Geneva Motor Show 2011 by Mr Kio, www.facebook.com/IdefixPhotography
BASEL / GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Three of western Switzerland’s biggest commercial fairs open Thursday 8 March to Saturday, the watch show in Basel, the car show in Geneva, with each expected to pull in tens of thousands of visitors, and Habitat & Jardin, a favourite with apartment dwellers but especially homeowners and wannabes.
The Lausanne show, which attracts 100,000 people, starts in Lausanne Saturday 10 March and the best deal in town is a CFF rail ticket with travel and entry reductions.
This is definitely not a weekend to complain there is nothing to do!
Geneva Motor Show 2012, smaller cars but enough glamour for a quick fix
Lamborghini and Ferrari are putting their fancy wares on display, as usual, for this show that opens the car year in Europe.
Lamborghini’s not-so-subtle press release notes that the company “is presenting the most uncompromising open super sports car of its entire history. The Lamborghini Aventador J is a force of nature on wheels — supremely powerful and supremely open. The Aventador J offers its pilot and co-pilot an utterly indescribable experience of power and dynamics. At the same time, the 515 kW / 700 hp two-seater is a first class technology showcase.”
Ferrari is unveiling its 599 GTB Fiorano replacement, the F12berlinetta.
Geneva Motor Show 2011 by Mr Kio, www.facebook.com/IdefixPhotography
For the more conservative, electric cars are looking increasingly mainstream, with General Motors’s two extended range electrics, Chevrolet Volt and Opel Ampera, jointly named car of the year.
Here’s what world auto industry media are saying about this year’s show as it opens:
“European crisis sheds light on automakers’ excess capacity”, Detroit Free Press“More bad news for midprice carmakers in Europe”, NY Times
“Sexy cars at the Geneva Motor Show”, CBS News Money Watch
“Volkswagen creates more oddball Up! concepts for Geneva show”, Motor Show.
Of course, some people go to see the hostesses (sneak preview in a series of photos by Philippe Tabouriech).
Details on visiting the show are available in English at the Geneva Motor Show site. Hours are 10:00-20:00 Monday to Friday and 09:00-19:00 Saturday and Sunday. Tickets: CHF9 for children to CHF16 for adults. Public transport options are excellent, so while you might have cars on the brain, take the train.
BaselWorld celebrates 40 years with a record watch year for Swiss industry
BaselWorld attracts 100,000 people; it runs from 8 to 15 March and features not just watches but luxury jewelry. This is the 40th year of the fair, with 1,800 exhibitors. The fair kicked off with a statement that 2011 was a record year for the Swiss watch industry “with 30 million
watches exported. Turnover increased by 19.2 percent to CHF 19.3 billion,” announced Jacques Duchêne, president of the exhibitors’ committee, with Asia as “a driving force in the growth of the luxury goods industry. More than half of the exports of the Swiss watch industry are to the Far East.”
The new Lamborghini dealer in Lugano - Photo Lamborghini
CADENAZZO, SWITZERLAND – Italian luxury automaker Lamborghini has opened its fifth store in Switzerland saying it is another step in its “plan for strengthening the Lamborghini sales network” around the country.
Stephan Winkelman, President and CEO of Automobili Lamborghini, inaugurated the store, run by auto dealer Tarcisio Pasta SA, located in Cadenazzo, near Lugano.
“For us Switzerland is a strategic market as it is within our 10 most important worldwide,” said Winkelman.
The new dealership showroom carries its V10 and V12 product lines, the Gallardo, and its latest Aventador LP 700-4.
The other four Lamborghini showrooms in Switzerland are located in Geneva, Porrentruy, St Gallen and Zurich.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A late night accident on the lake road near Geneva, a young driver with too much alcohol in his system, the driver of the other car in serious condition: accidents of this sort happen often enough that they rarely make the front page of Swiss newspapers.
Add in a Lamborghini, other flashy cars, rich children of Russian commercial celebrities and a story with international headlines surfaces. Stir in local political squabbles plus what looks to some people like rich foreigners fleeing the country in the face of Swiss justice, and a continuing headliner of wealth, incompetence and scandal is born.
Geneva media, police, lawyers exchange barbs
An accident which took place 19 November in Genthod, between Geneva and Versoix, has not only made headlines, it is putting Geneva police, authorities and Swiss media in the hot seat. Wednesday 25 November Geneva’s public prosecutor, Daniel Zappelli, said he had received a police file on the case, nearly a week after the accident and the day after he complained that he had received nothing. He has now officially opened a criminal investigation.
The media say police and officials reacted too slowly but the lawyer for the accused, a Geneva police spokesperson who talked to GenevaLunch and officials have expressed dismay at local media for hyping an event without facts. Jacques Barrillon, who represents the 22-year-old driver of the Lamborghini, told Russian journalists that “The story is being inflated in every possible way, just because it features nice, expensive cars, millionaire parents and foreign passports.”
Update 16:00 Genthod, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Russian media have been carrying stories about the accident Thursday 19 November in Genthod where a Lambhorgini driven by a 22-year-old Russian crashed into a Golf driven by a 70-year-old German, both resident in the Geneva area. The older man is in serious condition in the hospital. The Russian articles and a flood of comments and e-mail received by GenevaLunch are focusing on the likely names of those involved, with children of politicians and rich businessmen heading the top of the list of suspects. The names are openly published in Russia, with one notable family mentioned in the Guardian Tuesday afternoon.
In Switzerland, the Tribune de Geneve/24Heures published a story Tuesday afternoon saying three of those involved left Geneva Sunday on a private jet, thus avoiding having to give evidence to a Geneva judge. (Ed. note: the story cites “our sources” without details and appeared after Russian media reports).
