How much you need to earn to drive a new Land Rover Defender 90

If you plan to buy a new Land Rover Defender 90, then you should be earning over R100,000 per month before deductions.

This is according to advice from financial experts.

Land Rover’s new Defender 90 was unveiled for South Africa on 1 June, and is easily identifiable thanks to its 3-door body style.

Four trim lines are available at launch – S, X-Dynamic, First Edition, and X – and each is sold with a choice of four engine options.

These range from a 2.0-litre turbo diesel to a 3.0-litre petrol with mild hybrid technologies, with Land Rover stating the Defender 90 is the most capable and connected Land Rover to date.

Prices for the new 4×4 start at R1.14 million for the Defender 90 D240 S, and go up to R1.65 million for the Defender 90 P400 X.

All models then pack a range of standard features, including an interactive driver display, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, Pivi Pro 10-inch infotainment display, a 360-degree camera, and parking sensors.

It must be noted that this article excludes the V8 Defender models announced earlier this year.

Earning power

To work out how much you need to earn to get a new Land Rover in your garage, we used a scenario where a buyer purchases one using a vehicle finance plan.

The finance plan will run over 60 months at an interest rate of 9%.

The Defender 90 we will use in this scenario is the “middle” option – the Defender 90 P300 X-Dynamic SE – which retails for R1.27 million.

This models runs a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine that puts out 221kW and 400Nm, and achieves 0-100km/h in 7.1 seconds.

Monthly repayments on a vehicle finance plan are then calculated using the figures below.

• Car Price – R1,270,000
• Payment Term – 60 terms (5 years)
• Interest – 9%
• Deposit – 10%
• Balloon – No balloon payment
• Extras – No optional extras

The result is a monthly vehicle finance payment of R23,800.

Total interest paid over the duration of the finance plan comes to R280,900.

We must then work out what your monthly salary should be to “afford” these finance payments.

Financial experts state that you should not spend more than 20% of your gross monthly salary (your salary before deductions) on vehicle finance payments.

Using this guideline, the monthly salary you will need to afford the Land Rover Defender 90 P300 X-Dynamic SE is R119,000.

Buyers will also have to pay for insurance and fuel costs on top of this, which can come to several thousand rand per month.