You're right but the acceleration in entry level car pricing is wild - a 330i in 01 was around R250k base, perhaps R300k with ALL the options, that's sub R1m in today's money. A fully kitted 340i is probably more like R1.6m
If you take performance, size and improvements in safety/techology, I'd argue that the 340i is beyond anything BMW offered back then... by all metrics except subjective ones like "analogueness" or "feel".
You can buy a BMW for R1M today that will handily beat a 330i of 2001 by nearly every metric... but that is the only positive I have to say: It doesn't make R1M any less painful of a pill to swallow nor any easier to make in 2024. It also becomes less of a 'coping mechanism' or 'fun fact' when you realise if our inflation was 'only' as bad as the US market, that same calculation would wind up at R525K
@NBN We all have our ways of dealing with the cost of vehicles and our comfort levels.
@Eust mentions a good one. I always make sure that if a car has no motorplan it ain't gonna be financed... Plenty of passionate people out there will make a plan to get what they want... also (unfortunately) plenty that will make a plan to appear to be doing better than they are in reality and beyond any sanity... Comparison is the thief of joy as the quote goes, and these days we are comparing ourselves to what are basically fairytales online.
I think a few times we've mentioned things like everyone seeming equal (or talking big) until the tide goes out and you see who has been swimming naked. That has BEEN happening the past few years I feel. The eventual failure of the Golf 8R to sell is evidence that the band aids are ready to snap. Good vibes online and snarky comments from broke dumbasses about a million rands being 'great value' wasn't enough to get people to ACTUALLY spend R1.2M on a Golf. That said, there are indeed all the usual creative ways of buying cars without really owning them... but the people caught up (or burned) by the last wave of creative options are now reluctant to take them up as well. I've also been presented options of R40K/month+ as though it's 'normal' by sales people... so don't worry you aren't the only one who feels poor (and you are constantly reminded of this no matter what you're buying).
The reality is that many people that you see on here buying a car over R1M will put in a sizeable deposit and manage the cost down to a 'comfortable' point of R15-20K (maybe a bit more). The rest buy cash but won't necessarily admit to it (especially not in SA). In my case I also inject money into it if I feel it is creeping up with interest rate adjustments and you will know at what point things don't make sense anymore vs your target disposable income. It's a personal thing either way and I doubt you will ever really know who is not sleeping the day the payments are meant to go off vs who doesn't even notice (who are themselves even further away from those who just buy cash like it's nothing)
. Always bigger fish, everywhere on one hand... and on the other an endless supply of people trying to keep up, destroying their lives in the process.
While I can absolutely relate to the way
@Spanky feels, I also feel like at this point in my life I want to balance enjoyment vs. some theoretical future where my investments or retirement funds will pay off. It isn't that they aren't there as much as my faith in some cataclysmic thing (natural, man made or market related) wiping them out is much greater than my belief that I will be able to retire on them (no matter what financial planners or projections say). Saving every last cent during your productive years is a mistake IMHO. I feel like most millennials feel this way. For the most part, "mundane" investments are the ones that have worked out best for me in the (probably) past 10 years and those will definitely not beat inflation at the rate things are going.
Anyway enough depressing content for today LOL
