Research by\u00a0analytics group Lightstone in 2016 showed the value of the\u00a0car\u00a0you could afford\u00a0on your monthly salary in South Africa – this is how much more you would need to earn now to afford the same vehicles.<\/p>\n
The research group did calculations on what cars you could afford based on your monthly salary, assuming 20% of\u00a0the gross was paid towards the vehicle, financed over 5 years.<\/p>\n
The same cars would likely feature in a similar break down of what could be afforded per income group – but a more interesting measure is how much salaries would have had to increase to keep up with car pricing over the past year.<\/p>\n
Across 12 salary groups, only 4 bands would require a salary increase above inflation (6%) to keep up with rising vehicle prices.<\/p>\n
This is most pronounced is in the highest tier:<\/p>\n
Where someone earning R293,711 per month could finance a Maserati Grandcabrio MC Automatic Cabriolet in 2016, for the 2017 model (Maserati GranCabrio Sport 4.7 AT Cabriolet), you would need a salary increase of 36% to R400,171 per month.<\/p>\n
This above-inflation trend (though less pronounced) can be seem with two other model replacements – the\u00a0Mazda3 2.0 Individual 5-dr (2014 to 2016 upgrade) and the Toyota Etios SD 1.5 Xi (2015 to 2016 upgrade), which would require a 9% and 8% monthly gross increase, respectively.<\/p>\n