When I was a kid I remember seeing a Renault 8 with the “high performance” Gordini package at the 1971 NY Auto Show at the old Coliseum. The European ones actually ran good, but the few sold in the US were sh*t boxes.
Roger that. And even worse if you didn't do any maintenance, which my bosses did not. Aside from the lame pushbutton shift, it also had extremely weak brakes, and one time I exited from the NJ Turnpike (yes, I had to take this junkheap on the NJ-TP, going 45mph in the slow lane with flashers on), and as I approached the toolbooths, the brake pedal went to the floor, and I breezed through a tollbooth lane at about 20mph, set off the alarms and everything. Thank god nobody was in my way. I stopped, turned around, and squared up with the tollbooth guy. He thought it was funny; I was terrified.
But as with all such experiences, as long as you survive it, it makes a great story.