From Dr Keith Howson, Former Dean of the Avondale Faculty of Business and IT
Each morning as I make my way from Peacock Lane to the Zapara School of Business I pass by the student parking lot. Standing cheek by jowl are the latest in vehicular transport, a fully-fledged Hummer, a BMW, a new Lexus and just the other day I watched a student arrive in a Jaguar.
My humble Nissan Versa (S class which stands for "Simple") pales into insignificance next to my student's latest and best. I wondered how they could afford to drive these. Well I might concede that it may be Dad's car but still, how are these afforded?
One evening in front of the TV gives an indication.
Most adverts from the motor car industry feature lease deals not outright sales. So, for a small car like a Fiat500e the upfront payment is about $1000 with a monthly instalment spread over 3 years of $199 (actually it is a bit higher because of tax). The bigger upmarket cars like a BMW might call for an upfront payment of $2000 or $3000 with monthly instalments of $350. The devil might be in the small print so caveat emptor.
For a foreigner like me getting the vehicle insured presents another whole range of issues. I might reserve that for another postcard from America.