How much to spend on transport

car

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Was speaking with a retired friend who wants to start a part-time gardening business. He may go into it on a bigger scale if it picks up but for the meantime its just 2-3 days a week. He needs to buy a van. The question is how much to spend on the van? If he works as much as he's hoping to work, theres a set amount he's going to be making per annum. Lets say its 10k. Is there a business rule of thumb that says you should spend no more then x% of yearly income on transport?
Obviously theres vans ranging in price from 500e to 50k and you get what you pay for but do you buy a van for 1k and accept maintenance is higher per year or buy a more reliable van for 5k plus and hope nothing goes wrong?