French revelers take it easy, torch only 372 cars New Year's Eve

Automobile flambé is a familiar dish in France, where rioters, protesters and revelers seemingly use any occasion involving large congregations of people to torch whatever cars happen to be in the vicinity. Apparently, New Year's Eve is always good for a spike in car-burning incidents, but this year authorities were prepared. "Only" 372 cars were transformed into funeral pyres compared to last year when 397 rides met their makers. In some regions, the sale of fuel canisters was actually halted during the runup to New Year's Eve. Who wins here? We'd say it's salesmen for Peugeot, Renault, and Citroën. After all, as of Tuesday, there were at least 372 people who had to go car shopping this week. Bummer for them, bully for the French auto industry!
[Source: Reuters]