Currently, the most talked-about topic in Paris is the French Senate’s approval of the bill penalizing anyone who denies the Armenian Genocide and Turkey’s scandal.
This was the “top headline” of French presses for a couple of days after the approval. Although the Year of Armenia in France has already kicked off, however not everyone knows about Armenian culture in Paris. Instead, the main event in Europe’s “capital city” was the “World Automobile Expo 2006”, which takes place two times a year.
Based on the statistics of major international automobile-selling companies, 1,848,112 cars were sold in Europe in September of this year. The cars that were most sold were Ford, Fiat, Alfa-Romeo, Lancial, Volvo, Land Rover and Jaguar. This car expo kicked off on September 30 at the Port de Versaille sport complex in Paris and lasted until October 15 with over 400 companies from 26 countries around the world showing off their new model cars. The expo featured the cars of companies such as Ford, FIAT, BMW, Aston Martin, Bentley, Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Jaguar, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Skoda, Nissan, Opel, Volvo, Mitsibushi, Ferrari, Volkswagen, Suzuki, Alfa Romeo, Smart, Toyota, Land-Rover, Peugeot, Renalut, Citroen, Rolls Royce, Mazda, Porsche and hundreds of others. According to organizer of the event Tieri Hessi, the show-room was bigger compared to last year because there were 70 new models presented at the expo. Thousands of people paid the 12 Euro entrance fee and visited the expo every day. It was a celebration at the two-story sport complex. It was impossible to get near the pavilions. Everyone was surrounding the cars, taking pictures with all the possible technological devices-cell phones, cameras-examining them, sitting by the wheel, taking pictures of themselves by the cars… It was hard to find a parking spot in the basement of the sport complex and there were numerous motorcycles.
The entrance of the expo room featured the cars of three major French automobile companies-“Citroen”, Peugeot” and “Renault”. The French companies had already shown their car models to the public a month before the exposition. “Citroen” presented its C4 class, which featured the “Picasso” seven-seat car, which the French presses call “a star waiting to be shown”. Whereas the five-seat “Picasso” cost 19,000 Euro, this model costs 24,000 Euro. The New 908 RC “Peugeot” was in the center of attention and there were so many people surrounding the car that it was impossible to take a picture. If the company name weren’t imprinted on the car, nobody would know that the car was produced by the “Peugeot” company. The engine of the car is located in the back of the car. The 908 RC, with its 700 horsepower, was the idea of director of the design and style department of “Automobiles Peugeot” Gerard Welter. According to the opinions of the people gathered, the company will make huge profits by selling this car. Many guests called the 908 RC the “dream car”-its style is much like that of a sporty, comfortable, luxurious and practical limousine. It also has a HDi FAP diesel engine.
All companies represented a couple of models. The French, however, praise their production. They not only advertise their model cars in French presses and television, but also French state officials encourage state-run and private company representatives to only purchase the cars produced by French companies (it doesn’t matter what brand it is).
The Peugeot company also surprised the gatherers with its Epure 207 CC brand name Coupe-Cabriolet. This brand name car has an engine that functions with water and doesn’t extract any dangerous substance when coming close to burning substances.
All the classic and sporty cars of the Italian “Ferrari” company were also in the center of everyone’s attention. The “Ferrari” company representatives were present during the expo; they were drinking champagne and making deals. The cars produced by this company are rather expensive; for example, the “Ferrari” 360 MODENA car costs 87,000 Euro. “Ferrari” had also organized an expo/sale for passer-bys near the Chans-Elise avenue in the heart of Paris The company is doing everything it can to be represented in the French automobile market because it’s not that easy for any company to do that.
The show-room of the German “Mercedes-Benz” brand name company was luxurious. The new model of this company amazed everyone. “Mercedes” has attracted markets worldwide with its power, beauty and practicality. In fact, even the taxi drivers of Paris were driving the “Mercedes” C class car.
“VOLVO” presented its XC90 model and the price for that car starts from 44150 Euro. The car has eight seats.
“PORSCHE” presented its classic and new sporty model cars. The 911 CARRERA 2 model car costs 190,000 Euro.
The youth gathered at the expo were fascinated at Ford’s style of presenting its model cars-harmonious music and the dance clips shown on the screens behind the cars. The “Nissan” company, for example, showed a model of its car made out of ice, which was slowly melting. “Ford” showed its new model car called the Ford Mondeo SW. The Ford company will soon end the reconstruction and the technical updating work for its new factory in Belgium, for which the company invested 715 million Euro.
The king of automobiles “Rolls-Royce” presented two model cars. The world-famous “BMW” company presented its Z4 M Roadster model car with the slogan “The most powerful message to the world”. As for the BMW M6 Cabriolet, it was simply fascinating. The “Jeep”, which Armenians love the most, didn’t have too many people gathered, although this American automobile company did attract some people’s attention with its interesting fountains. The new, four-door Jeep Wrangler Unlimited has doors that are 52 centimeters longer than the previous two-door model cars.
The Murcielago LP640 shown in the Lamborghini display room attracted many people’s attention and the tuning was designed by the designers at Versace. There is going to be a limited number of these black and white cars. The price for the car produced by Versace and Lamborghini currently starts from 320,000 dollars.
There were one or two representatives representing the company for each car at the expo. They were accompanying the people towards the cars and providing full information about the cars and how they function. Some companies had beautiful models represent their model cars. It is worth mentioning that there were no other advertisements posted near the sport complex besides the advertisements of the automobile companies and the car materials. For example, the Le Bibendum de Michelin French tire-producing company presented its tires in the first floor of the show-room. Michelin was spreading the word to even the people standing far from the pavilion with the music, sound recordings and beautiful displays. There were special DJs playing music throughout the entire expo and they even played live music for the showing of certain cars. The design and functions of the cars were unique for each car. Each car was a work of art and thousands of people had put in effort to create each of those cars.