If you drive a Ferrari or other supercar in Italy these days, you're more likely than ever to be stopped by police, writes Brian Byrne.
Not for speeding, but to see if you have paid enough taxes to support a Ferrari-owning lifestyle. Finance police are likely to pull you over on the road, at your favourite holiday resort, or even when travelling with a supercar owners group on an outing.
The result is that used Ferraris, Maseratis, Porsches and other high-priced cars are being sold out of Italy at a rate never seen before.
The spot tax checks are proving worthwhile. One Ferrari owner was found to have evaded €8m in taxes over the last six years, another had neglected to pay €3m.
On top of that, an austerity tax on supercars has seen annual taxes on the vehicles shoot up by €6,600 a year, to €8,400.
For those abroad who can buy, there are deals to be had. One Ferrari 458 owner put his €224,000 machine up for sale for little more than half that, after buying it less than a year ago.
Sales of supercars this year are expected to be half the 1,100 or so sold last year in Italy. Fiat's profits from the activities of its Fiat and Maserati subsidiaries in the first half of this year was €175m, making the supercar business a seriously profitable end of an otherwise troubled auto business.
