[DUBAI] Luxury sports cars, gas-guzzling SUVs, even tank-like Hummers all jostle for space on Gulf highways, their owners buoyed by record oil prices that have forced some motorists to ditch cars for bicycles in the West.

Not only has government-subsidised petrol prevented motorists in the Gulf Arab region from feeling the pinch at the pump, but windfall revenues from US$140-a-barrel oil have fuelled an economic boom and put deluxe cars in more people's reach.

'High oil prices are feeding into the economy, so more people have higher incomes, so more people buy luxury cars,' said Julian Millward-Hopkins, Middle East and Levant press manager for Mercedes-Benz.

'If you look at sales worldwide it is a pyramid. At the bottom are smaller cars and at the top are luxury sports cars. In the Middle East it's an inverted pyramid. Luxury cars do proportionately better here than elsewhere.'

Custom-made Rolls-Royces, stretch-Hummers with blacked-out windows and bright red Maseratis line the entrance to Dubai's Mall of the Emirates, but even in the drabbest parts of town four-wheel-drives rule the roads.

The booming luxury car market in the Middle East, where sales of Mercedes-Benz rose 31 per cent in May from a year ago, comes in stark contrast to the recession fears gripping the US, Europe and parts of Asia.

In the US, 95-octane petrol is selling for around US$4 a US gallon (3.79 litres) at the pump, but in the United Arab Emirates, where it still costs around US$0.36 a litre, fuel-efficiency is the last thing on motorists' minds. 'People very rarely ask about fuel-efficiency to be honest,' said one salesman in Dubai. 'It is just not an issue for people here.'

Ford is idling a US plant manufacturing sports utility vehicles (SUV) for nine weeks due to declining demand. General Motors is closing four US truck plants and may sell Hummer as Americans stung by rising petrol prices choose smaller, more economical vehicles.

Yet Middle East sales of General Motors' full-size SUVs grew 40 per cent in the first quarter of this year, bought by everyone from families seeking big vehicles to young men seeking rugged cars to take off road. That compares to overall sales growth of 6 per cent in the Middle East in the same period.

'I would not drive this kind of car in England,' said Henry Charles, a consultant. 'It is not just the high fuel consumption. Cars are also much cheaper here.'