So people rent cars in the US much like they rent apartments. That's an interesting world we live in. Nothing like that happens (yet?) in Russia, where people would rather take a credit or buy from the previous owner. How much does an average new prestige car (something a medium-time businessman would buy to seem respectful) cost? In Russia, it's between 1.5 and 2.5 million rubles ($25k to $42k). When I was in school, guys from it would buy shitty old Russian cars from hands for a couple of thousand rubles (about $30) and drive around, not afraid to ruin it. I think you can still do so in the single-house poorer neighbourhoods (which is where a lot of my classmates came from or hanged around at).
$25-$42k will get you a nice car. It's hard here to find a car for less than $500 that will even turn on though. My sweet spot is $3-$4k. There are tons of cars at that price that will keep going another 50,000 to 100,000 miles without any major components breaking, and can be resold for $1k or a few hundred.