Algerian motor sales need support...(28/7 reprised)

hktdc.com - Algerian motor sales need support

Algeria is a country which needs cars, and China-produced vehicles provided under brands like FAW, JAC, Harbin Motors and Chery Automobiles are meeting the requirement for modestly-priced, reasonably efficient and modest petrol-using autos that can beat the gas-guzzling, aging vehicles currently offered through local dealers.

Indian vehicles are the nearest competitors to Chinese mainland-made cars, with Malaysian-, Thai- and Taiwan-assembled autos also in the market.

Networks created by Ultipa (for JAC and Harbin Motors vehicles), Elsecom (for FAW, AL Autos and Chery's) and SARL Algerie Motorcycle (for Qingqi cycles) are busy developing sales opportunities throughout Algeria for China-made autos and bikes.

It begs the question as to whether Hong Kong auto parts suppliers can provide the support required in the aftermarket, accessories and parts areas.

If not specifically in the trans-migratory offering through factories on the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong expertise can be applied in financing, re-financing, logistics and marketing...

320ivsa4...(28/8)

Met the friend - a long time refreshing moment of old time story. After the several months in close relationship with the reliable Camry, it is time for a new change. Went to the galleria beside my place. The very attractive palette of taste with varieties, look around, and shortlisted the two, a 320i and the designated a4. A matching colour of the sky and the land, and so it becomes a process of constellation to link the two concepts into one. Wait & see.

Café Suisse...(7/10)

The café offers a very retro feeling once you enter into it. Old setting of bar tables and counter, historic photos, posters and drawings on every side of the wall in the salon, and more in more, there are aged people staying in with a light set of petit-déjeuner and cafe...actually, the setting is old-style instead of retro, and this kind of old-time set up is not any luxurious decorative arts like the luxurious café in Paris. This is just an old neighbourhood café restaurant. That's all. To be precise, the name of the café is Suisse Café, a.k.a. Café des Arcades, which is situated close to the seaport of Dieppe. The cover of the menu does tell something about the century-long history of the café. It is a café with simple but decent set-up and services, and all it serves is perhaps a relaxing moment with delaying time strings. I was much thinking of the old tea restaurants which share the same style of deco and atmosphere in the old districts in Hong Kong. It was a moment insulated from any trouble and worry. Seeing the art deco posters of retro car competition in Dieppe, you would have some more understanding about the interesting event in town. Well, the old-style dome arches outside the café simply provide a protective gate of preservation to the café. By the way, i was there in a sunny saturday morning.

Les Voitures...(16/8)

There are cars in the city, and the cars are where the people stay away from the pedestrians to travel horizontally and vertically on the map of the city...they are an enclosed area where the outside world appears to be closely away, a glass with two faces of the world. This is in fact an invention under the same category of the headphone to me. The device keeps me away literally from the outer world where I do not want to get too close to sometimes. City people need some space perhaps.
Under the same phenomenon, the cars are interesting objects to look at along the streets when I walk on the streets. They divide the roads into blocks of cubicles. We move and we share the same breathe of the city, but with a different medium, we sense a very different curve of the city. It is an interpretation of the Paris cinema on the projection of cubicles on the streets, we watch our day go by day, sometimes we miss something...
http://www.kodakgallery.fr/I.jsp?c=jiw1j59.43l9p3xp&x=0&y=-dmvch9

Mileage Business...(20/7)

The change of ownership was done, and now Europcar becomes a French company...previously belonged to the Volkswagen group, the car rental company was successfully transferred to Eurazeo, an independent French investment group. So, perhaps we may see more Peugeot or Renault than Volkswagen at the carparks of Europcar in future ;p
Apparently, the car rental business in France is dominated by a few car groups namely Avis (General Motors), Hertz (Ford), National Citer (Citroën), Renault Rent (obviously the subsidiary of Renault), Sixt (the German rep of rental business), Alamo (US company who shares a pie of the French rental business) and Ada (a local rental company) in addition to Europcar etc. Per my experience, Hertz offers quite favourable rental rate for cars departing from Paris, particularly for long distance drive, though the package often excludes insurance charge etc. Indeed, as the centre of the transportation system in France (and perhaps an intersection of the western part of Europe), car rental is quite a profitable business, and varying from the accessibility and the demand of rental cars and vehicles, the charge is quite different from cities to cities. Europcar, though converted itself from a German to a French, needs not offer the cheapest package for the French users. But as an international company, its presence in 145 countries has offered its capacity as a very competitive supplier for French users outside the hexagon. Its rental package, for example, is more attractive for the French to pick up the vehicles in countries like Slovakia. Of course it is always less expensive if you opt for a local car rental company, but then it becomes a game of cost and risk.
Unlike the service network in Europe, car rental business is less systematic in China and Hong Kong. And when I try to recall a car rental company in Hong Kong, I fail. Yes, it is just too convenient for transportation in Hong Kong, but with an eye pointing to China and the fact of an increasing traffic flow between cities in China, it could be a huge potential to be developed soon.

Light is beautiful...(16/7)

Like many other nights, I was driving on the highway last night, and with a powerful sports car, I was surfing on the darkening cement over the surface of land...there was a very short section of A13 enlightened with the rare lamp posts on the way back to Paris. The lamps were golden yellow in colour, and backed by a dimming sky, lights started to flow in freestyle when the car passed by. At one moment, it was very delighting. Light in the travel of speed, my eyesight flew into a kaleidoscopic carnival. I felt like seeing the world in other technique than using my limited eyeballs. Ironically, the post July 14 celebration took place at Rouen and at the very close moment, firework appeared on the right hand side of the highway. It was a touching moment. I did not expect my firework would appear this way this year. It melted thereafter...

Les fleurs sur la route...(1/5)

The first of May is a special day...We have a nice song for the day, and many paid employees and workers do not need to work but enjoy their relaxing holiday. French people would buy lily of the valley 'le muguet' to remember this special day, apart from perhaps any other celebration for the social class of labours. Little stalls were set up all along the crossroad and intersections to sell the lilies on the day.

Every time when I travel on autoroutes or national roads in France, a colour spectrum of flowers, trees and vegetation fill up the scenery of season. Colour is a medium of changes and a witness of unchanged spray. I like the colour of each day, and for today, the spring time carries a vivid pale green and blossoms new hopes of the old times. When I was passing by the region of Charente-Maritime last weekend, the colouring field beside the road gives a pride to the nature and recalls me a life that has passed by.


Some nice flowers were placed on the road from time to time. This is a tragic beauty that we may have forgotten after hours of minutes. The image we see hides the rest which stores only in the sake of memory. The one in yellow above is a flower named 'immortelles', a very elegant but sorrow name.

A month of May and a wish of may, let go and let's go.

Parking Cohesiveness...(30/11)

Car parking in Paris is like chasing for a shelter, and due to the limited car parking space in the town, there is always interesting moment for an observer to view the different parking pattern on the street...A parking lot with 1.5 cars, or a multi-directional car parking pattern is the trademark of car parking in Paris. Because of the scarcity of parking, Parisien like small cars like Smart, Clio or Golf. Seeing a Smart car sneaking into an interval between another two cars is common, and the way the Smart is parked is quite stunning...having the car front pointing the opposite side of the pedestrain way, and yet simply fit enough to avoid any interception to the road. The way for numerous drivers to get their car out of the range is Thai-boxing like. Hitting back and fore to get rid of the obstacles, but well, they are simply the profession to handle this kind of rescuing mission.

Il neige, Paris...(25/11)

Finally, winter arrives at Paris...The weather dropped sharply this week to approach zero, and this afternoon when I was working in office, snow came down from the pale sky. White and soft was the falling snow, and the snow was too shy to pass by the window in front of me. Within a few minutes, the snow stopped, leaving again the only me working under the dim light in the room. C'est commence, l'hiver...

Škoda Octavia, the Czech BMW…(2/11)

As my companion during the Scottish tour, the autocar of Škoda has provided a promising performance that eases my journey as quite an enjoyable one. The Octavia model has a powerful engine of 2.0 FSI / 110KW and has proved to consume less than 5 litre per 100km run...Indeed, Škoda, started its history since 1895, is one of the four automakers existing at present that has a manufacturing history of more than a century. Having acquired by Volkswagen, the Czech automaker has kept on its production and manufactured its fifth million vehicles since the acquisition. Based in Mladá Boleslav, the automaker occupies nearly one-third of the city and employs three out of four residents in the city, and it is a live model of the automobile industry that exists in the Eastern Europe now. Around 4% of the workforce in Czech are working for the company now. With its century birthday, a Škoda museum has been set up in the city, and I guess it would be worthwhile paying a visit. By the way, checking the name Škoda, it means ‘damage’ in Czech, sounds cool!

Smarter...(30/9)

Having rented a car and visited in the nearby region away from Paris in the weekend, I found myself smarter and smarter, and yes I am a Smarter...Out of the options, the easiest way to move is to rent a Smart car. Smaller in size and less petrol consumption, I felt that the car is easily controllable, and now I understand why there are so many Smarters in Paris. When you have visited Paris, you would realize how the road systems in the city can be that user-friendly, and because of historical reason, most of the roads (or here we called 'les rues') have their unique character, and of course narrow enough to test your driving skill. Smart is very smart in the city, but then when it goes to highway, it reminds you the meaning of speed. The maximum speed of a Smart is around 140km/h, and well, without reading the meter in front of the driver seat, you can tell by seeing cars beside you flying like arrows and well, I could only say, be smart to be safe…something I am sure is that driving is kind of enjoyment for a typical city life, and for a Smarter in Paris, there are just only two exceptions; the first one being that the smart is so light and energy conserving that you will never sense any acoustic system inside the car when you are on the highway, and cool, music is much of the taste of Brian Eno…I would call this Ambient Music too, but ambience outweighs much music. Besides, driving back to Paris is the utmost challenge of your patience. Congestion is the only sign of 'bienvenue' for Paris.
P.S. parking a Smart is like smarting a park…haha, somewhat an reflexion to 'le jeu de mots' of Da Vinci Code?!

Motorcycle Emptiness...(13/9)

"...under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness, all we want from you are the kicks you've given us..." is the kind of "Motorcycle Emptiness" expressed by Manic Street Preachers. I got something similar today... to visit a cosmetic exhibition in Villepinte, I went to the fairground by motorcycle for the first time in France to test the speed on the highway. An experience quite different from riding on bicycle indeed. Surfing (and bumpering too...the road in Paris have such kind of character) on the highway was like emptying the soul. Speeding seems a way to reconfigure the inner part of the body, where you feel yourself. At the moment when the strong wind is all around you, there was a kind of hollowing-out effect where my soul does not really want to bother anything else. This kind of feeling is different from the one on a roller-coaster. In the amusement park, the kind of amusement is too artificial and cold. The effect is just so mindless and aimless. When you leave the park, you get actually nothing. The joy on a bike is something more. Instead of the strong force, it is the lightness of tranquility inside the body that gives me a relaxing mind. Adapting the "adverse" surrounding, I felt like insulated from the world just in a second. A way to meditate? Perhaps...

The Lightness of Life...(31/8)

"The world is too little aware of the waste of life, limb and land which anti-personnel landmines are causing among some of the poorest people on Earth." quoted Diana, Princess of Wales, who had a car accident in Paris exactly 8 years ago...

Café au cocaine...(23/8)

Paris is a paradise of coffee shops, and here you can taste all types of café, but be aware of this new mix/shock of café au cocaine...A car accident occurred at the junction of Boulevard des Italiens and Rue de Richelieu on Sunday when a driver, "under the influence of cocaine", crashed his car onto the pavement and killed a mother and a daughter who rested at the terrasse of the coffee shop la brasserie Le Cardinal...a tragedy. It was reported in previous study that more car accidents happened now in France, and sadly, this adds another case to the accident profile.