Auto Loan Calculator
Enter the vehicle price, down payment, trade-in value, interest rate, and loan term to calculate the monthly payment, total payment, and total interest for your car loan.
Calculating a car loan
Car loans run over shorter terms than mortgages — three to seven years is typical — and **carry higher interest rates**, because a car loses its value as security far faster than a house. A loan arranged through the dealer is simple to set up but often prices above a bank's own car loan, and **the same vehicle can differ by well over a hundred thousand yen in total cost depending on who lends.**
Enter the vehicle price, deposit, trade-in value, interest rate and term, and this tool gives you the monthly payment, the total repaid and the total interest. **Both the deposit and the trade-in reduce the sum borrowed**, though bear in mind that a trade-in is the dealer's valuation and selling privately sometimes fetches more. Stretching the term lightens the monthly payment, but **the total interest rises without exception.** You can see that difference in figures.
How to estimate the payments
- Enter the vehicle price Whether to include fees is a matter for the quotation you actually have.
- Enter the deposit and trade-in **Both reduce the sum borrowed.** Leave the trade-in at zero if there is none.
- Enter the interest rate Dealer and bank rates differ considerably, so run both figures if you are comparing.
- Enter the repayment term Specify it in years.
- Compare the monthly and total figures Check **how much the interest grows when you stretch the term.**
Tips for getting more out of it
- A larger down payment and trade-in value shrink the loan principal, lowering both the monthly payment and the total interest you pay.
- Auto loan rates run higher than mortgage rates — dealer financing typically sits around 3-8% APR, while bank auto loans often run 1.5-4% APR.
- Stretching out the term lowers the monthly payment, but raises the risk of owing more than the car is worth as it depreciates faster than you pay it off.
- New-car balloon (residual value) loans can lower monthly payments further, but usually come with mileage limits you need to watch closely.
- Comparing rates across a few lenders and dealers before signing can shave hundreds or even thousands off the total amount you repay.
Where this helps
Comparing lenders
Work out what the rate gap between a dealer loan and a bank loan comes to in total.
Deciding how much deposit to put down
See in money how much interest a larger deposit saves.
Settling on a term
**The monthly burden and the total repaid trade against each other.** Keeping the term as short as the budget allows is the general rule.
Comparing against a balloon loan
A balloon loan looks favourable on the monthly figure alone, but the comparison has to include the final settlement.
Car loan terms explained
- Principal
- The sum borrowed itself: the vehicle price less the deposit and the trade-in value.
- Annual interest rate
- The proportion charged as interest over a year. **Dealer loans tend to price above banks.**
- Deposit
- What you pay from your own funds on signing. It reduces the sum borrowed and with it the total interest.
- Trade-in
- Handing your current car to the dealer. **A specialist buyer sometimes offers more.**
- Total repayment
- The sum of principal and interest paid across the whole term.
- Balloon loan
- An arrangement setting aside a residual value at the end of the term. The monthly figure is lighter, but a settlement falls due at the end.
Frequently Asked Questions
Side Note — How auto loans differ from mortgages
Auto loans and mortgages both use the same amortized-payment formula, but the two products behave very differently in practice. A mortgage is backed by land and a building whose value tends to hold up for decades, so lenders are comfortable stretching repayment out to 15-35 years. A car, on the other hand, starts losing value the moment it leaves the lot, so auto loan terms are usually kept to a much tighter 3-7 years.
Interest rates reflect that difference in risk. Mortgage rates on a variable loan often sit around 0.3-1.0% in low-rate markets, while dealer-arranged auto financing commonly runs 3-8% APR. Because a car depreciates quickly, lenders price in more risk than they would for a home loan. Bank-arranged auto loans usually take longer to approve than dealer financing, but often come with meaningfully lower rates — worth comparing if you are not in a rush to drive off the lot.
Trade-in value is a factor unique to auto loans. Selling your current car back to the dealer and applying the appraised value toward the down payment effectively shrinks how much you need to borrow. That said, dealer trade-in offers tend to run lower than what a dedicated used-car buyer would pay, so getting a couple of independent appraisals before you trade in can meaningfully reduce your total cost.