Even moveon.org will be hard-pressed to make your correspondent’s claim, Kathryn. Peugeot and Citroen have 60% of the French car market sewn up, with the other major players being BMW and the Japanese. GM Europe and Ford are not powerhouses there (and I believe Ford’s sales have declined in recent years).

We had a Peugeot once while I was growing up. It was a pretty good vehicle until something went wrong with the engine and it took about 6 months to get the part from France. We went for GM Vauxhall cars after that.