Total Cost of Car Ownership Calculator

How many monthly payments the loan runs for. A longer term lowers the payment and raises the interest. Only the interest paid in the years owned is counted; sell before the loan ends and the balance still owed is repaid from the sale and is not a cost. AAA assumes a five-year loan.

Routine maintenance, wear repairs and tires, as a cost for each mile driven. AAA prices it at 11.73 cents a mile averaged over the years its study covers, with classes from 11.10 to 12.16 cents. The same average is used in every year owned, which is why a long ownership understates what an ageing car needs.

What insuring the car costs you a year. It is carried at today's price in every year owned unless a yearly change is entered. The shipped 2,250 is Insurify's mid-2026 full-coverage average of 2,237 to the nearest 50; state averages run from about 1,000 to 3,900, and your own quote is the figure to use.

Optional. The share of what is left that the car loses in each year after the first. A blank reads a default derived so that, after the first-year default, the car loses about the share of its price AAA's figures imply over the years its study covers; KBB describes 8 to 12 percent a year after the first two. A truck that holds its value is the case for entering less.

Optional. What registering and licensing the car costs each year, electric-vehicle surcharges included. Blank is not zero: every car is registered every year, so a blank reads a yearly default, the license and registration part of AAA's license, registration and taxes line once the sales tax it spreads is taken out, while an entered 0 means no fees at all. No national average is published, so enter your state's figure if you know it.

The price agreed for the car before sales tax, the figure depreciation, the sales tax, the down payment and the loan are all worked from. For a car you already own, enter what it is worth today, because what it has already lost is sunk. It is also the column axis of the grid at the foot, so the grid always centres on the figure entered here.

How many whole years you expect to keep the car before selling it or trading it in. Every total, the value at the end and the cost a mile cover exactly these years. Edmunds and KBB price five years of ownership; kept longer than the years AAA's study covers, the status line warns that maintenance is held at AAA's average and so understates repairs, and the model stops at fifteen, the number of year rows it carries.

Optional. How much the running costs change each year: fuel or electricity, insurance, upkeep and registration all move by this share each year after the first. A blank reads 0, today's prices held flat, which is AAA's convention. It can be negative: the Energy Information Administration forecasts gasoline 12.8 percent cheaper in 2027 than in 2026.

The combined state and local sales tax on the purchase price. It is paid once, at purchase: the totals and the yearly table spread it evenly over the years owned, as AAA spreads its license, registration and taxes line, while the stacked area chart draws it in the first year. Part of it is financed, because the down payment is a share of the price and its tax together.

Whether the car runs on gasoline, a hybrid included, or on electricity. It decides which pair of energy figures the running cost uses: the gasoline price and miles per gallon, or the electricity price and miles per kWh. The other pair is kept but not read, so switching back and forth never loses a figure.

The annual percentage rate on the car loan. It is divided by twelve for the monthly rate, and only the interest it produces is counted as a cost: the principal is the same money as the depreciation and is never counted twice. The shipped 6.35 percent is Experian's average for new-car loans in the second quarter of 2026; used-car loans averaged 11.19.

The share of the price plus its sales tax you pay in cash at purchase; the rest is borrowed. AAA assumes 15 percent and Edmunds 10. At 100 percent the car is bought outright and there is no finance charge at all. It is a share of the price and the tax together, not of the price alone, so it differs from a down payment share quoted on a house.

The class of car in AAA's study this car is compared with, or the weighted average of all of them. It changes only the comparison, never this car's own figures. The comparison is moved to your miles with AAA's average mileage adjustment: AAA adjusts each class by its own amount, and this model carries only AAA's weighted pair and applies it to every class.

How far you drive in a year. It moves the fuel or electricity and the upkeep in proportion, and it moves depreciation the way AAA moves its own average: below the mileage the depreciation shift is measured from, the car keeps more of its value, and above it the car loses more. The average light-duty vehicle covered 10,787 miles in 2024 (FHWA), well below the 15,000 AAA, Edmunds and KBB assume. It is the row axis of the grid at the foot.

What a kWh of electricity costs where you charge, delivery included. It is read only when the fuel is electric. The shipped 0.182 is the Energy Information Administration's 2026 residential average; state averages run from about 13 cents to more than 50. Public fast charging usually costs more, and its price is yours to enter.

How many miles the car goes on a gallon, as you actually drive it. It is read only when the fuel is gasoline or hybrid. The shipped 25.6 is the EPA's model year 2024 average without plug-in vehicles; pickups averaged 20.3 and the most frugal hybrids reach the high 50s.

What a gallon of regular gasoline costs you, taxes included. It is read only when the fuel is gasoline or hybrid. The shipped 3.84 is the Energy Information Administration's forecast average for 2026 (9 September 2026); AAA's own study assumed 4.152, a figure that matches only the spike of spring 2026.

How many miles the car goes on a kWh bought, charging losses included, which is the basis AAA's own figures imply. It is read only when the fuel is electric. Model year 2024 electric vehicles ranged from about 1.5 to 4.2 (DOE); the shipped 3.5 is what AAA's compact electric SUV implies.

Optional. The share of the price the car loses in its first year. A blank reads a default taken from KBB's statement of what a new car loses in its first year (KBB publishes no dataset behind it); an entered 0 means no first-year loss beyond what the mileage moves. A used car has its steep first year behind it, so it is better priced with the later-years rate entered here too.

The depreciation over the years owned as a share of the price. With both depreciation rates left blank, a car kept for the years AAA's study covers and driven the miles the depreciation shift is measured from loses about the share of its price AAA's figures imply for its own average car, because the later-years default is derived to match it.

The values across the top of the grid: the purchase price, in equal steps either side of yours and never below a set minimum. Read a column to hold the price fixed and vary the miles. The middle entry is your own price.

Machinery, and NOT an input. The same for the column axis: Excel substitutes into it while filling the grid, and the rest of the time it mirrors the purchase price.

The sales tax on the purchase price at the rate entered. It is paid once, at purchase, and the part of it the cash down does not cover is financed.

The yearly cost spread over twelve months. It is not what leaves your account each month: the loan payment, the fuel and the insurance arrive on their own schedules, and depreciation arrives as no bill at all until you sell.

The level monthly payment that repays the amount financed over the term at the APR over twelve, before any rounding to the cent. Part of each payment is interest, counted as a cost, and part repays principal, which is not.

One row for each year you own the car: what it loses in value, the loan's interest, fuel or electricity, insurance, upkeep, and taxes and fees, and the year's total. Years past the ones owned are blank rather than zero. The rows add to the whole cost, with the sales tax spread evenly across them.

The sales tax paid at purchase plus the registration and license fees of every year owned. The yearly figures spread the tax over the years, as AAA spreads it, and it is counted once here.

Everything owning the car costs over the years you keep it, in AAA's six categories, with the sales tax counted once. It leaves out parking, tolls, fines and your time, and it counts only the loan's interest, never its principal.

What the car is estimated to be worth when you sell it: the price less every year's depreciation, the mileage adjustment included. It is an estimate at average rates, not a price anyone is bound to pay; condition, trim and a private sale against a trade-in all move it.

The body of the grid: the cost a year of owning the car, worked out again for every combination of the two axes. One hundred and twenty-one cells, each one the whole calculation run again. It is a component of the grid rather than a result on its own.

Machinery. Excel requires the formula being tabulated to sit in the grid's top-left corner, where it means nothing to a reader, so it is formatted away. It holds the cost a year.

The values down the left of the grid: the miles driven a year, in equal steps either side of yours and never below a set minimum. Read a row to hold the miles fixed and vary the price. The middle entry is your own figure.

Machinery, and NOT an input. Excel substitutes each value from the row axis into this cell while it fills the grid; the rest of the time it mirrors the miles driven a year. Change the miles above, never this: the axis is derived from them, so editing the mirror moves the axis while the grid walks and the grid comes out meaningless.

The cash paid at purchase: the down payment share of the price and its tax together.

The whole cost divided by every mile driven in the years owned. It falls as the miles rise, because depreciation, insurance and registration do not grow with the miles, so a car driven little can cost more a mile while costing less a year.

What the car loses in value over the years owned: the price less what it is worth when you sell. For most new cars it is the largest cost of all, yet no bill arrives for it; it becomes real money when you sell or trade the car in.

The whole cost of owning the car divided by the years you keep it: the figure to compare with AAA's yearly average and with the price of the alternatives. It rises with every mile and with every dollar of price, which is why it, and not the cost a mile, is what the grid at the foot tabulates.

AAA's 2026 average cost a year for the class chosen, moved to your miles: the fuel and upkeep lines scaled to your miles and depreciation moved by AAA's weighted mileage adjustment, with its insurance, finance and license lines as published. It assumes a new car kept for the years AAA's study covers, at AAA's own fuel price, so it describes the class and not this car.

AAA's 2026 yearly average for the class at your miles, divided by those miles: the dashed line on the cost-a-mile chart.

What is borrowed: the price and its tax less the cash down, never below nothing.

The insurance premiums paid over the years owned, grown by any yearly change entered.

Maintenance, repairs and tires over the years owned: the miles times the cost a mile, grown by any yearly change entered. It is held at AAA's average over the years its study covers, in every year, so a long ownership understates what an ageing car needs.

Reads OK, or explains why the inputs are not valid or why the answer deserves a second look.

What gasoline or electricity costs over the years owned, for the fuel chosen: the miles times the price over the efficiency, grown by any yearly change entered.

This car's yearly cost less AAA's average for the class at the same miles. Below zero means this car costs less than AAA's average; the paired bars beside the results show which categories make the gap.

What each mile costs in gasoline or electricity at today's prices, for the fuel chosen: the gasoline price over the miles per gallon, or the electricity price over the miles per kWh.

The interest paid on the loan in the years owned. Only the interest is a cost here, because the principal repays the same money the depreciation already counts. With the whole price paid in cash it is nothing.