Recession puts the brakes on market for dream cars

IN case you hadn’t noticed that the VaVaVoom had gone out of the economy – just check the sale of supercars.

Once the preserve of Russian oligarchs or Premier League footballers, the sight of Ferraris, Maseratis and Bentleys was commonplace on the highways and byways as the purring of the Celtic Tiger was replaced by the gentle roar of a V12.

But flash has been replaced by prudence, wantless spending by value-for- money. In 2008, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office, there were five cars valued at over €300,000 registered in Ireland. In 2009, there was only one car of the same value registered. It is a country-wide trend reflected across high-end car sales in the last couple of years.