My Clio 172 was ok for a Frenchie. Had it three years and about 60,000km. Had to have the radiator recored because it split and replaced the rear exhaust mount because they break. It was scarier in the rain than either of my MR2's though.
i had a couple early/mid 90s peugeot 405 TDis and both were sweet 1.9 turbo sleazel went hard for what they were, had mad handbrakes and got 900km to a tank round town, made money on both of them! Never had to do any real maintenance on them tho.