RE: Car Talk & Peugeot
Bruce McLennan (mclennan@eros.otago.ac.nz)
Wed, 1 Oct 1997 09:45:45 +1200
On Wednesday, October 01, 1997 2:10 AM, kwolf@syntra.com
[SMTP:kwolf@syntra.com] wrote:
>
> So I've heard that Tom and Ray give us greif. It seems that Peugeot has
found
> its way into the lexicon of US comedic lines. My wife was watching some
B-rate
> sitcom premiering this past week. A car theif had been arrested and his
> justification was something like, "Hey, it was a Peugeot. I was doing
the guy a
> favor!".
>
> Nuts. The rest of the world doesn't understand.
>
>
You could probably modify that last comment to the rest of North America
doesn't understand. The rest of the world (ok, I might be generalising
just a bit) understands real well. There are lots of Pugs in New Zealand,
probably because they're a European car that offers good value for money
(compared to audi, bmw & all those other Teutonic monsters), even though
they do have to made right-hand drive (a fairly major modification). The
motoring press here tend to rave about pugs - their handling in particular.
I saw some TV programme about Palistine recently & noted that about half
the cars on the road were 404's - which says a lot about their reliability,
I suppose.
A lot of it I think, as an outsider looking in, you could put down US car
manufacturers, and the great unwashed's (present company excluded :-)
rather odd taste in cars (Lincoln Continentals are arse-ugly!) - the
American car market is mostly by Americans for Americans and Peugeot
doesn't have the prestige factor of the other European marques that allow
them to get their foot in the door, even though they do very nicely
elsewhere in the world. And doesn't the US car market have quite a high
level of Govt. protection? PSA probably feel that they would be on a
hiding to nothing if they tried getting back into North America, and in a
typically French sort of way (ie arrogant), don't care to.
Take comfort in the fact the Buzz Aldrin drove a Peugeot (see "The Right
Stuff" - Tom Wolfe).
Better go, I've probably offended enough people for one day. . .
Bruce McLennan
(504).