Hello Jeff,
soon as i saw that one i knew i'd find you right below it
Not kidding ?

Anyway I guess I'm the only one frenchy to post to this NG anymore.
It's been a while ago though, two years or so, IIRC ?
after a brief soujourn to fordmfiat then alfa
Not too boring to work for these brands, which seems to me a bit crappy - I mean, with a far less good reliability and handing than Peugeots ?
i'm now with renault :-/
no newsgroups for them though
Yes, one, fench-spoken : quite recent.
does that mean they are more reliable
you would probably have a better idea than me
Perhaps I won't tell you the truth here, but I'll try to explain my point of view about Renault's. In the past I had some argues in NGs with a few Renault's engineers, not the problem here. As you certainly know, Renault was, until '93 (may be wrong about the exact date, early '90s) a company owned by the french State (it was called "Régie Nationale des Usines Renault"), a bit like the english gov. made with British Leyland (but not with the same result, though). They had to build cars, and trucks, and military trucks, and about everything that had to run on the road (keep in mind that an important french army trucks supplier, called Berliet, merged into Renault in 1975 and disappeared in 1978 or 1980). As they were holded by the french State, they used to have far negative results (debts counting in FF billions / yr), and my idea about all this era (and it still goes on now, even if it's better - they really worked hard on it) is they made the confusion between a popular car and some junk car. For example, you take two popular cars of early '80s, the Super5 and the
205. I guess I don't have to explain further...
I don't think they are more reliable (results may well be close to Pug standards), but they have problems I think you can't accept. See the early
1.5dCi track rods breaking after 10,000 miles, sometimes less... Not a problem you could accept on a modern car. See the 1.9dTi timing belt affair (I knew about this 6 months before they communicate about this, thanks to a Renault agent which is a friend of mine. He told me "it seems there is a problem with the timing belt and the alternator belt, but they say they don't know more at the moment about how to fix"). No, Renaults are not more reliable. And far less pleasant to use (have a ride in a Mk1 Clio Diesel, and tell me if it's really better than a 205D). Even the Mk2 Clio isn't really better than the 206, and I still prefer the 406 compared to Mk2 Laguna. But they used to provide a great support, which probably is the worst point for Peugeot.
Oh, the diag computer (Clip, IIRC) is supported by a company which is awful. You have a problem, you call them, on vocal mailbox every time, they never call you back. You may have some fun too if you're using the good old Optima 4040* as a gas analyzer (supported by the same company). But they don't forget to send the bill.
* My friend uses the Optima4040, had a problem with the LCD display - the tech sent by the support company (I will name them if you want to know, may not be the same in France and in UK) changed the MPU board, problem came back after a few weeks. Called them, no answer. The DIN connector (intended to connect a PC keyboard) is shagged, possbily after the MCU board swap...