Many of the priciest, fastest cars on the road are German-owned and most come under the Volkswagen banner.

The German car company, which may soon be taken over by Porsche, owns Bentley in the UK and Lamborgini and Bugatti.

Porsche has a 31 per cent stake in VW but has been frustrated by the continuation of a government blocking vote.

VW’s rival Rolls-Royce is owned by BMW and made at Goodwood.

The other big prestige name to be made in Britain — Aston Martin — is owned by the Kuwait Investment Dar Company and fronted by Dave Richards, the former rally driver. It was sold by Ford last year.

Ferrari, one of the most famous makers of fast cars, is majority owned by Fiat.

Apart from Land Rover and Jaguar, which today go to Tata, Lotus is the only other high-value brand to be owned by an Asian manufacturer. Its parent is Proton, of Malaysia.

In the ranks of high-value executive cars, the Lexus range is owned by Toyota. The Japanese carmaker launched a separate brand to distinguish it as more upmarket than the top-range Toyotas.

Nissan, Toyota’s rival, has done the same and now has Infiniti, a brand it is promoting in the US. Infiniti is slowly broadening out from the US.

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