I'm sure peeps in here have played GT2. So what do you think of this minivan. I wouldn't mind driving it. Of course, it's not practical for everyday use.

http://www.pebblenet.com/conceptcarz/carchosen.asp?car_id=793

I never realized it was in GT2 until recently, but I did read a full blown article in a magazine, stating that the comic appearance of this one-off (parody?) F1 should be set aside, due to the fact that it performs like a Williams/Renault Formula 1 racer should, with the exception that it carried more than one person.

Hah, the only reason why I even maintain minute interest in Renault is due to the fact that they have partial ownership of Nissan. Hope the frenchies do right.

What do you think about current french cars generally speaking if you know it (Peugeot, Citroën, Renault and eventually Venturi and Bugatti) ?

Well I hate all the old ones but I like all Peugeots current line-up (1O6, 2O6, 3O7, 4O6, 6O7 and the forthcoming MPV) which are big-sellers in this country of the South Pacific.........

Renaults are probably some of the best cars you can buy for the price, I especially love the Clio Sport 172, the base Clio, the Laguna II, Megane and Scenic are also sold here in NZ, although they are not as good sellers as Pug's, I like the Espace and Twingo as well, but we don't have them here.......

as for Shit-tins (Sorry Citroens), while I like the Xantia, C5 and current Xsara, I don't like the Saxo, ZX, XM and AX however......

Venturi's are very new to me but from what I have played in GT2 I like 'em



And isn't Bugatti Itallian ?????:confused: :confused: :huh:

Bugatti had an odd story : it was an Italian guy who made Bugatti in Alsace (a french "state"). It banquerouted was re-bought by an italian, re- banqueroute and re-bought by VAG in 2000 : they will made the "Veyron" in Alsace (although this make belongs to VW as Alfa Romeo belongs to Fiat Auto for example)and will sell it in 2003. The Veyron will be powered by a W16 1001hp !! It will be quite expensive, you can guess.
How many cars do sell Peugeot in Australia an NZ ? (in %) ??

In Australia they have like a 1% market share, they aren't very popular there.

But in NZ, Peugeot are set to sell about 1500 viechles for a 5%-ish market share the best selling brand- Holden sells about 14,000 (Mainly to taxi-drivers, police and fleet-markets) VW, BMW, and Peugeot often compete for the best-selling Euro brand........And rightly so

What car do you have ??
Why do Peugeot not sell as many cars as in Europe or even in South America there ? Is it too new ?

Originally posted by Stefanel1
What car do you have ??
Why do Peugeot not sell as many cars as in Europe or even in South America there ? Is it too new ?
I currently have a 1990 Volkswagen Jetta

Well Peugeot have been in this country for like, forever and a day to put it simply, but back in the 80's no-one really liked the 3O9, 5O5 and 2O5, but in 1988 the 4O5 hit the scene and sales climbed from about 50 a year to 500, then follwing it in 1993 was the 3O6 which set sales skyrocketing, with the help of the 1O6, to about 1000 a year, but when the 4O6 arrived in 1996 it was too expensive and few bought it so sales slumped to about 700 a year, when the Gen II 1O6 came it totally flopped too, but the 4O6 and 3O6 still remained. Well in 1999 the 2O6 and facelifted 4O6 came and due to a VERY weak NZ dollar against the Yen and US dollar, NZer's realised that the Euro was also getting a hiding, thus Peugeot could price thier cars similar to Toyota's and sales climbed to 1200 but 3O6 sales declined, but last year the 6O7 replaced the 6O5 that flopped do badly and is doing well in the market place and the 3O7 arrived last November which sent the nation 3O7 crazy:jump:

The reason Peugeot don't sell many cars compared to Holden and Toyota is that there are more sales than there are cars and waiting lists of about 4 months for all but the 6O7 which has a few cars left to sell.

Also NZer's love Japanese and Australian cars, ever since the BMC collapsed (NZer's always saw Britain as the mother-country, so they bought cars like that) In the 1990's The only makes produced in NZ were Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Ford and Mazda so we grew to trust Jap names, even after the industry collapsed.

As well as that NZer's are not too wealthy compared to Western Europeans and only about three quaters the population can afford new cars and a lot of them are farmers who rely on Pick-up trucks, which are only made by Land Rover, Toyota, Ford/Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Holden, while the rest (Who live in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, Hamilton and Taurunga mainly) drive mainstream Jap cars, German cars or French cars
Those that can't afford them (Students and Blue-collar people mainly) buy the many second hand imports that come from Japan like Primera's, Micra's, Subaru's and Lancers (It is easy for them to get to NZ, seeing as we drive on the Right hand side of the car like them and there is no import tarrifs on products that come into New Zealand)


Yet despite the large used car market New Zealand still has the lowest average age of cars in the world AND one of the highest car ownership
:confused: :confused:
Hope this (Rather long) message answered your question

:)

Your post answers very well my question.
I don't know Australia and NZ, unfortunately and the only link I've with this country is that I knew a New Zealander when I was 7 or 8 ;) But I'm only 18 so I've time to travel more !
And what about Renault and Citroën there ?
How old are you ?

bye !

Originally posted by DVSNCYNIKL
So what do you think of this minivan.

I would buy one today if I could.

Renault makes some kick-azs transmissions (my DMC has one), not to mention they put a little French creativity into their cars!:ylsuper Vie de France!

Originally posted by Stefanel1
Your post answers very well my question.
I don't know Australia and NZ, unfortunately and the only link I've with this country is that I knew a New Zealander when I was 7 or 8 ;) But I'm only 18 so I've time to travel more !
And what about Renault and Citroën there ?
How old are you ?

bye !

Glad to see it :) Well Renault and Citroen ave a MUCH smaller hitory here

For Citroen it started off selling the 2CV, which was (And still is) a hit in Citroen-mad Taranaki, they had a patchy 80's, selling the BX in big numbers but the CX wasn't so popular, then came the big rehaul in the 90's when the ZX came and began selling faster than Citroens previous, while teh Xantia was a slower seller, it held it's own, the AX was moderate and the XM flopped, then came the Saxo, which as well was slow (except fot the VTR and VTS) but reamined EXTRMELY good value for money, follwed by the Xsara, which remains today, only in facelifted form, with it's sister the Picasso (What a neat little car that is) and the Evasion, of which 40 were diverted from Malaysia as the Asian economic crisis hit (It confused me as well) then just last year came the C5, that has been smashing Citroen slaes records, Citroen are on a recovery slope right now and is selling about 200 a year.

As for Renault, they sold cars like the 12, 5 and 4 in NZ in small numbers then came the 21 and 25 which were big sellers as well and the 19 was OK, but not too big, then the brand just crashed out, in 1995 they were selling about 20 cars a year and the 19 was the only car you could buy, but then came Clio 1 and the Laguna 1, which picked sales up a bit but never did anything special and the Safrane came and crashed-out, then came the Megane and Scenic which were pretty strong, but in 1999 the company was on verge of collapse in NZ, do Renault re-launched, first came the Clio 2 which sold very fast and the Megane facelift and Secenic 2, which are doing well as well, with an RX4 variant, which sent teh Remuera soccer-mom set crazy :rolleyes: :rolleyes: and the Laguna 2 arrived to the safest in the world accolade and the fact that the facelifted Laguna 1 was such a seller because it was so much value for money, as well as a facelifted Clio. The only Renault that looks like coming here after these lot is the Kangoo and in time the Megane placement, Renault sells about 600 cars a year.

Oh and I am the ripe old age of 16 :)

And DMC12 Rock on baby :ylsuper:

there are different models of this car, my parents have one. But the one you are talking about from GT2 was a concept car where they took the street minivan and put a Renault F1 engine in

Thank you for these informations Moss106gti ! you seems, to know very well your car market ! You've a car at 16 years old ?!! You've luck, I had to wait to be 18 before being able to pass my driving licence (4months ago) !
I had a VW too (golf III GL 90hp)... but I've not any more, heum !

Porsche GT3 : I think I'd like your car :) where are you from ?
Look the current Espace (III) and the next which will be available in November (Espace IV !).

And the new Espace IV...

Originally posted by Stefanel1
Thank you for these informations Moss106gti ! you seems, to know very well your car market ! You've a car at 16 years old ?!! You've luck, I had to wait to be 18 before being able to pass my driving licence (4months ago) !
I had a VW too (golf III GL 90hp)... but I've not any more, heum !


Yeah in New Zealand the age you can go for a learners permit is 15 years old, 6 months later you can get a Restricted liscence and after a year you can move onto a full lisence, but I decided to wait and consequently have 2 months 'til my Restricted liscence:bloated:

Lucky guy ! Are there not too much cops in NZ ? Can you drive "free" ?

Theres too many bloody cops:mad: :mad: :mad:

But nah, if you drive properly and don't cause any shit, then you are good, but too often you see Commodores, Falcons or Maxima's patrolling the streets or a Camry station wagon with a camera in the back :(

Not so lucky so ! ;) but they are not like in the USA ? I mean very boring ? At what speed can you drive without pb on the Highway for example ?

The speed limit is 100 km/h for the open road and highway, but normally there are no cops around those areas and not a lot of traffic on a good day, so it is quite nice to just push it up to about 160:D

I saw the new Espace IV (look at pic) and the Espace F1 yesterday at the Atelier Renault (on the Champs Élysées). The Espace IV is pretty.

Originally posted by Stefanel1
I saw the new Espace IV (look at pic) and the Espace F1 yesterday at the Atelier Renault (on the Champs Élysées). The Espace IV is pretty.

Looking good- lets hope the reliability gets sorted as well. :D

The Espace (III at least) was never criticise for his reliability. The new one has no reasons to be worse and is presented by the medias (germans, french, italians, english, etc.) as the best big van today, besser than the Voyager, Sharan and even the C8/807 which is sold for a few month.

Originally posted by Stefanel1
The Espace (III at least) was never criticise for his reliability. The new one has no reasons to be worse and is presented by the medias (germans, french, italians, english, etc.) as the best big van today, besser than the Voyager, Sharan and even the C8/807 which is sold for a few month.

Yeah.......but What Car?'s reliability survey said that 77% of Espace (all models) have some form of a reliability problem- Hence I am skeptical and would probably settle for a Sharan or Oddysey V6:(

I never heard that. I know some people who have (or had) an Espace (my father had the first in 1986) and no problems ! Where did you heard that ? Friends of mine have an Espace II with 250 000 km (=160 000 miles).
The Oddysey is not sold in Europe, the Sharan, not in the US....

Originally posted by Stefanel1
I never heard that. I know some people who have (or had) an Espace (my father had the first in 1986) and no problems ! Where did you heard that ? Friends of mine have an Espace II with 250 000 km (=160 000 miles).
The Oddysey is not sold in Europe, the Sharan, not in the US....

Well the main problem is electric faults- Which I find quite easy to believe in the case of the Espace III- however- I'm pretty sure mechanically they are allright

btw good to see you are still cruising the boards :D

Maybe, if you're sure, I don't work by Renault and don't have an Espace ;) ....but a Lancia, and there, you can say that there are electric problems !!

Originally posted by Stefanel1
Maybe, if you're sure, I don't work by Renault and don't have an Espace ;) ....but a Lancia, and there, you can say that there are electric problems !!
really???:confused:

Not big problems but, there are some on a car of 1995 which has "only" 85 000 km (50 000 miles). The sun roof'motors doesn't work well and I have to help with my hand to close it ! And the rear-left electric window doesn't work when the air is humid ! That's not big trouble but, I wouldn't have this problems on a French, German or Japanese car. But today, Italian cars have increased a lot in this topic. You can buy a current Alfa or Lancia without fear.

Originally posted by Stefanel1
You can buy a current Alfa or Lancia without fear.

True......I know a lot of satisfied 156, 147 and 166 owners- the ageing GTV gives problems though......We don't get Lancias here, however :(

Do you want to see mine ?! ;)
It's my baby :D It's really a good car to drive and to live with.

Originally posted by Stefanel1
Do you want to see mine ?! ;)
It's my baby :D It's really a good car to drive and to live with.


cool :) I like it- though I'm not TOO much of a fan of that chrome :)

There is not so much chrome, only on the face. That's all.
You'll be able to see better on this bigger pic.

There is more chrome on a Mercedes for example.. ;)

ah I see :)