How to work out a car payment
- Enter the Car price, your Down payment and, if you’re trading in, its value and anything you Still owe on it.
- Enter your Sales tax rate and any fees you’ll add to the loan (title, registration, dealer fees). Untick Trade-in lowers the taxed price if your state taxes the full price.
- Enter the Interest rate and the Term in months. Read the monthly payment, the amount financed, the total interest and the cost of the car over the loan.
Loan term and total cost
The same 32,100 financed at 7%:
| Term | Monthly payment | Total interest |
|---|---|---|
| 36 months | 991.15 | 3,581.57 |
| 48 months | 768.67 | 4,796.37 |
| 60 months | 635.62 | 6,037.11 |
| 72 months | 547.27 | 7,303.66 |
| 84 months | 484.48 | 8,595.90 |
Stretching from 60 to 84 months saves about 150 a month but adds more than 2,500 of interest. Dealers often quote the monthly payment first, so look at the total too.
Before you visit the dealer
Get a loan quote from a bank or credit union before you shop, so you can compare it with the dealer’s financing. Agree the price of the car before talking about the trade-in and the loan, since mixing them makes it harder to see what each one costs. Ask which fees are required by your state and which are dealer add-ons you can decline. For the running costs after you buy, the fuel cost calculator estimates what you’ll spend on fuel.