The sticker price is just the beginning. Calculate the true 5-year cost including loan interest, insurance, fuel, maintenance, and depreciation.
The purchase price of a vehicle represents only 30–40% of what you'll actually spend over 5 years of ownership. The rest — interest, insurance, fuel, maintenance, registration, and depreciation — adds up to more than most buyers anticipate. A $28,000 car can easily cost $48,000–$55,000 over five years when all costs are included.
This is why comparing two vehicles purely on purchase price misses most of the financial picture. A $35,000 fuel-efficient sedan may cost less to own over 5 years than a $28,000 truck with higher insurance, fuel, and maintenance costs. Total cost of ownership is the only complete measure.
People search for this in several different ways — car running costs, vehicle expense, auto expense, cost of car ownership — and they all point at the same question: what does this car take out of my account each year once it's mine?
Running cost is everything that recurs: insurance, fuel, maintenance, registration, and the value the car quietly loses while parked. Purchase price is a one-off. Confusing the two is why a cheap car can turn out expensive. A $28,000 vehicle at roughly $650 a month in total running cost is dearer over five years than a $35,000 one at $580, even though the sticker says otherwise.
Two framings help. Cost per year is the budgeting number — divide your five-year total by five. Cost per mile is the comparison number — divide the five-year total by the miles you'll drive in that time. At 12,000 miles a year, a $50,000 five-year total works out to about 83 cents a mile, which is the figure to hold two very different vehicles against.
The most useful thing this calculator does is settle an argument you can't win on sticker price alone: is the more expensive car actually more expensive?
Run it twice, once for each vehicle, and compare the five-year totals rather than the prices. The break-even is the point where the cheaper-to-run car has recovered its higher purchase price through lower fuel, insurance, maintenance and depreciation. A hybrid costing $4,000 more but saving $700 a year in fuel and holding its value better can break even inside three years — and everything after that is profit.
The same method answers the other common version: keeping your current car versus buying something newer. Work out what your existing vehicle costs to run for another year, then compare it against the first-year running cost of the replacement. That comparison is usually far less flattering to the new car than the monthly payment suggests, because the payment hides the depreciation.
Depreciation is the loss in your vehicle's value over time, and it's consistently the largest cost of car ownership — often 35–45% of the total 5-year cost. New vehicles lose 15–25% of their value in the first year alone. By year 5, the typical vehicle retains only 40–55% of its original value depending on make and model.
This is why buying a 2–3 year old vehicle is often the most financially efficient move: someone else absorbed the steepest depreciation curve, and you're buying the "experienced" version at a significant discount. High-retention brands (Toyota, Honda, Subaru) minimize this cost further.
On a $25,000 loan at 8% over 60 months, you pay about $5,400 in total interest — money that buys you nothing tangible. On a 72-month loan at the same rate, that rises to $6,500. Minimizing loan interest through a larger down payment, shorter term, and competitive rate reduces total ownership cost significantly. Even a 1% rate difference on a $25,000 loan saves about $650 over 60 months.
Full coverage insurance on a new vehicle typically runs $1,500–$2,500/year depending on driver age, location, and vehicle type. Over 5 years, that's $7,500–$12,500. Sports cars, luxury vehicles, and EVs tend to cost more to insure due to higher repair costs. Shopping insurance annually and comparing at least 3 quotes each renewal cycle can reduce this cost by 10–25%.
Enter your vehicle's purchase price, financing details, and estimated annual costs for insurance, fuel, and maintenance. Use our fuel cost calculator to estimate your annual gas spend, and our insurance estimator for a rough coverage cost. The calculator estimates 5-year depreciation using standard rates (20% year 1, 15% years 2–3, 10% years 4–5) and shows your residual vehicle value at the end of year 5.
Routine maintenance — oil changes, tires, brakes, fluids, and scheduled services — typically runs $500–$1,200 per year for the first five years on a reliable vehicle, though this climbs fast on luxury or European brands and can spike unexpectedly on high-mileage used cars. Over five years, even a "cheap to maintain" vehicle usually adds $2,500–$6,000 to the total cost, which is why it's worth budgeting a realistic annual figure here rather than assuming maintenance will be negligible.
Annual registration fees and, in many states, ongoing personal property taxes on vehicles are easy to overlook when comparing cars, but they recur every single year of ownership. States and counties vary enormously here — some charge a flat annual fee under $100, while others assess an annual tax based on the vehicle's value that can run several hundred dollars a year on a newer car. If you're comparing an EV, factor in one more line item: 41 states now add an extra annual EV registration fee (median around $150/year, up to $250+ in some states) to make up for lost gas tax revenue — see our EV registration fee guide for your state's number. Check your specific state and county before finalizing a purchase decision based on this calculator's default assumptions.
The real value of a TCO calculation is comparing options, not just estimating one car in isolation. Run the numbers for each vehicle you're considering — same down payment and loan term, but each car's own price, expected insurance, fuel efficiency, and maintenance reputation — and compare the 5-year totals side by side. It's common for the cheaper sticker price to lose this comparison once insurance, fuel economy, and depreciation are factored in, especially against a more fuel-efficient or higher-resale-value alternative.
The biggest levers, in rough order of impact, are: buying a vehicle with strong resale value to reduce depreciation loss, making a larger down payment and choosing a shorter loan term to cut interest, shopping insurance annually instead of auto-renewing, and choosing a model with a strong reliability reputation to keep maintenance costs predictable. Fuel costs matter too, but for most buyers they're a smaller share of the total than depreciation, interest, and insurance combined.