These are the second-hand cars you can afford with your salary in South Africa

·22 May 2018

Analytics group Lightstone recently released a report detailing the value of the type of second-hand car you can afford based on your monthly salary in South Africa in 2018.

The report is based on current South African vehicle prices and salaries (May 2018), and assumes that people are not going to spend more than 20% of their gross monthly income on financing a car. The calculations also assume that the vehicles are financed over five years at an interest rate of prime +2%.

According to TransUnion’s latest Vehicle Pricing Index, the make-up of used vehicle sales has shown that 46% are under two years old and 9% were demo models which indicates consumers are opting for cars that are less than two years old.

The percentage of cars (new and used) being financed below R200,000 has remained consistent to last quarters numbers with 43% in Q1.

“This has shown a marginal increase in used car loans which has being consistent at around R242,000. This indicates a shifting emphasis on the value proposition that consumers place on their vehicles, as they look for the maximum amount of value from a car,” TransUnion said.

When it comes to the types of cars, unsurprisingly, Toyota and VW dominate both the new and used space, capturing more than 35% of the new and used passenger financed volumes, through vehicles including the Polo and Vivo range, the Fortuner and Corolla models.

Using this R242,000 amount, Lightstone estimates that you would need to earn between R26,000-R30,000 to pay for the average second-hand car purchase in South Africa.

Pricing is based on:

Assumption that people are not going to spend more than 20% of their gross monthly income on financing a car and not more than 30% on servicing a home loan.
Assumption of a 0% deposit for both home and car financing (but excluding additional fees incurred during the inception of the loan into the calculation.).
Assumption that the cars are financed over 5 years at an interest rate of prime + 2%.

Income required	Used vehicles	Year	Used car price
R396 000	Huracan LP610-4 5.2 AWD Coupe	2014	R3 544 000
R230 000	Mercedes AMG SLS Coupe	2015	R2 055 000
R177 000	Range Rover Sport 3.0 V6 Supercharger S 4X4	2017	R1 044 300
R100 000	BMW Active Hybrid 7 3.0 M Sport	2015	R892 200
R73 000	Toyota Landcruiser Prado 4.0 VX 4X4	2015	R653 200
R63 000	Audi A5 Coupe 2.0T FSI MY17 Sport S-Tronic	2017	R565 400
R51 000	Chevrolet Trailblazer 2.8 LTZ DSL SUV 4X4	2016	R452 900
R48 000	Audi S1 Sportback 2.0T FSI Quattro	2016	R423 100
R39 000	Ford Fusion 2.0 Ecoboost Trend	2016	R341 700
R26 000	Volkswagen Amarok 2.0 TDI Basic	2015	R224 700
R20 000	Peugeot 208 Active 1.2 Puretech	2016	R175 900
R12 000	Suzuki Swift 1.2 GA	2014	R99 900