Ah, a fan of the Colin McCrae win or crash out school.
Personally, I have a lot of respect for Peter Solberg. The guy loses his factory ride and pulls off podiums as a privateer in a 3 year old car.
As for reliablity, a lot of it has to do with the dealer network in the country. I would guess that given the 'love' the Brits have for the French, that it isn't so good.
I once owned a Merkur XR4ti. The car had a very bad reputation here for reliability, but a really good one in Europe. The problem was twofold. First, the dealer network didn't understand the car. It wasn't an F-150. Ford US kept obsoleting parts early as well, forcing me to go to specialists and import some stuff. The other part was Ford did a poor job of adapting to the American regulations. For example, when they set up the US specs, they placed the battery directly above the turbocharger. This meant it cooked the battery every 18 months.
But the chassis was wonderful, and the engine was right for the car. My wife and I took it to second place in the 1989 SCCA road rally championships.