Job Discussion Forums

[eo-nomine]

I was sitting in a cafe at Tucuman y Callao a minute ago, trying to prepare for a private lesson... and wasted quite a few minutes looking at the cars passing by. Three weeks ago, when I arrived at Ezeiza, I noticed the same thing: there are heaps of French cars here! Like 75% of the taxis have got to be Peugots or Renaults. There is apparently also a huge proportion of Renaults and Peugots in normal cars (less citro�ns, but still quite a few). Does anybody know why? Not that it's a bad thing, I find it just really curious.

Also, why are the car models so old? I see none of the more recent Peugots 407 or 607... nor Renaults Laguna or Velsatis or whatever. Only old Renaults 19's and the like. Or even, and that is really curious, lots old Peugots 507's (Not sure about the name of the model - they're the ones that look really old and have a boot that have a kind of inclined boot, most of them are taxis).

Voila, apologies for wasting your time with an admittedly not very interesting post, but if someone knows why there are so many French cars in BsAs, I'd really like to know. I find it really strange. Actually, it's driving me totally insane: I have been acting strange ever since I hopped in an old Peugot 507 cab... I fear that I will soon start to like Fernett... arrgg

[Dan_R]

I also noticed all the Peugeots on the road when I visited Buenos Aires last May. You almost never see French vehicles on the road nowadays here in the USA. I dont know if you've taken the ferry over to Colonia, Uruguay, but that town is a treasure trove of old vehicles. That is an encouraging sign that you are working within 3 weeks of arriving in Buenos Aires. After visiting, having a more extended stay there is a very appealing idea to me. How has the teaching been working out for you son far?

[matttheboy]

It's the same all over the country. In Mendoza, 90% of the taxis are Peugeot 504s (that's the model with the sloped back you see everywhere, 507 haven't been invented yet). I have not the faintest idea as to why but could make something up-maybe 20-30 years ago when all these cars were new there were no japanese alternatives and european made cars were seen as reliable and hard running? Or maybe they were the cheapest around. If you look around you'll see loads of VW Gols, it's every middle class kid's first car and has been the best selling new car for something like 5 years now. Maybe in 20 years we'll see all of these converted to gas with taxi drivers trying their hardest to crash/run someone over/prove how manly they are by driving at obscene speed/convince you Maradona is great and the Falklands are Argentine

The biggest worry is the gas thing. They're not converted like we do in europe with the tank separate and sealed off making it impossible to explode in case of an accident. Here it's just a big yellow tank strapped into the boot...high speed rear end shunt? That'll be everyone in the vicinity incinerated thanks very much

[guillebaires]

I think that the cause is that Renaults & Peugeots (and FIATs too) are easy to fix cars... and the 'replacements' (repuestos) are cheap too!
Suerte!

Guille