Dubai may be the only city in the world where the abandonment of luxury and high end cars has become a problem for local authorities.
There are cities that have to deal with a large number of ownerless pets in the streets. Others suffer problems of space and lack of supply of affordable housing. Some cities have high crime while others have a serious problem with the storage of garbage and waste.
Well, Dubai, the capital and largest city of UAE, has a serious problem of luxury cars abandoned in the streets and main parkings. The picture is as you’re imagining it: hundreds and hundreds of vehicles from brands like Porsche, Lamborghini, Maserati, Mercedes, Hummer, Ferrari or BMW, dusty and abandoned in ditches, parking and roads. Mind you, many of them even with the keys and fuel tanks nearly full.
It may resemble the picture of a zombie apocalypse in a land of luxury and extravagance but is an absolutely real situation. According to the latest figures cited by the local government, there are nearly over 3,000 high-end cars in local agencies waiting for their owners or queuing to enter any auction lot.
According to explanations being given for some months by the authorities and local media, owners of these cars are not residents of the Emirates, they are mostly foreigners and expatriates. The most widespread explanation for this phenomenon is that the owners could not take care of the letters of loans of cars, it has even been shown that they already owed money to their creditors. This elsewhere, although serious, wouldn’t be reason to get rid of these mechanical jewels and skedaddle, but in Dubai it is a serious issue. Local laws have zero tolerance for non-payment and if reported, such cases are treated as a felony and result in sentences of imprisonment and heavy fines. Thus, over the crudest years of the global crisis, many presumed wealthy people had to get out of the country with nothing, and their supercars were left on the road to the airport.
This phenomenon has been discovered progressively as the cars were growing centimeters of dust and dirt and permeating space for long periods of time in parking lots of great use at airports in the area.
Here’s an example. Last year, media around the world reported the seizure made by the Dubai police of an exclusive Ferrari Enzo, a model of which only 400 units for the entire planet were manufactured, having spent several months waiting for its owner in a parking lot.
According to local laws, if the owner does not claim his car after 15 days since officially considered abandoned by the police, it becomes part of a lot to auction at a much more affordable price than you would find in the second hand market and, of course, in any official dealer of such distinguished and expensive brands.
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