Car Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator

Calculate the true cost of owning a car by combining loan interest, fuel, insurance, maintenance, and depreciation loss over your ownership period into one total cost of ownership figure.

What is the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a car?

The total cost of ownership (TCO) of a car is the full amount it actually costs to keep and drive a vehicle — not just the sticker price or loan payment, but fuel, insurance, maintenance, and the value the car loses (depreciation) by the time you sell or trade it in. A cheaper vehicle price does not always mean a cheaper car to own; poor fuel economy, high insurance rates, or fast depreciation can flip the ranking between two similarly priced cars.

While money.wealth.auto_loan covers loan payments alone and money.wealth.car_depreciation covers depreciation alone, this tool combines all of these cost components over your chosen ownership period into a single true cost of ownership, expressed as a monthly figure and a cost per kilometer, so you can compare vehicles or plan your budget with the full picture in mind.

How to use this tool

Enter the vehicle price, down payment, and loan terms Enter the price of the vehicle you are considering or already own, along with your down payment, loan term, and interest rate
Enter your ownership period Enter how many years you plan to keep the car before trading it in or selling it
Enter mileage, fuel efficiency, and fuel price Enter your expected annual mileage, the vehicle's fuel efficiency (km/L), and the price you pay per liter of fuel
Enter insurance, maintenance, and depreciation rate Enter your annual insurance premium, annual maintenance cost (inspections, repairs, taxes), and an estimated annual depreciation rate
Review the results See the breakdown of loan interest, fuel, insurance, maintenance, and depreciation loss over your ownership period, plus the monthly and per-kilometer cost

Tips for getting more out of it

A cheaper vehicle with poor fuel economy or fast depreciation can end up costing more overall than a pricier one. Always compare total cost of ownership, not just the sticker price.
Annual depreciation rates vary widely by make, model, and popularity. Checking resale listings for the same model at different ages online is a good way to estimate a realistic depreciation rate.
Shorter ownership periods make depreciation loss a bigger share of the total cost, since you absorb most of the value drop but pay off less of the loan. If you plan to trade in quickly, focus more on estimating depreciation accurately than on fuel efficiency.
If you want to look at loan payments alone in more detail, try money.wealth.auto_loan.

Use cases

Comparing the cost of owning different car models

Run the numbers for two similarly priced vehicles with different fuel efficiency, insurance rates, or expected depreciation to see which one is actually cheaper to own

Understanding the full cost before you buy

Looking only at the monthly loan payment can hide the fuel, insurance, and depreciation costs that make up a large share of what a car actually costs to keep

Comparing a gas car to a hybrid

See whether a more expensive, more fuel-efficient vehicle actually costs less overall once fuel savings are factored into the total cost of ownership

Deciding when to trade in or replace your car

Re-run the calculation with different ownership periods to see how the cost per kilometer changes the longer you keep a vehicle

Glossary

Total cost of ownership (TCO): The full amount it costs to keep and drive a vehicle, including the purchase price or loan interest, fuel, insurance, maintenance, and depreciation loss — the "true" cost of owning a car beyond its sticker price
Depreciation loss: The difference between the vehicle price and its estimated residual value at the end of your ownership period. Since cars start losing value the moment they are purchased, this is often the single largest component of total cost of ownership
Residual value: The estimated value a vehicle retains after a certain period of use, such as its expected trade-in or resale price. This tool calculates it by compounding the annual depreciation rate using the declining-balance method
Declining-balance depreciation: A depreciation method where the vehicle loses a fixed percentage of its remaining value each year, so the largest loss in dollar terms happens in the first year and gets progressively smaller afterward
Fuel efficiency (km/L): The distance a vehicle can travel per liter of fuel. Higher fuel efficiency reduces fuel costs and lowers the total cost of ownership
Ownership period: The number of years used in this calculator to estimate total cost of ownership. Changing this assumption changes how loan interest, fuel cost, and depreciation loss combine in the result

Frequently asked questions

A loan payment only covers the principal and interest on the amount you borrowed. Total cost of ownership adds fuel, insurance, maintenance, and depreciation loss on top of that, giving you the full cost of keeping the car. Two cars with the same loan payment can have very different total costs of ownership depending on fuel efficiency and how fast they depreciate.

Compare listed prices for the same make, model, year, and mileage against the original new price or the price at one or two years old on used car marketplaces. Popular models with strong resale value tend to have lower depreciation rates than less popular ones.

Enter the down payment equal to the full vehicle price. The loan principal becomes zero, so no loan interest is included in the total cost of ownership.

Yes. Include registration fees, vehicle taxes, inspections, and routine repairs together under "annual maintenance cost."

No. All calculations happen locally in your browser, and none of the values you enter are sent to or stored on a server.

Side Note — Why the sticker price is rarely the full story

When shopping for a car, most people focus first on the sticker price or the monthly loan payment. But the costs that quietly strain a budget the most are often the ones that are harder to see up front: fuel, insurance, and the value a car loses every year it is owned. A car that looked like the cheaper choice can turn out to be the more expensive one once poor fuel economy, high insurance rates, or weak resale value are factored in.

This is exactly why sites like Edmunds and Kelley Blue Book publish annual "true cost to own" or "5-year cost to own" rankings — comparing sticker prices alone can be surprisingly misleading. Two vehicles in the same price range can differ by thousands of dollars in total cost of ownership once fuel, insurance, and depreciation are added in.

Depreciation loss tends to have the biggest impact of all. A car starts losing value the moment it is driven off the lot, and less popular models or those released right before a redesign can lose a large share of their value within just a few years. On the other hand, models known for strong resale value can end up cheaper overall, even at a higher purchase price, because they hold onto more of their value when it comes time to sell or trade in. Looking past the sticker price to the true cost of keeping a car is one of the more reliable ways to avoid buyer's remorse.

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