When a couple is married, they vow to love and cherish each other for richer or poorer, in good or bad times.

Buying a car, especially an expensive one like a Porsche Cayenne, is kind like a marriage, in the sense that you get to live with it every day – except that you can have more than one and it doesn’t talk back to you…

When things go bad, however, it’s not just couples that get a divorce: the ongoing financial crisis that has plagued Northern European countries is forcing owners to depart with their beloved vehicles because they simply can’t afford their expenses anymore.

Greece, Italy and Spain are the countries hit the hardest so far by the crisis, and as a result, their economies are crumpling and many citizens find themselves unemployed or struggling to hold on to their jobs.

In this economic climate, owning an expensive car is, like a Porsche Cayenne, is indeed, a luxury. You see, while the SUV saved Porsche from bankruptcy, it’s now threatening to do the opposite to many of its owners.

Take Roberto Murga from Barcelona, for example. “I can’t splurge anymore, and maintaining my precious Cayenne is just too expensive”, Murga told Business Week.

Before the crisis, his monthly income was around €8,000. When the real estate bubble burst, he had no choice but to fire half of his employees, as he admits, “we have no profit at all, we just try to survive”.

With Spain’s unemployment rate reaching an shocking 22.8 percent, things getting worse every day and no light at the end of the tunnel, the Spaniards are having a hard time indeed.

As in Greece, in Spain, the Cayenne was seen as a status symbol – an outright statement to onlookers that you have really made it.

Today’s dire financial situation has been labeled “the Cayenne crisis” by Victor Conde, a marketing professor at Madrid’s Universidad Nebrija.

“This car was the paradigm of how we lived above what we could afford”, he says. “Banks were giving away too many loans and everybody here was driving a Cayenne.”

Now the luxury SUV sales in Spain and Portugal have fallen 34 percent compared to 2007, their best-ever year. Porsche is not the only one affected; BMW sales are almost halved, being reduced by 47 percent.

Car dealers are experiencing a sharp decline in their revenue. “The Cayenne was the favorite car for many people, especially in the construction industry”, said Madrid-based Arguelles Automoviles sales manager Angel Rodriguez. “Later many found out they couldn’t afford it, or even pay for it at all, and I see them now driving a Renault”, he added.

Even mass-market manufacturers are feeling the strain. Ford has already announced that it will temporarily suspend 4,000 workers at its Valencia plant and even Seat is considering moving production to more cost-efficient facilities owned by the VW Group, in countries like China.

Economics professor Ricardo Mateo says that, without reforms, the Spanish auto industry is doomed: “Labor costs and taxes in Spain are high, unions very strong, and the industry needs to remain competitive as cars are now also produced in China, Korea, India and South Africa.”

Story References: Businessweek

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