The Cost of a Rally Pack Escort in Sep 1977 Compared to Nov 2012
It's easy to look back on Escorts as being the cheap cars of their day. The Rally Pack was an aspirational model released around mid-1977, so to see just how affordable it was back then, I took a look at the price and net income of the average male worker in Sep 1977.
The car itself cost $5152 (including sales tax), and adding a couple of reasonable extras, i.e. sports suspension ($30), 70 series tyres ($40) and a tinted, laminated windscreen ($89) brings the total to $5311. These figures were taken from a road test of that exact model in a magazine published in Sep 1977.
From the Australian Bureau of Statistics I learned that the average male weekly wage for the Sep 1977 quarter was $204.60 a week, or $10,639.20 a year. Assuming no deductions, the income tax on that amount for the 1977-78 financial year was $2,301.65, leaving $8,337.55 net. So, a Rally Pack with a few extras cost 63.7% of the net disposable annual income for the average male worker in Australia. Doesn't sound cheap to me.
By way of comparison, you'd need to spend about $37,939 today to use the same percentage of your net income. This is based on the latest Nov 2012 average weekly male wage of $1489.10, and annual tax payable of $17,874.29 (incl. medicare levy). That puts the price and specifications of todays cars into some perspective for me, especially in the small car market the Escort once occupied.
WTB: Recaro seat - any condition considered