When just having a VW is showing off

To put the cost of living here in perspective, an average college grad fresh out of school will make R120K-R140K or $16K-19K per year. (Those numbers came from a discussion and I found some intro engineering salaries in that range.)

Contrast those with:
-If banking is about R2000/year ($270), that is 1.5-2% of a new college grad’s salary just for banking.
-A basic low-mileage used car (2008 VW Golf with 30,000 km, manual transmission, A/C) is about R150,000 ($20,000), or more than a year's full salary
-Gas is about R8/liter ($4/gal), filling up a small car with a 12 gal tank every other week could be about $1,300/year, or 7% of a new grad's annual salary -Each ride on the ubiquitous bus taxis is about R7 (~$1) – and since everyone who can owns a car, this means that substantial part of lower earners’ salaries is going to transportation.