peugeot / citroen are not what they were, and the electrics can be a pain in the tail.
I had a 1993 peugeot 205 (diesel) until about 5 years ago (it wasn't far off 200,000 miles) and had to replace it after some twunt stole it and the insurance wanted to write it off. (i was getting to the point where i was starting to think about did i want to throw some money at it to get it to 'classic' condition against moving it on - london ULEZ was on the horizon then, which kinda made the decision for me.)
i got a 2008 citroen c3 in a bit of a hurry - partly chose it as it's a bit higher off the ground than a standard car, and mum-tat can get in and out of it with less bad language than the previous car. but i've had to have a few bits re-wired. and i still haven't found out what all the buttons and switches do...
It used to be Renault that had a bad reputation for dodgy electrics back in the day. You’d like to think nowadays they’ve all sorted it out wouldn’t you?
I’m sure they’ve improved considerably in that respect. Occasionally you can still spot nowadays a late 90s/ early 00s French car on the road which reversing tail light comes on when the driver brakes, or rear night lights blink on and off if the indicator is on.
I haven’t seen that in newly-built cars. But then, with so many electronics built into modern cars, I guess malfunctioning lights would be the least of anyone’s problems. I own a 2019 Peugeot three-wheel bike, which pretty much is the most expensive and best equipped there-wheeler you can buy AFAIAC. And whereas it indeed has a very impressive array of equipment and safety features, and mechanically is said to be far, far more reliable than the equivalent Piaggio models, the electrics have failed me twice already.
Once it was the engine management unit computer, which failed unexpectedly whilst I was riding and caused the engine to cut off (thank fuck I was in the city rather than at 60 mph on a motorway), and cost a few hundred quid and several weeks in the dry dock to correct; the other was the electronic parking brake, which started activating on its own whenever I was manoeuvring at walking pace speeds, whether reversing to park it, or starting up at a tilted angle.
Both sorted now, but I’d really like to think there’s a safeguard built in to prevent the parking brake to activate at higher speeds, because needless to say, if it ever activated randomly whilst travelling at speed on the open road, I’d be as dead as fucking fried chicken, to paraphrase Jules Winnfield.