Land Rover is known as the car brand of choice of the British royal family. Queen Elizabeth II herself drove one. And Sir Paul McCartney made the song “Helen Wheels” based on his Land Rover. The value is that the brand designs its vehicles to be extremely capable, not just luxurious, able to churn through bodies of water that reach up to the door handles and traverse steep, rocky slopes and keep traction over muddy and icy trails.
With this type of vehicle, the auto manufacturer doesn’t sponsor discount programs. But its financing partner, Land Rover Financial Group, does have financing incentives for well-qualified customers. Below we’ll cover what those are, general requirements, how to apply and what to look for when you’re seeking Land Rover Financing.
Whether you want to lease or purchase, it’s always a good idea to apply for financing from the manufacturer. Auto manufacturer financing generally offers deals such as 0% financing, which you will be hard-pressed to find elsewhere.
Land Rover doesn’t operate its own lending division. Land Rover Financial Group is run by JPMorgan Chase to provide U.S. customers with financing. And this isn’t a unique situation — Chase also manages manufacturer financing programs for Jaguar, Maserati, Mazda and Subaru. This does not mean you have to miss out on manufacturer special deals, such as low-APR financing and rebates. It does mean Chase will be the one lending the money, so any payments will be made out to Chase, not Land Rover Financial Group.
As the one doing the lending, Chase largely determines who may qualify. Most consumers who successfully finance with Chase have credit scores above 660. If you don’t know your credit score, you can check it at LendingTree.
Ask for a tier bump. Your credit score is not the only factor that goes into the loan offer Chase or Land Rover Financial Group may issue. Other factors include credit report, car type and value, the repayment period and down payment. Based on the amalgamation of these factors, each loan application is sorted into a credit tier. Offers are issued based on the tier you are in. If you don’t get your best financing offer, ask your salesperson or finance manager for a tier bump. Reasons you could deserve one include high assets, high income, low debt, low payments, a good credit report and a large down payment.
There are very few incentive programs for Land Rovers and all of them require that you finance through Land Rover Financial Group. At the time this was written, there were no rebates advertised on the Land Rover USA website. Make sure you check with a dealer or look at the Land Rover site at the time you’re looking to buy to see if this has changed.
Certified Pre-Owned. This program provides Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) vehicles and financing for them. CPO cars are different from used cars in that the original manufacturer inspected, approved and guaranteed them with an extended warranty. These vehicles are usually a bit more expensive than a regular used car because they are seen as less of a risk by consumers.
Lenders consider CPO vehicles less risky as well. Land Rover Financial Group offers special CPO financing, but generally for a more limited term than what it offers on new vehicles. If approved, you could finance 100% of a CPO vehicle’s value but not more, meaning you would have to give a down payment to cover the taxes and fees, and any negative equity there may be from a trade-in.
No matter how you decide to apply, online or in person, you’ll need to choose the exact vehicle you want first. This is because Land Rover Financial Group takes the vehicle’s value and your down payment into consideration when determining a loan offer. It does not give preapprovals for auto loans. As such, it’s smart to get a preapproval from an alternate lender in order to compare it with what Land Rover offers. Land Rover Financial Group itself recommends you compare APRs and financing terms from several different lenders.
Online. To apply for financing from Land Rover online, you pick out your vehicle on the Land Rover website and then personalize your financing options. The site then estimates your monthly payment and allows you to go back and change your personalization options and send the quote to a dealership near you or apply for financing directly on the site.
When personalizing your loan or lease options, you can provide the bare minimum information of just your ZIP code and whether you choose a lease or loan. If you don’t want to accept all of the preset assumptions in the rest of the form, enter your desired financing term, APR, down payment and vehicle trade-in information, if applicable. The small print notes that the payment quote does not include taxes or fees, such as the $995 destination charge (transporting the car from the manufacturer to the dealer), all of which assumes you will pay up front.
In person. Of course, you don’t have to go through the online process. You could go directly to a dealership to fill out the paperwork and have certified experts nearby to answer any questions you may have. You could also go in person to your bank or credit union to apply for financing.
We highly recommend that you obtain other auto loan options before going into a dealership. One of the benefits of auto loan preapprovals is that you don’t necessarily have to know exactly which vehicle you want. And you could fill out one online form at LendingTree to potentially compare auto loan preapprovals and offers from up to five different lenders.
Leasing allows you to keep your options open. At the end of a lease, you could turn in the vehicle and walk away, buy the vehicle or turn it in for a new car. This is great if you’re not sure that one model will be able to fit your needs in a couple years. For example, maybe a smaller vehicle, such as the Land Rover Evoque, is perfect now but won’t be big enough to suit your growing family soon. It would be cheaper to lease than to buy if you know you’re going to trade it for a new vehicle soon because of how vehicles depreciate. It could also allow you to get into a nicer vehicle than you might be able to purchase, as lease payments are generally lower than purchase payments.
The downside, however, is that if you turn in the vehicle after a 36-month lease, you may have paid 50% of what the vehicle was worth, and you’re walking away with nothing. There are also fees for things such as excess wear and tear and for going over the mileage limit. The mileage overage charge for leased vehicles with MSRPs up to $50,000 is 15 cents. For vehicles over $50,000, it’s 30 cents.
Some people consider the cost worth it for the flexibility and because it’s the cheapest way monthly and overall to consistently have a new car. If you’re unsure whether leasing is right for you, you can read our guide on whether to lease or buy and how a car lease buyout works.
Single-pay lease. This program allows you to pay the entire amount a lease costs, upfront in a single payment. Unless you go with this option, the maximum down payment on a lease is 40% of the MSRP. And in any lease you aren’t renting a car; you’re buying the right to use the car for a certain amount of years. When you finance a lease, you’re borrowing the amount of money needed to pay for those years and you’re usually paying interest on it. Ergo, a single-pay lease is generally less expensive than a traditional lease.
Regardless of whether you’re planning to ultimately finance through Land Rover, remember to apply to other lenders before you go to the dealership so you have other options and know what APR you deserve. Alternatives include your bank, credit union and online lenders. Some banks give APR discounts if you already have an account with them and sign up for automatic payments.
If you apply to multiple lenders for the same type of loan within a 14-day window, it does not hurt your credit any more than it would to apply to one lender.
When asked about alternative financing methods in general, David Blain, CFA and CEO of BlueSky Wealth Advisors in New Bern, N.C., mentioned a home equity loan could be used as well, if you don’t want to finance and you don’t want to cash out investments. Rather than taking out stocks and bonds that are earning income and paying a capital gains tax, it may be cheaper to use a home equity loan. As far as the type of home equity loan, Blain said, “I’m thinking HELOC (home equity line of credit) if you’re planning to make multiple purchases over time and pay them off with incoming payments such as from a pension.”
The company Land Rover was named after the vehicle model because it was so popular. The first model was designed in 1947 by the Rover company and 31 years later, in 1978, the Land Rover company was born. Today, the company is paired with Jaguar to be the Jaguar-Land Rover auto division owned by the Indian company Tata Motor Group.
Land Rover has done well over the last decade. It more than doubled its global brand sales from 2009 to 2015 and plans to have every model be available with some version of electric power, from hybrid to fully electric, by 2020. Its current technology offerings are decently advanced with features such as Terrain Response® and “transparent hood,” which uses laser terrain scanning headlights to calculate the best possible route.
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