even worse. i myself own an american crap, and my friends have some more, and to tell the truth, american cars get down more than citroens do. the only difference is that in american cars many parts can be used in several brands, and there are loads of parts around the country. sometimes even a part that was manufactured in the 70's fits a car built in the 90's. i would never again buy a us car. (nor citroen, to tell the truth [:(]
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