Utilore

Car Loan Calculator

A car loan is not just an amount, a rate and a term. Sales tax, dealer fees and the trade-in all change what you actually borrow, and they are where the number in the showroom stops matching the number you worked out at home. Both questions are here: the payment for a car you have in mind, and the car a payment you can manage will carry.

Two questions, two tabs: what the payment will be for a given car, and what car a given payment will carry.

Monthly payment —

Amount borrowed
—
Sales tax
—
Interest over the term
—
Everything you pay
—

Nothing is sent anywhere — the figures stay in this browser. Two of the inputs decide more than people expect. Sales tax in most US states is charged on the price minus the trade-in, but in a handful it is charged on the full price; on a 30,000 car with a 10,000 trade-in at 7 % that is a 700 difference, so it is a switch rather than a hidden rule. And a trade-in with a loan still on it is not a discount: if the car is worth less than is owed, the shortfall is added to the new loan.

Nearby: Loan Calculator, Mortgage Calculator, Percentage Calculator, Currency Converter

How to use

  1. On the first tab, put in the price of the car, then the down payment, the trade-in and the tax rate if they apply.
  2. Add dealer fees if you know them. They are financed along with everything else, so they raise the payment as surely as the price does.
  3. If your state charges sales tax on the full price rather than on the price minus the trade-in, tick the box — it is worth hundreds.
  4. The second tab answers the reverse question: what car a payment you can manage will carry, with the tax and the fees already accounted for.

Good to know

The trade-in credit usually cuts the tax as well as the price

In most American states, sales tax is charged on the price of the car minus what the dealer allows for your old one. On a 30,000 car with a 10,000 trade-in at 7 %, that is tax on 20,000 rather than on 30,000 — a difference of 700, which is more than most people expect a checkbox to be worth. A handful of states, among them California and Virginia, charge the tax on the full price regardless. This calculator uses the trade-in credit by default and lets you switch it off, because guessing on your behalf would be wrong for a lot of people either way.

A trade-in with a loan on it is not a discount

If the dealer values your old car at 10,000 and you still owe 13,000 on it, you are not knocking 10,000 off the new car — you are adding 3,000 of old debt to the new loan. The shortfall does not disappear; it is rolled into the new financing, and you end up paying interest on a car you no longer own. This calculator asks for both numbers separately and says plainly when the equity is negative, because the arrangement is easy to walk into and hard to see on a contract.

The term is where the payment gets hidden

Stretching a loan from 48 to 84 months makes the monthly payment look far more comfortable while making the car substantially more expensive: the same money borrowed at the same rate costs almost twice the interest. Longer terms also keep you owing more than the car is worth for longer, which is exactly how people end up in the negative-equity situation above when they next change car. The total interest is shown next to the payment, along with what it comes to as a share of the price.

Frequently asked questions

How is this different from an ordinary loan calculator?

The formula for the payment is the same. What differs is what you are borrowing: this one adds sales tax and dealer fees and subtracts the trade-in and the down payment before the payment is worked out. Those four turn a 30,000 car into anything from a 24,000 to a 34,000 loan.

Should I tick the box about tax on the full price?

Only if your state charges sales tax without the trade-in credit. Most do give the credit, so the default leaves the box unticked. If you are unsure, ask the dealer to show you the tax line on the buyer's order — it will be calculated one way or the other, and the difference is easy to check against this page.

What if the interest rate is zero?

It works. Zero-per-cent financing is a real dealer promotion, and the payment becomes simply the amount divided by the term. The interest line goes to zero, which is the point of the offer — the thing worth checking is whether taking the rebate instead and financing elsewhere costs less overall.

Does it include insurance, registration and servicing?

No. It covers what goes into the loan: price, tax, fees, down payment and trade-in. Insurance and road tax are ongoing costs that are not financed, and adding them here would make the payment look wrong when you compare it with what the lender quotes.

Are my figures sent anywhere?

No. Everything is worked out in this browser and kept there so it survives a reload. Nothing is sent to a server, and the page works with the network switched off.

Related tools