In Dubai, the used car market has taken on another face due the number of high end automobiles showing up due to the fact that their owners have in not so many words relinquished ownership of the cars. These preowned cars are high quality expensive and sometimes exclusive cars whose owners have taken flight – quite literally – from the long arm of the law in the emirate.
Such a problem for a city, a far cry from the usual vagrants and hoodlums that many booming metropolitan areas struggle with, can only happen in a highly acclaimed place like Dubai. In the last five years alone, numerous cars proudly donning insignias of renowned brands like Ferrari, Porsche and Mercedes Benz have collected films upon films of dust on the streets and airport parking lots in Dubai.
The reason is that the owners are in a hurry to put as much distance between themselves and the emirate due to having large outstanding debts that they have failed to pay. According to the Sharia Law, this is a criminal offense that warrants a jail sentence for the convicted individual. The economic meltdowns and plunging oil prices have been blamed for this phenomenon.
In a region that has no bankruptcy laws, the safest bet is to get out while you still can. There are over 3000 cars abandoned a year in Dubai. A warning is issued and if after 15 days there is no reply from the owner, car auctioning is initiated seeing pricy pieces sold for next to nothing in comparison.
