US4 Million FERRARI CAR - PARIS MOTOR SHOW 2006; Owner: James Glickenhaus, Wall Street Fund Manager; More than 60 Concept and Production Cars Display

The Paris Auto Show 2006 opens with more than 60 concept design cars from manufacturers in Detroit to China and is expected to draw a crowd of 1 million visitors. The most lavish car of ALL is the 2006 Ferrari P4/5 by Pininfarinai which cost a whopping US 4Million and the proud owner is American Wall Street fund manager James Glickenhaus



James Glickenhaus: “A Pina Ferari designed and made all of the engineering. So it was really what my dream was. They say, what is your dream? Once I told them, they scan me and then they put me in ‘virtual reality’ and they made sure I feel comfortable driving and reaching for the controls, my son can do it and my daughter came over and work on the details”

ABOVE:The car was created for collector James Glickenhaus, and is valued at around $4 million. It was inspired by the P4 racer of the 1960s. Essentially, the P4/5 is a rebodied Ferrari Enzo, with a Pininfarina-designed exterior. BELOW: James inside his car with the "thumbs up" sign at the Paris Show

He has already pick up the car 2 weeks ago and has ‘test drive’ it over 1125 km around France and after the show to return ride in New York to enjoy his Ferrari.

Today, the Auto Show serves a twofold purpose. It is not just a huge showcase where the general public can admire models built throughout the world, it is also a favorite meeting place for professionals from all branches of the automobile industry.


Though many other auto shows have come into existence since 1898, the first to have been staged remains the premier event both in France and on the international scene. Automobile manufacturers often continue to present their new models in Paris, which was the world’s automobile capital for many years.


Before 1914, France was the world leader in terms of car volume and quality, and today it continues to stage the world’s most highly rated shows. The Paris Auto Show may no longer be the high-society gathering it was early in the century, but the MONDIAL DE l’AUTOMOBILE is still a very festive event that continues to celebrate an invention that has been constantly improved for over 100 years and that efficiently meets the requirements of an ever-larger number of people day after day.

Korean Carmakers Out in Force at Paris Motor Show
The Paris Motor Show 2006 opened Thursday in Paris with Korean carmakers Hyundai, Kia, GM Daewoo and Ssangyong introducing new models and concept cars targeting European consumers. Automakers from Europe and Japan are competing intensely in the fields of sports and hybrid cars.

ABOVE: Hyundai Motor’s concept car Arnejs at the Paris Motor

The reason so many Korean carmakers take part in the Paris Motor Show is that they urgently want to boost their exports to Europe as shipments to the U.S. are losing money due to the strong won against the dollar.

ABOVE: Kia Motors’ new Cee'd compact car at the Paris Motor Show

Kia Motors unveiled its Cee’d line, developed with an eye on European customers by its chief design officer Peter Schreyer, who should know since he used to work for Volkswagen. The Cee’d will be produced at Kia’s Zilina factory in Slovakia, which is to be completed in December.

Hyundai Motor introduced a concept car named Arnejs at the show. The hatchback model equipped with a 2,000 cc diesel engine was developed by Hyundai’s design research institute in Europe. Korea’s largest car maker also introduced the Grandeur TG diesel model, which will be released at the end of this year, and a modified version of the Tuscani sports car. Ssangyong Motor also unveiled the Rexton II, which is equipped with a diesel engine meeting the Euro 4 emission standard, and the Actyon. GM Daewoo takes part under GM’s Chevrolet brand.

European and Japanese Cars

ABOVE: The Audi R8/provided by Audi Korea

The Audi R8 made an impressive debut at the show. The high-performance sports car with 420 horsepower and a maximum speed of 301 km/h comes with a bodyline design that, the company believes, conjures the image of a running leopard. Mercedes-Benz introduced high-performance models: the CL 63 AMG, a 525-horsepower car, and the SLR McLaren 722 Edition super sports car. Peugeot unveiled the 908 RC concept car equipped with a 5,500 cc engine which will compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans rally next year.

But European carmakers are also doing battle with the Japanese for the future of the environmentally friendly car market. Toyota, the leader in hybrid car development, introduced the Lexus LS600h, the world’s first V8 hybrid sedan. With 430 horsepower, the LS600h is also Toyota’s top four-wheel-drive model. BMW introduced a hybrid dubbed Efficient Dynamics and a hydrogen-powered car at the show. Peugeot’s 207 Epure, a hardtop convertible model running on fuel cells, also made its debut at the show. BMW’s new Mini models, Volvo’s C30, the Audi S3 and the Honda Civic Type S all target the European market, where compact cars are widely favored.

Other Concept Cars

To see a BIGGER View of these models, GoTo

The follwing Models are from here

FRANCE

Global automakers unveil strategies at Paris show

The Paris Motor Show is now the stage where U.S. and European carmakers can display new designs to combat flat sales and tough Asian rivals.

BY LAURENCE FROST AND MATT MOORE; Associated Press

PARIS - On the opening day of the Paris Motor Show on Thursday, beleaguered European and U.S. carmakers unveiled ambitious new designs and strategies to combat rising costs, flat home markets and ever-tougher competition from Asian rivals.
The 2006 show finds manufacturers on both sides of the Atlantic cutting jobs, closing higher-cost plants and scrambling to revamp aging model ranges as they lag behind the profitability and growth of competitors like Japan's Toyota and Honda.

On their home turf, French automakers gave new momentum to an attempted push by Europe's largest carmakers into luxury market segments -- until recently the domain of upscale German and Italian brands.
Renault presented a prototype SUV called Koleos and a sporty concept car, Nepta. Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said the cabriolet's design offered a hint of the eight high-end models the company plans to launch by 2010, starting with a new Laguna sedan.

Another Renault prototype revealed the smarter features of the new Twingo, to be launched next year. The once-popular supermini has steadily lost ground to newer rivals like Toyota's Yaris.
A new, sporty 1.8-liter Yaris was among Toyota's show offerings, and Honda unveiled new versions of its Civic sedan and CR-V compact SUV.

Citroen excited the crowds with its C-Metisse, a sleek coupe prototype powered by a hybrid diesel-electric engine of the kind that will equip vehicles available from PSA Peugeot-Citroen's stable around the end of the decade.

DaimlerChrysler, a mainstay in the upscale market through its Mercedes brand, showed off new high-performance CL63 and S63 AMG models along with a silver, sleek SLR McLaren 722.

Mercedes is recovering from a weak patch, when business was undermined by quality and reliability concerns, and global unit sales for January through August were 11 percent higher than in the year-earlier period.

''We have worked hard and achieved a great deal -- and now we are reaping the benefits,'' CEO Dieter Zetsche said.
DaimlerChrysler's micro carmaker, Smart, showed off a revamped version of its peppy two-seater that is ubiquitous in European cities but will not be available in the United States until 2008.

HYBRIDS OUT IN FORCE

Hybrids and alternative-fuel vehicles were out in force, as soaring fuel prices cause headaches for U.S. carmakers reliant on strong SUV sales or late developers in hybrid technologies, like DaimlerChrysler and the Renault-Nissan alliance.

The German group's Chrysler unit, which includes the Jeep Cherokee and Grand Cherokee brands, surprised investors earlier this month by saying it would more than double its expected third-quarter operating loss to $1.5 billion, amid weakening U.S. sales of four-by-fours.
By contrast, Europe's smaller SUV market segment is so far shrugging off higher fuel prices to show strong growth.

''As the industry gets more global, they're really running up against geographical preferences,'' said Rebecca Lindland, an auto analyst with Global Insight.

Presenting a new show car, the Dodge Avenger sedan, Chrysler Group said it now expects full-year unit sales to fall instead of remaining stable as previously forecast, after posting a 10 percent decline in the first eight months of the year.

Business should pick up with the rollout of eight new models that deliver better fuel economy, increasingly in demand on the U.S. market, Chrysler's head of sales and marketing Joe Eberhardt also told Dow Jones Newswires.
Toyota, which was the first major carmaker to enter the hybrid market with the popular Prius, presented its LS 600H, a luxury sedan powered by a hybrid V-8 engine -- another first.

Ford Motor Co. showed off a concept car that foreshadows the next generation of its new Mondeo, available in Europe from late 2008 -- an example of the company's new ''kinetic'' design aesthetic that gives an impression of speed even when standing still.

Ford, which is shedding thousands of U.S. jobs and scaling back production, said the second half of the year would prove harder than the first for its European unit, where profit came in at $196 million in January-June.

CROWDED MARKET

The arrival of South Korean and Chinese carmakers on the European market was a concern, Ford Europe CEO and President John Fleming said. ``Anybody who is starting to bring vehicles into the European market, which is already very crowded, is going to add to the pressures.''

China's presence at the show was discreet -- but ominous for the established global car brands. Great Wall Synergie Hellas displayed a new pickup and the five-door SUV it recently began exporting to Italy.

General Motors Corp., which unveiled a new 2-liter turbodiesel SUV under its Opel badge, continued to face pressure to agree to a three-way alliance with Renault and its sister company Nissan.
Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, who owns 9.9 percent of GM and is pressing for the deal, plans to buy up to a further 2 percent of the carmaker, according to a regulatory filing Thursday.

Uncertainties over the progress toward a possible extension of the RenaultNissan alliance to embrace GM, the world's largest carmaker, have threatened to upstage the new models and technologies on display in the French capital.

The show, known in France as Le Mondial de l'Automobile, opens to the public Saturday for two weeks.

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Sept. 29, 2006, 1:38PM

Smaller Is Better at Paris Auto Show

By MATT MOORE AP Business Writer; © 2006 The Associated Press

PARIS — Smaller is better at the Paris Motor Show, at least for automakers looking to exploit consumer disgust with higher gas prices. It's a mantra that's been heard before when energy prices have risen. But for automakers around the globe, the idea of smaller cars that use less fuel yet retain the spirit of the traditional sport utility vehicle is taking root.

"Of new or redesigned products at the show, fully five were smaller SUVs or crossovers aimed at the growing European market for this kind of vehicle," said Stephen B. Cheetham, a European auto analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd. in London.

Most of the major automakers showed off high-end sedans and sport-inspired models, including the DaimlerChrysler SLR McLaren 722 Edition _ but smaller models proved top draws at the media preview ahead of Saturday's official opening.

With gas prices well above a year ago, automakers are trying to respond to consumer concerns about fuel costs and environmental effects, without driving away customers for their traditional offerings.

Europe has generally been a small-car mecca, said analyst Rebecca Lindland of Global Insight, where the "small streets, the need for fuel efficiency, make them good sellers." All automakers with any presence in Europe, from France's Citroen SA to Volkswagen AG's Skoda subsidiary, offer plenty of small, fuel-efficient cars.

Smaller cars are also attracting more buyers in the U.S. _ about 378,000 subcompacts are expected to be sold this year, up from 223,000 last year _ causing headaches for carmakers who were too reliant on trucks and SUVs. Even so, the Chevy Trailblazer alone sold 250,000, Lindland said. "We are still very much a truck-loving nation."

That spirit has also been catching on in Europe, despite reservations in a culture that has long favored pollution controls and frowns on too much excess.

Nissan Motor Co. is hoping that its Qashqai can break through those concerns.

The Japanese automaker bills it as compact that has the feel but not the aggressiveness of a SUV. It boasts large wheel wells and sits higher off the ground, but drives like a solid and small sedan.

Like Nissan, Hyundai Corp. has its popular Santa Fe SUV, but unveiled a new version, that was more upscale yet still not too large. Dubbed the Veracruz, it sports a 3,000 cubic-centimeter V6 diesel engine and is aimed chiefly at taking away buyers who would tend to go for a Lexus or Mitsubishi.

In a bid to gain more credibility with buyers, automakers pulled out the stops in alternatives to gas-powered cars, exhibiting new ways to market hybrids, which typically use something other than gasoline _ diesel, ethanol, hydrogen, electricity _ at least some of the time.

Citroen, Peugeot, Saab and Lexus showed off hybrid technology, which aims to make cars easier to drive and less costly both in terms of fuel costs and pollution.

Toyota Motor Corp. manager Colin Hensley said the Prius has seen its sales steadily increase, with 720,000 sold since it hit the market in 1997.

"In the first six months of this year, 135,000 customers bought them," he said. "By 2010, we will sell a million hybrids."

Automakers have taken note of that demand. The Lexus LS600H is a luxury car with a hybrid engine, while Citroen SA showed off its diesel concept car, the Coupe C-Metisse. Peugeot drew plaudits for its gas-cell powered 207 Coupe Cabrio concept.

Swedish automaker Saab had its 9.3 Cabriolet on display, which can be powered with pure ethanol feeding the 260 horsepower engine and zero exhaust emissions.

BMW Chief Executive Norbert Reithofer said his company was looking at entering the market, but didn't give any details.

In Brussels on Friday, the energy companies Shell Hydrogen BV and Total France, along with BMW, DaimlerChrysler AG, Ford Motor Co., Volkswagen AG, General Motors Europe AG and MAN AG, announced a joint project to advance the use of hydrogen as fuel for trucks in Europe.

"Hydrogen and fuel cell technology will bring significant change in the way Europe produces and uses energy," the companies said in a statement.

"The companies are together convinced that a joint approach between energy companies and vehicle manufacturers is an excellent means to bridge the gap between the present individual demonstration activities and future commercially available hydrogen vehicles including the corresponding refueling infrastructure," they said.

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