SEPTEMBER 21, 2004

The car world looks to Paris

While F1 is looking to China to boost its fortunes, the major car manufacturers are looking this week to Paris where the Mondial de l'Automobile is expected to attract more than 1.4m visitors in the course of the next two weeks. The show opens on September 25 and will remain open until October 10 in eight halls at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris. Automobile company bosses are hoping that the show will boost sales in Europe, following a couple of months in which car sales have dropped. They are aware that car sales in Germany have now been falling for four years and this year's figures are not expected to be any better. The average car on the road in Germany these days is seven years old. Demand in France is also slower than last year. But while the European and America car firms have been suffering, the Japanese manufacturers continue to make progress in Europe with Japanese company sales in Europe up 9% this year.