How much the monthly payments are on a new BMW M3 Competition

The BMW M3 Competition is available in South Africa, selling for a cool R1,860,000.

BMW has packed a 3.0-litre, six-cylinder, twin-turbo engine into the modern chassis, which delivers 375kW and 650Nm of torque.

This takes the new M3 from 0-100km/h in 3.9 seconds – and to a top speed of 250km/h – using an 8-speed M Steptronic transmission.

You also receive a new front-end design, fancy sports interior, and the M Drive Professional program with the car.

This system provides an M Drift Analyser, M Laptimer, and M Traction Control for an “intense performance experience on the racetrack”.

Monthly payments

To see how much the new BMW M3 Competition will cost if you take out a finance plan, we calculated monthly repayments using the parameters below.

• Car Price – R1,860,000
• Payment Term – 60 terms (5 years)
• Interest – 9%
• Deposit – 10%
• Balloon – No balloon payment
• Extras – No optional extras

The result is a car finance payment of R34,843 per month.

The total amount of interest paid in this finance plan would be R411,265.

Salary requirements

R34,843 per month is a substantial amount of money, and to afford this in car repayments you would need to earn well over R170,000 per month.

This is according to advice from financial services providers.

Financial experts state that you should never spend more than 30% of your annual gross salary when buying a new car.

Additionally, when looking at your monthly salary, these experts recommend that you do not spend more than 20% of your gross monthly income on car payments.

Your gross salary is what you earn before deductions like income tax.

Using these figures, you would need to earn a monthly salary of R174,215 per month to afford the repayments on the BMW M3 Competition.