Last one decade French cars' reputation disappeared as the Deutsch Mark disappeared from the economy. Twenty years ago, French cars were both providing exquisite design with high quality. Chanel No.5 was the completing figure of a French car.
As the competition increased on world and French car could not offer new technologies like Germans do it, they started to lose their competition power. People did not wish to buy French cars for that price and they a bit lowered their prices and lowered their quality. However, lowering quality is an addiction! Once you do, you will always do it and they did it. From hydraulic suspensions in Citroën to torsion bar suspensions. Torsion bar suspension is a cheap alternative for conventional suspension system, it does not handle well, does not ride in comfort and sometimes one of your rear tires might be on air. Because, torsion bar suspensions do not let tire to travel and touch the ground. You can see this in many French cars and in some Toyotas. However Germans do not offer any technology like this.
Renault, Peugeot, Citroën went down and down in 2000s, except Peugeot 206 they could not offer any eye catching or exciting car. Also their production quality serious went down, many French cars are became a synonym for bad quality. I don't think that they deserve this but they did not show any effort to clear this image.Actually there is one more French car brand, Bugatti. But it has a complicated history. When the Bugatti was first found in in Molsheim, it was a part of Germany after WWI, it became a part of France. Now Bugatti is owned by VW and it has the most powerful car ever produced. So, French cars brands still have chance.
Hopefully, French fashion industry is not as bad as their car industry. Every year, French fashion brands introduce better designs and never face a decline like car brands. I am not a fashion expert but French car companies can learn from fashion brands.
Pictures are from;
Renault Website
Vouge Website Paris Fashion Show
