As the discussion digresses to cars from across the channel Duane "he
drives a Healey, so I know he's basically a good guy" Walzer sez:
> Yes, I can say FRENCH. It's spelled: Junque.
>
And Roland " ditto..Cobra...ditto" Dudley adds:
>Renault Dauphin (spell ?). This particular gem convinced me forever
>that under no circumstance would I ever own a French car. Fortunately
>is was a friend and not me who suffered putting up with this junk heap.
>No doubt this is an unfair attitude to have relative to current French
>cars but I have a long memory.
I wasan't going to continue this thread, but the revered memories of our
Renault R-10 (the first new car we ever bought ) and my parent's Peugeot
403 (the car in which I learned to drive) require satisfaction.
The Dauphin did indeed deserve it's wretched reputation. It's main
problem was the head gasket. The car had an iron block with wet sleeves
and an alloy head. Renault engineers just couldn't get a good seal.
Peugeot had the same layout bu tno problems. The 403 and 404 were
(unlike most of their successors) highly reliable cars with character.
With the R-8 and R-10 Renault solved the head problems and they were decent
cars. We put over 160,000 miles on ours and I never even took the valve
cover off, never mind the head. The R-10 was probalby the best of the
rear-engined compacts. Subsiquent Renaults have reverted to the old
form. While the motors are probably solid, the rest of the car isn't
and worse, they've lost their character.
Well, enough of this or I'll start talking about our Citroen.
Mike Tobin
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