Car Ownership Cost Calculator

Car Ownership Cost Calculator for new cars, hybrids and EVs. It adds depreciation, loan interest, sales tax, fuel, insurance and upkeep, then compares the total with AAA 2026 data.

What the Car Ownership Cost Calculator Adds Up

The Car Ownership Cost Calculator totals everything a car costs you from purchase to sale. It includes the value the car loses, loan interest, sales tax, fuel or charging, insurance, maintenance and fees. It then turns that total into a cost per month, per mile and per day.

Shoppers use it to compare two cars before buying, and owners use it to see what their current car really costs. The defaults match the car in AAA’s 2026 Your Driving Costs study. That car has a $39,376 price and is driven 15,000 miles a year for five years.

Why Your Monthly Payment Is Not the Cost

A car payment mixes two different things. Part of it is interest, which is gone for good. The rest pays down the price, and much of that money comes back when you sell the car.

That is why the tool shows two monthly figures. At the defaults, your bills run $1,249 a month while the loan is active, counting the $717 payment plus running costs. The true cost is $965 a month, because the $22,956 the car still sells for is subtracted.

The true cost also runs higher than your bills once the loan is paid off. The car keeps losing value every month, even though no bill shows up for it.

The Formula Behind the Total

The true cost follows the same method as AAA’s Your Driving Costs study. It is the value lost, plus interest and sales tax, plus every running cost for the years you own the car.

$$C = (P – R) + I + T + N \times (F + S + M + G)$$

In this formula, P is the price, R the resale value, I the interest paid while you own the car, and T the sales tax. N is the years owned, and F, S, M and G are yearly fuel, insurance, maintenance and registration.

At the defaults, the car loses $16,420 in value and the loan charges $6,813 in interest. Sales tax adds $2,756. Five years of fuel, insurance, maintenance and fees add another $31,891, for $57,880 in total.

Enter the vehicle price before tax in the price box. If you type an out-the-door figure that already includes tax, the tool charges the tax a second time. The Out of Door Price Calculator separates price, tax and fees if your quote lumps them together.

Prices from $1,000 to $1,000,000 are accepted, along with 1 to 15 whole years of ownership. Loan terms run 6 to 120 whole months. The down payment cannot exceed the price plus tax, since you cannot put down more than the car costs.

Retail Resale or Trade-In Value

Depreciation is usually the single biggest cost. The tool starts each class at the five-year loss from the iSeeCars 2026 study. That study covered more than 950,000 five-year-old cars, measured against used-car asking prices.

That retail basis matters. AAA’s 2026 figures work out to a 56.2% loss because AAA assumes a dealer trade-in. On the default car, that gap is about $5,700, pushing the true cost from $965 to $1,060 a month.

Leave the default if you plan to sell privately. Enter 56.2% if you expect to trade in, or get a real figure for your model from the Used Car Value Calculator.

The tool spreads the five-year loss evenly as a percentage, so the default car drops about $4,028 in year one. Real cars usually lose more in the first year. That makes early years run a little low and later ones a little high, but the five-year total stays the same.

How the Loan Shapes the Total

The monthly payment uses the standard amortization formula. Sales tax is financed along with the price, as most dealers do, so the tax collects interest too.

$$M = L \times \frac{r}{1 – (1 + r)^{-n}}$$

In this formula, L is the amount financed, r is the APR divided by 12, and n is the number of months. The default loan finances $36,226 at 7% for 60 months, which comes to $717 a month.

Interest only counts for the months you own the car. Sell a car after three years on a 72-month loan and you would still owe about $20,000. The sale clears that balance, and the tool shows how much equity is left over.

When the balance is higher than the car’s value, the tool warns that you are upside down on the loan. That gap is exactly what the GAP Coverage Calculator sizes if the car is totaled before the loan is paid off.

Choosing “Paying Cash” removes interest from the total, which drops the default car to $51,067. The loan inputs stay active so the tool can show the $7,924 in interest a full loan would have charged. That money still has a cost, because it could have earned a return somewhere else.

Gas, Hybrid or EV at the Same Price

Switching the vehicle type changes both the fuel math and the resale default. Charging at AAA’s 2026 home rate of 18¢ per kWh, a 31 kWh/100 mi EV costs about $837 a year to run. The same miles cost $2,223 in a 28 MPG gas car.

The EV’s resale default drops to iSeeCars’ 57.2%, though. At the same $39,376 price, the EV saves $6,931 in fuel over five years but loses $6,103 more in value. Its true cost ends up at $57,053, only about $830 below the gas car.

Hybrids reverse that pattern. Their 35.4% average loss is the second lowest of any segment, so good fuel economy and strong resale work in the same direction. The Car Carbon Footprint Calculator shows how the same choice plays out in CO₂.

Car Ownership Cost Calculator vs AAA’s Averages

The second card compares your yearly cost with AAA’s 2026 figure for the class you picked. AAA puts a compact SUV at 77.80¢ a mile, which is $11,670 a year at 15,000 miles. The default result of $11,576 a year lands within 1% of that.

AAA’s class figures assume 15,000 miles a year, so the comparison only lines up if you drive about that much. AAA’s overall average for a new vehicle in 2026 is $12,863 a year. That ranges from 61.73¢ a mile for a small sedan up to $1.10 for a half-ton pickup.

Entries That Throw Off the Total

Insurance is often billed every six months, but the box asks for a monthly amount. Typing a $1,050 six-month premium as monthly puts $63,000 of insurance on a five-year total. Divide the premium by six before entering it.

Another slip is setting the loan term longer than the years you will own the car, and then reading the payment as the whole cost. The balance you still owe is not added as a cost. The tool shows it as “Still Owed at Sale,” and the sale covers it if the car is worth more than you owe.

A third is keeping the default maintenance figure for an older car. AAA’s $1,755 a year reflects a new car under warranty for its first five years. A car you plan to keep for 10 years will likely need more than that in its later years, so raise the figure if you extend ownership.

What It Really Costs to Keep a Car

Is depreciation really a cost of owning a car?

Some budgeting guides leave it out because you never write a check for it. It is still money you lose. The default car loses $16,420 over five years, more than it costs in fuel or insurance.

It only feels like a cost when you sell or trade in. Leaving it out makes a car that holds its value look no cheaper than one that doesn’t, which is exactly the comparison most buyers need.

How much does it cost to own a car per month?

AAA’s 2026 study puts the average new vehicle at $12,863 a year, or $1,071.92 a month. That counts depreciation, finance charges, fuel, insurance, taxes and fees, and maintenance over five years and 75,000 miles.

Your own figure depends mostly on price, how fast your model loses value and your insurance rate. To check whether that monthly total fits your income, run it through the 20/4/10 Rule Calculator.

Does keeping a car longer lower the cost?

Usually, yes. Keeping the default car 10 years instead of five drops the true cost from $965 to about $828 a month. The loan is paid off, and the value loss per year keeps shrinking as the car gets cheaper.

That figure assumes maintenance stays at $1,755 a year, which is unlikely past the warranty years. Raise the maintenance input for years six through ten, and the savings from keeping the car shrink accordingly.