When you are paying an asking price of well over a quarter of a million dollars, you do not expect your new Lamborghini Diablo's roof to leak.

Or the doors to get stuck. Or the latches to hit you on the head. Or the battery to fail. Or the horn not to function. Or the dashboard lights to flicker. Or the hydraulic system to collapse. Or the engine to stall.

Yet all that allegedly happened to Mr John Martin of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when he sank much of his savings in his dream car of a lifetime, a 1997 Lamborghini Diablo Roadster. "I wanted a quality vehicle," Mr Martin said. "With all the money you're paying, you expect the best."

Instead, Mr Martin claims he got the worst. A year later, his visions of envious eyes watching him cruising at speeds of up to 220 m.p.h. down the Florida coast roads have collapsed. His pride and joy is even rusting. Now Mr Martin is suing the Automibili Lamborghini company for knowingly selling him a defective vehicle.

What is more, he and his lawyer are planning to bring what could be one of the most exclusive legal class actions of all time, on behalf of the 50 to 60 other super-rich Americans drivers a group which includes the property tycoon Donald Trump who have bought the handful of Diablos that are produced each year by the Lamborghini company in Modena, northern Italy.

It's the Lamborghini's vertically opening doors that are most truly diabolical, according to Mr Martin's lawyer, Mr Saul Smolar. The windows are supposed to retract slightly to let the door rise but often the windows get stuck, preventing passengers from getting out. The doors also are part of the leaking problem, and the car fills with water every time it rains, Mr Smolar claims.

"There is not a Diablo that does not leak," he alleges. "You need an umbrella in the car if you are going to drive in the rain."

According to Mr Martin, his Diablo had to be taken to the garage for repairs more than 10 times, on the last occasion for nearly three weeks. Mr Martin said the dealership that sold him the car, Prestige Imports in North Miami Beach, refused at first to take it back. Then in March, the car's makers sent Mr Martin a recall notice, offering to fix a switch in the door, and recommending that he drive with the windows slightly open at all times, rain or shine.

Ironically, the company's founder, Ferruccio Lamborghini, began his career as a maker of luxury cars in 1963 after his felllow north Italian motor racing enthusiast, Enzo Ferrari, laughed off Mr Lamborghini's complaints about poor service.

Mr Martin is now driving a MercedesBenz. "I have given up on everything Italian, except pasta," he says.