But I do remember the thrill of discovery when I first spotted a new Mercedes with private plates. It was parked outside TrenMos Restaurant. That was mid-1991. and I am embarrassed to admit that the word which immediately and unstoppably leapt to mind was "mafia".
But my friends are not mafiosi and they are driving BMWs, Volvos and Mercedes now. They and I all know I make tons more money than they. So how come I don't have a spare $15, 000 to drop?
Here is where the economic significance of disposable income comes into play. I pay dollars for rent, groceries, clothes and vacations, just as I would anywhere - maybe more, given Moscow's hard-currency prices. My neighbors pay rubles, and set aside every spare dollar against singular and specific desires.
As most ex-pat Moscow residents are vaguely aware, the ruble, in the hands of a local, has more buying power than it does in the hands of a foreigner.
Think of it this way: Together, shelter, food and clothing may absorb two-thirds or more of the average Westerner's income. But for the newly affluent of Russia, earning 50, 000 rubles a month or more, the ordinary needs of life absorb a much smaller proportion.
The rest is entirely disposable.
My car is a ZAZ Tavria, sky blue, with matching rust holes on either side above the front wheel wells. I bought it two years ago from an emigrating family for $800. I test-drove it after the purchase.
Back in 1990, the theory behind this investment was simple: Buy a foreign car and you're stuck with hard-currency bills for repair work.
Sound enough. Except that now the Tavria, built at the Zaporozhye factory in Ukraine, is also a foreign car. Parts have become so scarce that, a couple of weeks ago, while chugging along Leninsky Prospekt, a wheel fell off. My neighbor's opinion is that, during the night, someone tried to steal a tire, but was interrupted in his efforts.
I maintain a full-time technical staff of one to keep the Tavria functioning. He is called a driver and, indeed, from time to time he drives me places. In his car.
But the driver's true task is to keep the Tavria operating. He maneuvers through the black markets for parts, buying the bits and pieces needed. He and the Tavria disappeared for a month last summer while he rebuilt the front suspension and did something I still don't understand to the engine.
By now, but for the rust holes, I think the entire car has been replaced at least once.
Meanwhile, my neighbors keep buying BMWs and Volvos. and they even buy the parts for rubles.
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