Things are tough all over: luxury cars abandoned in Dubai

[Bodhii]

Things are tough all over: luxury cars abandoned in Dubai

A few short years ago, Dubai was the epicenter of conspicuous consumption. Its mammoth hotels, opulent resorts and over-the-top shopping centers represented the manifestation of man's insatiable hunger for energy.

Today, with a global financial crisis underway and oil prices halved from their highs, even Dubai has fallen on hard times. As unemployment takes its toll, the number of abandoned vehicles has risen by 20%.

Luxury cars worth hundreds of thousands of dirhams can be found gathering dust on roadsides across Dubai, the remnants of the city-state’s economic boom that was brought to an abrupt halt by the global financial crisis....

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/200...xury-cars.html







Obviously, in any broken relationship, you have to feel sorry for the dependents, i.e. the cars. How can people just abandon them like that? It's just plain wrong.

There is a "regular astonishing sight" at Dubai's international airport, says Mark Hollingsworth in ES Magazine: dozens of luxury cars – Mercedes, Porsches, BMWs, etc – abandoned with their keys still in the ignition. In some cases, notes of apology are taped to the windscreens.

The owners of these vehicles are mainly British expatriates, who have left in a hurry because they faced "crippling debts" as a result of Dubai's financial meltdown and their own profligate behaviour. Many of them, says Hollingsworth, have defaulted on loans; rather than risk arrest and jail, they drove at top speed to the airport where they jumped on the first flight to London.

[Raptor09]

Hmm the bottom car doesn't have a Dubai or UAE license plate..and the 360 has export plates on it, so I'm not sure that one's abandoned (if left outside it could get that dusty in a couple of days really.).

But the F40 is astonishing!

[Arin@APR]

Is the F40 even real?

[technomania]

I highly doubt that!!