As ordinary motorists filed past the broken-down exotic supercar – stopped on the road and not even moved off to the verge everything pointed to a major failure of the sort that has plagued owners of Italian cars for decades.

The Russian Kommersant newspaper, which first reported the plans, said the factory, which has a capacity of 100,000 units a year and produced the Camry and RAV4 models, would be preserved and might be sold in the future.

Volkswagen announced that it would close its Nizhny Novgorod factory in July, while ​​Aston Martin, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Honda and Jaguar Land Rover have halted sales in the country.

The automaker has produced extra parts made at its foundries in Untertuerkheim, which go into gearboxes, axles and transmission components to build up stockpiles at plants in the U.S. and China.

Pendragon, the London-listed car dealer behind brands including Evans Halshaw and Stratstone, has received a fresh £400m takeover approach from its largest shareholder. The approach is expected to be confirmed in a stock exchange announcement.