"I live near Abdin, I’ve never wanted to live here [in downtown]. I tried to live here but I didn’t like it, the neighbors are always changing, and even more it’s become more of a commercial district than a residential one anyway. 

The dealership used to be owned by a foreigner, who would rent it to small shops serving the residents of the neighborhood: a furniture store, a dairy, craftsmen, the like.

The street used to be wide, there weren’t any public or government buildings, hotels, tourist sites,  or ministries. The majority of the residents were foreigners, mostly Italian and Greek. Basically, the whole area was residential, spacious, and a good fit for a car dealership.

The agency was owned by a man named Fred Kohen. By the end of the 1950s car sales in Egypt were gradually increasing, so Fred Kohen started to rent storefronts in the garage to a variety of different automobile dealers. When the 1952 revolution happened, Kohen left egypt, and the land here was fought over by the longest renters to see who would take control. In any case, the market had been taken a pretty big hit and wouldn’t even recover until the end of the 1970s.

So at that point, things opened up, with the Infitah and what have you, and so you had dozens of agencies opening up here with everyone doing brisk business and happy, until the 1990s. At that point, the market went flat until things got to the point you see now, completely stagnant. The suppy had totally outstripped demand, so for every 50 customers you had 100 dealers, how many cars can you sell like that?"