Wattie
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Sign of the times...from Italy.
The number of secondhand high-performance cars exported from Italy nearly tripled to 13,633 vehicles in the first five months of 2012, from 4,923 a year earlier, according to auto industry group Unrae.
“Italy is one of the strongholds of supercars, and those vehicles are now disappearing from the streets,†said Giuliano Noci, associate dean of Milan Polytechnic's business school.
“This has a huge symbolic value and shows how deep the crisis is.â€
The exodus reflects weaker overall demand for supercars in the home of Ferrari and Maserati, Fiat SpA's most profitable brands. Sales of super-luxury cars in Italy are forecast to plunge 47 percent to 593 vehicles this year from 1,116 in 2008, according to IHS Automotive, which predicts that sales won't return to pre-crisis levels before 2016.
Cheers Wattie
The number of secondhand high-performance cars exported from Italy nearly tripled to 13,633 vehicles in the first five months of 2012, from 4,923 a year earlier, according to auto industry group Unrae.
“Italy is one of the strongholds of supercars, and those vehicles are now disappearing from the streets,†said Giuliano Noci, associate dean of Milan Polytechnic's business school.
“This has a huge symbolic value and shows how deep the crisis is.â€
The exodus reflects weaker overall demand for supercars in the home of Ferrari and Maserati, Fiat SpA's most profitable brands. Sales of super-luxury cars in Italy are forecast to plunge 47 percent to 593 vehicles this year from 1,116 in 2008, according to IHS Automotive, which predicts that sales won't return to pre-crisis levels before 2016.
Cheers Wattie