SOME OF US, it seems, are managing to cope with austerity better that others. Like the 100-odd people who bought cars such as the Audi A7 or Mercedes CLS in the first four months of the year. These are not, after all, cars designed for motoring in the practical sense. The emphasis here is on sportiness, coupe appeal and prestige. And they are not cheap.

ALTHOUGH MOTOR vehicle recalls are an everyday fact of life, with hundreds of thousands of cars being called back in to have manufacturing defects fixed every year, there is no official monitoring of the situation in Ireland, where car companies are left entirely to their own internal devices when recalls are needed.

FOR SIX GENERATIONS (five, depending on your definition of what a generation is) we have venerated cars. We have given them the proportions of goddesses, the power of Atlas and spent the wealth of Croesus developing, designing and buying them. We don’t do this with other consumer goods.

When the motoring world’s elite plan to spend they head straight to the Top Marques Show in Monaco. NICK HALL went along for the ride