OT: European Cars, Are any better than they use to be? Options

[Allan]

My wife is going to for sure have to sell her car prior to our move to Turkey and she has been looking at the auto market to see what is available.

We are going to stay away from any of the eastern european manufacturers but she has seen a few of the Pugeot, Citroen (both French), Alfa (Italian), and Rover (British) cars that have the styling she likes.

Does anyone have any knowledge of these cars as far as reliability, performance, safety, etc?

I'm leaning toward either a Volvo S40 or S60.

One consideration is that the more common the car the better the likelyhood of finding competent mechanics.

Has reliability gotten any better?

[lapuwali]

Regular gasoline was $6/US gallon in Paris 6 months ago...

Diesels are much more common in Europe, and getting diesel at the pump is far easier. It's also heavily subsidized, and thus much cheaper, than gasoline.

The VW lineup in Europe is the Lupo, the Polo, the Golf, and the Passat in size order (A, B, C, D class). Yes, Europe as size classes, and the Golf is in the middle range there. There's an E class, too, which is bigger than a Passat. About the size of a Mercedes E class (hence the name). VW considers their A and B cars to be too small to be popular in the US. I know nothing about the Lupo, but the Polo is not a bad car at all. I still prefer the Renault, however.

Audi is generally held in higher regard in Europe than in the US, and is considered a peer of BMW and Mercedes there, which isn't so much true here. Their prices reflect that.

FIAT is also still quite lively there.