The 10 best French cars to buy in 2025

Renault 5

The Renault 5 is an excellent collaboration of old and new, with an electric powertrain hidden under a body that pays tribute to the old Renault 5. Renault's retro baby doesn't go about its business half-heartedly. Although much bigger, the new car's shape is almost identical to the classic's, and details like the offset bonnet vents are another throwback – even the interior sticks to the original with bright colours and ribbed dashboard fabrics. 

The new 5's electric powertrain works excellently in the city. Pokey off the line, it's great for nipping in front of other cars and grabbing gaps in traffic, and its compact size makes it a dream to manoeuvre with its small electric motor allowing for an incredibly tight turning circle. And, with more than 200 miles possible between charges, the 5 has all the range you need for driving in the city.

Alpine A290

If the Renault 5 is one of the best EVs we've seen yet, then the Alpine A290 is one of the best electric hatchbacks to grace these shores. In the same way, the new 5 emulates the old one, the A290 is a puffed-up tribute to the old Renault 5 Turbo with aggressive bumpers and side skirts. The vents in front of the back wheels infer it's mid-engined, but it's actually front-engined, front-wheel drive, with two power options producing up to 220PS (162kW) – enough to get the A290 from 0-62mph in 6.4 seconds.

Refreshingly, the A290 is not an electric car that's all about straight-line performance. At 1,479kg, it is light for an EV, and Alpine has engineered throttle adjustability that's been almost entirely absent in electric cars up until now. You even get some torque steer powering out of corners through the car's open differential. The result is a band-up-to-date hot hatch that feels almost old school in its execution.

Pug1Off 205 GTI 195

Okay, so the Pug1Off 205 GTI 195 is not a new car per se, but your old 205 donor will feel all-new once the British specialists have finished with it. Brackley starts by slotting the motor from a 306 GTI-6 under the bonnet, complete with high-lift cams, a revised intake, a new exhaust manifold and a reworked ECU. They give the 195 a frenetic power delivery that's dangerously addictive but also mind-blowingly effective, with power leaping from 130PS (96kW) to 195PS (143kW). Bearing in mind the GTI weighs about the same as a crisp packet (about 895kg), and you can imagine just how quick it is.

And, you can go just as far with the rest of the car, adding trick suspension and brakes, an LSD and a six-speed, short-throw gearbox. It's an extensive overhaul but one that preserves the original's magic, like a remastered version of a classic album. Like it, Pug1Off's machine can be driven on the throttle, using its exploitable rear end to steer its nose around corners. It's a 205 GTI in distilled, explosive high-alcohol form.

Nardone Automotive Porsche 928

While the Pug1Off 205 is a French car perfected in the UK, the Nardone Automotive Porsche 928 is a German car finely honed in France – a perfect anecdote to anyone tired of the never-ending stream of restomod 911s. Nardone Automotive's job on the 928 is just as comprehensive as anything from the likes of Tuthill or Singer. The 928's iconic shape has been massaged and improved, but it goes further than that.

The body is made entirely from carbon fibre and underneath it, you'll find a six-speed manual gearbox, beefed-up brakes, electric power steering, limited-slip differential and electronically controlled suspension. The significant bit – the 928's massive V8 engine – has also been given the treatment, with a beautiful intake plenum that makes it sound like a NASCAR. The Porsche 928 is a rare thing in life – an affordable classic Porsche – one of the downsides of the Nardone Automotive car, which cost more than £400,000. But we still would. 

Alpine A110 R

When Renault revived the Alpine A110 with its stunning retro-futuristic looks in 2017, it had sportscar enthusiasts on strings. Here was a new, lightweight French sportscar built to take on the best Porsche could offer. And much like the ever-growing list of more hardcore sub-variants the German maker now offers for its myriad models, the A110 is spreading its wings too.

The A110 R is the new, stripped-out, track-bred version of the A110 format that has worked wonders on the road. True to Alpine’s ethos for lightweight appeal, power from the turbocharged 1.8-litre engine driving the rear axle remains at 300PS (220kW), but with more aggressive aero, less sound proofing and ultimately less weight – 34kg less than the A110 S – it is the ultimate incarnation of what the marque stands for. 

Alpine A110

While the R is an A110 at its most extreme, the standard car is the A110 at its best. This sweet-handling coupé was never supposed to be about monster speeds or suspension that strong arms the Tarmac travelling underneath. If you want either of these, a Porsche Cayman does an equally good job and comes with a flat-six howl that feels far more at home in a car with a near-six-digit price tag than the Alpine's 'four'. 

What makes the basic A110 so unique is that it doesn't try to beat the Cayman at its own game. By comparison, the Alpine feels light and dainty, floating over the road rather than hammering through it, and without the R’s aero package you can rely on a predictable mechanical grip. In a car worth a five-figure sum, the A110 isn't writing cheques its engine can't cash; its turbocharged four feels perfectly cast for the role. If you want a hardcore track machine, then the A110 R is the obvious choice, but otherwise, we'd stick with the entry-level model and save ourselves a fortune. Either way, they highlight the coupé's broad spectrum of appeal. 

Peugeot 508 Sport Engineered

After a long period in the doldrums, Peugeot is once again on a roll with its range of smartly designed and sharp-handling cars. It carries the SUV thing off better than most, its latest 208 is the classic French supermini with a modern twist and it’s even building a hybrid hypercar to compete at Le Mans.

On the road, the brand’s most exciting ware is the Peugeot Sport Engineered version of the 508. Its 360PS (265kW) petrol-electric powertrain delivers both blistering performance and CO2 and mpg figures to make a company fleet manager smile. It would remain a bold choice among the sea of Audis and BMWs driven by your colleagues but the already striking looks are improved further with the performance trimmings.

Bugatti W16 Mistral

It won’t be on roads until 2024, but you’ll certainly see and hear a lot about the Bugatti W16 Mistral next year, given the special status this car will hold in the annals of all things Bugatti. It will be the final car to use the all-conquering, quad-turbocharged 8.0-litre W16 engine used since the Veyron arrived in 2005 and single-handedly hauled hypercars into a new era.

The Mistral uses what Bugatti calls the “definitive” version of this engine, producing a staggering 1,600PS (1,177kW). It’s at the heart of an open-top roadster that still uses the Chiron platform, but that familiar technical basis is cloaked in bodywork that is entirely new. Bugatti says that the Mistral’s design is inspired by the 1934 Type 57 Roadster Grand Raid, but interpreted as a “modern-day work of art.” Only 99 will be made, priced from €5 million. Unsurprisingly, they’re all sold. 

Citroën Ami

Ok, technically the Citroën Ami is not a car, it’s a quadricycle. But it’s also one of the most interesting things for sale on four wheels, given its radical approach to design and a back-to-basics ethos that’s bang on brand for Citroën. The Ami’s cheap-but-cheerful approach includes the clever use of repeated bodywork. It looks the same at the front as it does at the rear, the chunky C-pillar and the colour of the lights the only giveaway.

Even the doors use the same press to save money, meaning they open ‘suicide-style’ for the driver but normally for the passenger. A dinky car, it comes with a dinky electric powertrain too, just 8PS (6kW) mustered from the electric motor and a 5.5kWh battery pack providing a city-dweller friendly 46 miles of range. 

Jannarelly Design-1

Jannarelly the car brand may claim Dubai as its home but Jannarelly the man, his business partner Frederic Julliot and many of the other key players are French through and through and the firm’s head office is, literally, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. Anthony Jannarelly’s personal tastes in cars are very much rooted in Europe too, with Lotus, Caterham, Alpine and Donkervoort among those in his collection.

With its lightweight build, classic looks and back to basics handling, the 325PS (239kW) Design-1 is designed with those cars in mind and intended more for blasting round tracks and over Alpine passes than social media attention-seeking among the supercar set. More raw than an Alpine, more rewarding to drive than a Bugatti, the Jannarelly proves the wild side to modern French car design.

Alpine A110R photography by Joe Harding, Pug1Off 205 GTI 195 image from Pug1Off via Instagram.