These Are Your Favorite French Cars

Earlier this week, as I do so often I found myself thinking about French cars. I love French cars, and I love French car designs. More than anything, they have charm and a perspective far beyond anything from anywhere else, and that is true no matter the price, segment or type of vehicle. French marques have made incredible semi trucks, excellent family cars and fantastic sports cars, plus some of the greatest race cars the world’s tracks have ever seen.

I asked you to tell me about your favorite French cars of all time, and you delivered with the sort of variety I was hoping for. (A couple people also said cars that aren’t actually French.) There were a lot of good answers here, so I picked either my personal favorites or the ones where you had the best story behind your choice, so don’t be upset if I didn’t feature a seemingly obvious answer. It really warmed my heart to see that so many Jalops have owned French cars in the past or currently do, including multiple people that have owned both a Citroën DS and an SM.

Obviously go ahead and comment below with your favorite French car that I didn’t include, and know that I will never stop posting about French cars — that is a promise.

The DS is a work that was way ahead of its time, but for me it’s the Citroën Traction Avant.

From the groundbreaking platform and front-wheel drive, it was decades before other manufacturers were building cars like that.

Citroen Traction Avant. But, owned a DS-19, what a car! The Avants had a 30’s gangster look. Citroen must have sold millions of them as they were everywhere in Europe. the 2CV still attracts a lot of attention these days.

[reply from Steve65 saying 759,111 Traction Avants were built]

I was just making a WAG (wild ass guess) but your reply was a SWAG (scientific wild ass guess), that is a serious number of automobiles produced before and after WW2. Living in Europe from 1954 – 1960 in England, Italy and Spain they seemed to be everywhere. I’m sure the 2CV’s were produced in larger numbers! Just looked: Between 1949 and 1990, over 5 million Citroën 2CVs were produced, including the 2CV sedan and van variants. This includes approximately 3.8 million sedans and 1.3 million Fourgonnette vans. The 2CV was the longest-running model in Citroën’s lineup, with production spanning 42 years.

Suggested by: potbellyjoe, Les Locklear

The Traction Avant is just effortlessly cool, and that’s a byproduct of its engineering.

I’m sure there are other cooler cars, but I’ve always had a soft spot for the Renault Clio V6 (probably had something to do with it being in one of the early Project Gotham games)

The Citroën DS and SM are incredible cars but my number one has got to be the Renault Clio V6 RS. “Tiny hatchback with a high-performance engine crammed in the cargo area” is one of the all-time great genres of car.

Suggested by: Deke, HakosukaDreaming

The earlier ones are great too, but I think the second-gen Clio V6 is one of the best-looking cars ever made.

It has to be the Venturi. The Atlantique 300 is an elegant sports car in true late 80s-eraly 90s fashion, while the 400 GT looks like a modern take on a Koenig Specials.

Even Jeremy Clarckson liked it!

My absolute favourite is probably a Citroen of some sort, but the Venturi Atlantique needs a mention. More than a hint of Ferrari 456GT in the styling, but maybe even better looking.

Suggested by: Mirza Hatk, Matt R

There are a few Venturis running around LA, I’m always delighted to see one. Extremely cool cars that not many people know about.

1931 Voisin C20 Mylord Demi-Berline.

Look at this thing!!!!!

The 1935 Avions-Voisin-c28-aérosport. Art and engineering without peer. But [the C20] is a worthy choice!

Any pre-war Voisin deserves consideration.

Suggested by: MyRetirementGrease!, Rapchat

Avions Voisins are truly some of the most spectacular vehicles ever designed. The above video isn’t either of the cars these commenters mentioned, but it is completely absurd. Do yourself a favor and do a late-night internet deep dive into this brand if you haven’t before.

Matra-Simca Bagheera – French weirdness at its finest

Mid-engined sports car with a plastic body, three-abreast seating, with a total of 84-90 hp, named after the Panther in Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book.”

Approx. 47,000 produced over the course of eight years

Suggested by: Earthbound Misfit I

Way better than those three-seat cars made in England.

Picking a nostalgic French car, it would be the 1959 Peugeot 403 Cabriolet… driven by Columbo.

Peugeot 403. When I was in Morrocco and Tunisa years ago, I’d occasionally take one as a taxi. Typically, they were in great condition (with 500,000+ kilometers on the odometer) and rode so well. Just a great small sedan.

Suggested by: Not Me, semica altoid

Perfect car casting.

Citroen BX GTi, when I saw this car as a kid, I though this is the coolest looking car ever.

Suggested by: towman

The essence of why French cars rule is that they look cool as hell to kids (and anyone with an open mind).

I used to live in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, which was a former French colony. They still have a lot of ties to France along with favorable trade relations so the vast majority of new cars are French (and Japanese). I drove a lot of Peugeots when I was there, including one I miss to this day – 405 Mi16. A friend of mine out there bought one, manual transmission, low miles, and it was a riot to drive. Lightweight, rev happy, and enough French quirkiness to keep it unique. And the understated angular styling still looks good today.

They’re long past the 25 year rule of importing one (I’m betting the handful that were sold here around 1990 were recycled into guardrails by now) and part of me really wants one parked out front just to have some French automobile fun with.

Suggested by: Xavier96

You’d be surprised how many U.S.-spec 405s are still running around California!

The Renault R5 and the Peugeot 205 look like fun, but the one that makes me want to learn French so I can speak with the mechanic is the Renault Alpine from the 1990s.

Suggested by: BuddyS

The pre-facelift GTA is also fantastic, as is the iconic A310 before it, but the A610 is my favorite of the post-old-A110-but-pre-new-A110 era of Alpines.

Renault Le Car.

Why? My parents had one when I was in, kindergarten, I think? First grade, maybe?

Mom picked me up from school on the last day before summer break, and I stood up through the sunroof to wave to all my classmates as we drove away. I felt so cool, like somebody in a movie.

I was not cool, but I felt cool in that moment.

I had an 87 in Canada- odd things were that the muffler is inside the left front fender and the wheelbase is different on each side

I have to say all of them. If I were shopping and it came down to two generally equal cars, I’d pick the French one every time.

If I had to pick just one, it would be the much maligned R5/Le Car. They aren’t fancy and they aren’t fast, but they’re a hoot to drive, and the styling has more subtleties than most people realize. If you look at them, really look at them, you realize that there isn’t a straight line anywhere (aside from along the bottom between the wheels). I had 2-1/2 of them, and they’re the cars I most regret letting slip away.

The Renault Avantime is way up there in looks and quirkiness, but my absolute favorite is the 1st gen. Renault 5: a real peoples car, a brilliant timeless design that transcended social classes and demographics, a true world car that was very simple, comfortable and practical. And let’s not forget that it was mid-front engined. I first saw it at a French expo in Mexico City in 1973 when I was 10, and I fell in love with its looks and its tiny size. The second generation looks even better, but is more conventional. And the new electric R5 is a breath of fresh air.

Suggested by: Stillnotatony, Sullivan McGriff, Steve65, David Morales

Anyone who owned or grew up in a Le Car is destined to be a Jalop.

Ligier JS2, it was a toss up between this and the Rondeau MS379 (only car to win Le Mans with the creator of it in the driver’s seat) but the Ligier takes it. Just screams cool and the racing variant finished second at Le Mans in 1975.

Suggested by: Silver Fox

A great example of an interesting car that many enthusiasts may not have heard of before.

For me it would have to the Renault 12 wagon. This is purely a sentimental pick since it was my first car and I loved it, despite the longitudinally mounted engine that caused it to shudder violently at highway speed and the cooling system consisting of glass jar mounted in the firewall that had to be checked and refilled daily.

Suggested by: Samba00

Sounds perfect.

My pick would be the Peugeot Onyx concept car. The copper panels looked amazing when new, but the car is now even more stunning with patina. Otherwise, the early 70s Alpine A110 rally car was killer.

Suggested by: James Swanson

Peugeot has made a lot of fantastic supercar concepts over the years, but the Onyx might be the coolest, especially now that it has oxidized.

All my real favorites have been mentioned, so here’s a truly insane one, the 1931 Bucciali TAV 12. Despite the Italian name, it is a French marque (founders were Corsican), and that reverse-mounted front midship V12 drives the… front wheels!

And it looks like a million dollars to boot!

Suggested by: GTO1962

Genuinely one of the wildest cars of all time.

My first car, a Peugeot 404. I loved that thing, than I drove it off a cliff. I survived, the 404 didn’t.

I had four different 404’s when I was young, bought them all in Los Angeles. Great driving, I loved crank starting them to peoples amazement and they were tough as nails with a smooth ride. I also love the revolutionary Renault 16.

Suggested by: JD, Brian Addley

Is this one of (or the) newest cars with a crank start?

I’m going out into left field on this one but I am nominating the XJ Cherokee. Yes, it was an AMC product but the good folks at Renault heavily contributed to the direction of its development. It also originally came equipped with a Renix ECU and a European style cooling system. Renaults experience with unibody construction and a need to make it a global Jeep were huge in terms of the final product.

Like the American Revolution, it was an American victory made possible by the French. Vive Les Alliés!

People in the USA like to say that the French never understood the US market. But the Jeep Cherokee, one of the most influential vehicles ever and considered one of the quintessential American cars, disproves that. The engineering approach is totally french, although the stilling is very American.

The seats in the first generation (84-96) are straight out of the Renault parts bin and one of the reasons that they are so comfortable. Good comfortable seats are one of those areas that American and French designers used to agree on and at least in the US, subsequently forgotten in pursuit of other goals.

Suggested by: Bryan Fischer, David Morales

I’ll allow it.