French cars spotted that we don't see often..

[Michel]

I thought I'd start a thread as I saw some weird stuff today around the riviera..

I don't know what the blue vehicle is!

The white thing is a Ligier, with a small HDi engine.

The black effort appears to be a Chatenet? It also has a 2-pot petrol engine that sounds rough as arseholes, or this one was broken!

Finally, a recognisable and rather lovely Mehari!

More weird and not-so-wonderful tat tomorrow!

[Timmo]

Hoping to get a couple of pictures of the Renault 4's around the villages close to pops van in a couple of weeks,

[van ordinaire]

I think that blue device is one of those strange Japanese retro things.

Isn't that Mehari Italian? Now I've driven one - & I wouldn't want to go that far in it.

[Michel]

Today we see a Renault F*&k knows and a mint ZX.

[van ordinaire]

Only about an hour ago, coming out of Paignton, on the Totnes road - an M-plate Twingo!

I mean they're quite rare in France now Parisiennes have been deprived of their budget city car of choice &, of course, they were never imported here. Love to know the story &, as it looked like it was probably a local car, how it's been kept going all these years in what is, after all, something of a backwater (for all its pretensions of being a holiday resort )

[Michel]

My dad bought one of those brand new back in.. 1999 in Greece.

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[Michel]

He loved it. It was a great car until one night, when it was 18 months and 14,000km old, coming over one of the mountain roads back to Athens, smoke, then flames started coming from behind the dash..
..

This is the result. Renault were particularly unhelpful and refused any liability, and the Greek authorities even took him to court for endangering life! This is why I will never own a Renault.

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[white exec]

There are still dozens of Twingi in daily use here - and in all those lovely colours (baby-poo green, squashed plum, Harvest Gold, omelet yellow, blush pink....). Renault must have gone to the paint store left-overs, and made the most of them.

[daviemck2006]

He loved it. It was a great car until one night, when it was 18 months and 14,000km old, coming over one of the mountain roads back to Athens, smoke, then flames started coming from behind the dash..
..

This is the result. Renault were particularly unhelpful and refused any liability, and the Greek authorities even took him to court for endangering life! This is why I will never own a Renault.

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You owned a Renault engined thing that turned into a bonfire though!

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[Michel]

My first girlfriend had a Renault 5.... that turned into a bonfire. My uncle had a Renault 5..... that turned into a bonfire. My R5 GTt.... turned into a bonfire. My mate's R18... turned into a bonfire...

My sis-in-law's Scenic 07 plate auto.... didn't turn into a bonfire, but it's s**t.

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[daviemck2006]

So stay clear of renaults then, except on 5th November lol

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[Michel]

Today I am! It's been bloody Volvo marine motors I've been working on today!

[Hell Razor5543]

He loved it. It was a great car until one night, when it was 18 months and 14,000km old, coming over one of the mountain roads back to Athens, smoke, then flames started coming from behind the dash..
..

This is the result. Renault were particularly unhelpful and refused any liability, and the Greek authorities even took him to court for endangering life! This is why I will never own a Renault.

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When I told my little friend about your Dad's Twingo he was very concerned;

http://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-co ... 1__605.jpg

[van ordinaire]

Burned out cars are not so uncommon in certain Paris side streets - but I don't recall any of them being Twingos.

Sure I've mentioned this before, but they are still as common/popular in Berlin as they were ib Paris before they were banned.

I was drove a Simca Aronde (now there's not many as could say that - truthfully!) which tried to catch fire, i.e. smoke issued from the steering column shroud when the indicators were used. Hand signals were interesting because the only way to keep the driver's door shut was to wind the window down & hold it in with your elbow. All this taking it back from passing its MoT!

[demag]

Haha that Simca reminds me of a few Triumph Heralds I've owned. They had a habit of letting the doors fly open going round bends. I seem to remember back when I was a lad Renault Dauphines used to catch fire as the petrol filler was under the bonnet of the rear mounted engine above the hot exhaust manifold! Not the best design they had. [emoji23]

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