Cyprus Opel/GM dealer George Pavlides dies

George Pavlides, Managing Director of the General Motors/Opel dealership Geo. Pavlides & Araouzos and Chairman of the WRC Cyprus Rally organising committee, died Thursday of a heart attack at the age of 60.

Pavlides was first elected president of the Cyprus Automobile Association in 1993 and remained active in the fields of motorsport and lobbying for road safety. He was part of the team that clinched the World Rally Championship (WRC) classification for the annual Cyprus Rally that recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, rising from a local to an international event, then to the top of the European Rally circuit, before attaining the highest level of FIA events in 2000.

Born in Limassol in 1945, George Pavlides studied economics in Switzerland and took over the car import (GM cars, Renault trucks) and consumer and pharmaceutical distribution business (Pfizer) established by the Pavlides and Araouzos families. He is survived by a wife and two sons, Spyros and Michalis. His funeral will take place in Limassol on Friday morning.

George Pavlides also headed the Car Importers Association that had to deal with and lobbied against high import duties that were eventually diminished leading up to E.U. accession in May 2004. However, the Association members received another blow with the imports of used cars from Europe and fleet cars from the Far East, pushing prices lower but also forcing buyers to compromise on issues of safety and reliability. With EU accession, though, the car trade has enjoyed a revival with lower prices for new cars regaining a market share from the used imports.