Cost of Owning a car

Cost of Owning a Car
Car ownership cost. It is a lot more than you may think!

The cost of owning a car is much more than the actual price of the car. We consider all the costs of car ownership to find the true cost of owning a car. It includes depreciation, insurance, finance charges, gas, maintenance, and registration. Answer the simple questions below and we will calculate the true cost of car ownership for your car or truck.

Purchase Price How much did you pay for the car? The actual final price you negotiated including taxes, registration, and other fees. We assumed $25,000. Change it to what you actually paid for it.
Finance Charge (Interest Rate) What interest rate did you get on the loan? We assume you will finance the whole purchase price and the length of the loan is how long you plan to keep the car. We assumed your interest rate is 5.5%. Change it here if you got a better or worse rate.
Years of Ownership How many years do you plan on keeping the car? Again, we assume you will keep the car as long as you have a loan on it. We assume 5 years. Change it if you are planning on keeping it shorter or longer.
Yearly Depreciation How much will the car lose in value every year? This is the percentage of the original purchase price that it will lose in value each year. We assume it will lose on average 7 percent of the original purchase price every year. Change it if you disagree with our assumption.
Monthly Driving How many miles per month will you drive on average? We assume 1000 miles. Change it if you are planning on driving more or less.
Cost of Gas What will the average cost of gas be during the length of your car ownership. We are guessing $4.25 per gallon. Change it if you think it is less or more.
Miles per Gallon How many miles per gallon (MPG) does your new car get? We are guessing 18 MPG. Change it if it is more or less.
Monthly Insurance How much do you pay for car insurance per month? We assume $60/month. Change to match what you are paying.
Yearly Maintenance & Taxes Total maintenance fees such as oil change, DMV fees, car wash and so on. For a new car, it is not that much. We are assuming an average of $500.00 per year. Change it if you disagree.

OK. That is all the information we need. Please press "Calculate Cost of Owning a Car" below to find the answer to cost of car ownership.

Monthly
Interest

+

Monthly
Depreciation

+

Monthly
Gas Expense

+

Monthly
Insurance

+

Monthly
Maintenance

=

Total Monthly
Car Ownership Cost

Yearly
Interest

+

Yearly
Depreciation

+

Yearly
Gas Expense

+

Yearly
Insurance

+

Yearly
Maintenance

=

Total Yearly
Car Ownership Cost

Total
Interest

+

Total
Depreciation

+

Total
Gas Expense

+

Total
Insurance

+

Total
Maintenance

=

Total
Car Ownership Cost

Note: The above considers all costs of owning a car, but not what your actual payments would be for the loan. The loan payments include principal payments which are not considered a cost of owning a car. Below is your car payment amounts:

Monthly
Loan Payments

Number of
Payments

Total
Payment

For budget reasons, you may want to know how much money you actually need to come up with every month or year to keep your car. That would be the total of Loan Payment + Gas + Insurance + Maintenance (ignoring depreciation)...which we have calculated below.

Monthly
Cash Needed

Yearly
Cash Needed

Total
Cash Needed

A large portion of car ownership is the cost of gas. Play around with entering different MPG numbers and see how substantially the total ownership cost of the car changes. To learn more about how much money you spend on gas, check out our Fuel Economy Calculator .

Although interest rate is important, for a less expensive car, a percentage or two is not going to make a huge difference in your monthly payments. Check out our Auto Loan Calculator to see how different loan amounts and different interest rates change your monthly payments.