Car Ownership Cost Calculator
Estimate the full cost of owning a car: depreciation, fuel, insurance, maintenance and financing.
Free · No sign-up · Your inputs stay in your browser
Your numbers
Count the whole cost
Your projection
$702 a month to own
Total over 5 years
$42,131
Cost per mile
$0.70
Depreciation
$16,689
Fuel
$6,800
Depreciation is the largest cost for most new cars and never appears on a bill. Registration, parking and tolls are not included.
About this tool
Method, assumptions, practical next steps, and limits.
The payment is the smallest part
Depreciation and running costs often exceed financing. Seeing them together shows what a car really costs each month.
How the calculation works
Depreciation is price × (1 − (1 − rate)^years). Fuel is miles ÷ mpg × price per gallon. Insurance and maintenance are yearly amounts. Financing is the interest on a loan for the full price over the ownership period.
A $30,000 car kept five years, losing 15% a year, depreciates about $16,689. At 12,000 miles a year and 30 mpg with $3.40 fuel, fuel costs $6,800. $1,700 of insurance and $900 of maintenance a year add $13,000, and a 7% loan adds about $5,642 of interest: $42,131 in total, $702 a month, or 70 cents a mile.
What is left out
Registration, parking, tolls and repairs beyond the maintenance figure. Compare two cars with the same inputs to see which really costs less.
