How much sedan can I buy for R9 000 a month?
How much sedan can I buy for R9 000 a month?
By Stuart Johnston
For a R9 000 monthly repayment, the purchase price ceiling for a new sedan is R445 000. For comparative purposes, AutoTrader’s standard repayment template for this sort of purchasing advice article assumes a 10 per cent deposit on the purchase price, a repayment period of 60 months, and an interest rate on the financed amount of 12 per cent.
We are aware, however that some customers will be able to negotiate an interest rate closer to the current prime interest rate of 10 per cent but for most buyers, a rate of 12 per cent interest on the financed amount is par for the course.
A purchase price of R445 000 means a 10 per cent deposit of R44 700
We used WesBank’s repayment calculator (easily available on-line) to work out the ceiling purchase price for sedans. Using our standard repayment parameters ( as detailed above), the ceiling price for a repayment of 9 000 a month is a list price of just under R445 000. The 10 percent deposit works out at just under R44 700.
Major brands are well represented in this sedan price grouping
Although the three-box sedan configuration is said to be a threatened species – hatchbacks, Cross Overs and SUVs have significantly eroded the market for the traditional “family car” – there remains a core of motorists who welcome the solidity and familiarity of a sedan. Even at the cheaper end of the market, a number of manufacturers offer sedans ( the Tata Bolt and Honda Brio are two examples in the sub-R175 000 level), while at the top end you have cars like newly-launched BMW M5 , the BMW 7 Series, Mercedes-Benz S-Class and a number of others costing in the millions.
There are a total of 34 individual sedan models from R300 000 to R445 000
The R9 000 monthly repayment puts you into an area where many major brands have offerings, both in manual and automatic form. Working upwards from the R300 000 level to our cut-off of R445 000, we counted a total of 12 manual models, and 22 automatic models on offer.
There are a number of cheaper sedans available too, but given the theoretical R9 000 a month budget, we feel that these won’t hold sufficient interest, in a scenario where the question is: “How much sedan can I get for R9 000?”
The traditional players hold sway
Unsurprisingly, Toyota with its locally-built Corolla is well represented here. At the lower end of the scale, you have a Toyota Corolla 1,4D-4D Esteem manual sedan selling at R301 800 and five other Corolla offerings in this market, four of them manuals and one automatic. At the top end of our price limit you have the Honda Civic Sedan 1.5T Sport at R442 900. Other players traditionally strong in this market are well represented like Volkswagen with various Jetta offerings, Mazda with its Mazda3 models and both Hyundai with its Elantra and Kia with its Cerato. In our view, possibly the cream of the crop is the Audi A3 Sedan, which just squeaks in to the price bracket at R438 000, which gets you a 1.0 T FSI model. The 85 kW output may sound a bit low, but you are getting a premium level car here, in a model range that came extremely close to winning a Car of the Year award a few years back. By choosing a Hyundai Elantra, on the other hand, you get a more powerful, refined and very well-equipped car with no “hidden-cost” extras!
Here are some of our sedan picks on offer, from R300 000 to R445 000
Toyota Corolla 1.4D-4D Esteem (M) R301 800
Ford Focus Sedan 1.5 TDCI Ambiente (M) R302 300
Kia Cerato Sedan 1.6 EX (A) R312 995
Volkswagen Jetta 1.2 TSI Trendline (M) R314 900
Hyundai Elantra 1.6 Executive (A) R314 900
Honda Ballade 1.5 Executive (A) R316 400
Kia Cerato Sedan 2.0 EX (A) R353 995
Mazda3 Sedan 2.0 Individual (A) R345 200
Toyota Corolla 1.8 Exclusive (A) R358 200
Volkswagen Jetta 1.4 TSI Comfortline (A) R369 900
Audi A3 Sedan 1.0 TFSI (A) R438 000