A 360k car is the highest limit

Rules*: never spend more than 25% of your salary on transport, never spend more than 1/2 your transport bill on purchase price, and never buy a car on instalment more than 3 years

Maths: 20k x 36 months x 1/2 = 360k

That should be enough for a decent BMW. Of course, the less you spend, the better your retirement, the more you have for famiy and reserve/emergency. There's absolutely nothing wrong with earning 20k and driving a Civic or CRV.

*rules are optional and based on your own budget balancing between necessity, future and immediate enjoyment. Some other rules could also be:

Never spend more than 10% annual salary on a car; 20k x 36 months x 10% = 72k car

Never spend more than 1 months salary on a car; 20k x 3 years = 60k car

Never take a loan for a car, pay for it within 1 years' salary; 20k x 12 months x 25% x 1/2 = 30k car

this is just kopitiam rule lah, simply what people say - your salary should be split about 5 ways:

-1k rent + house maintenance
-1k food
-1k misc expenses (phone, insurance, internet, entertainment, etc.)
-1k savings
-1k transport, divided into toll, petrol, parking and car instalment and maintenance

if other expenses take up say Rm500 of your Rm1,000 transport allocation, then you have only Rm500 x 12 = Rm6,000 to spend on a car a year

you should try to pay off a car within 3 to 5 years. So your range should be from Rm18,000 to Rm30,000.