Does this include my car loan payment?

No — this tool covers only the true ownership costs (depreciation, insurance, fuel, maintenance, registration), not financing. Pair it with the Auto Loan Calculator for the loan side.

Why is depreciation a straight dollar amount instead of calculated from resale value?

A true resale-based depreciation calculation needs a specific make/model/year/mileage lookup this tool doesn't do — the default here is AAA's national-average dollar figure, which you can override with your own vehicle's actual depreciation if you know it.

How accurate are the national-average defaults for my specific car?

Not very, for any individual vehicle — they're fleet-wide averages scaled to a small/mid-size sedan. A luxury vehicle, an EV, or an older high-mileage car will differ substantially; override every field you can with your own real numbers.

Why does 'cost per mile' matter?

It's useful for comparing driving your own car against alternatives (rideshare, public transit, a different vehicle) on a consistent per-mile basis, rather than comparing a lump annual sum to a per-trip cost.

Does this account for financing costs like loan interest?

No — see the Auto Loan Calculator for that side of the total cost of car ownership.

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Car Total Cost of Ownership Calculator

True annual cost to own a car — depreciation, insurance, fuel, maintenance, and fees.

🔒 Runs entirely in your browser — nothing here is ever uploaded

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Last reviewed 2026-08-30

About the Car Total Cost of Ownership Calculator

Estimates the true annual and monthly cost of owning a car — depreciation, insurance, fuel, maintenance, and registration — using national-average figures from AAA's annual driving-cost study, with fuel recalculated live from your own mpg and gas-price inputs.

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How to use it

Enter your annual miles driven and your vehicle's combined fuel economy (mpg).
Enter the current gas price, and adjust insurance, maintenance, registration, and depreciation to your own numbers.
Read your total annual and monthly cost of ownership, and cost per mile.

Formula

Fuel cost = (annual miles ÷ mpg) × gas price per gallon. Maintenance cost = annual miles × maintenance cost per mile. Total annual cost = depreciation + insurance + fuel + maintenance + registration. Cost per mile = total annual cost ÷ annual miles.

Worked example

15,000 annual miles at 32 mpg, $4.08/gal gas, $1,227 insurance, $0.08/mile maintenance, $588 registration, $3,138 depreciation: fuel cost of about $1,913, maintenance of $1,199, for a total annual cost of about $7,065 — roughly $589/month, or $0.47/mile.

AAA-sourced national-average default cost components (sedan-scaled)

AAA-sourced national-average default cost components (sedan-scaled)
Cost component	Default (annual, unless noted)
Depreciation	$3,138
Insurance	$1,227
Maintenance & repairs	$0.08/mile
Registration	$588

Interpreting your result

Depreciation, insurance, maintenance, and registration defaults are national-average figures derived from AAA's annual 'Your Driving Costs' study, scaled toward a small/mid-size sedan — AAA publishes a full cost breakdown only for its fleet-wide average across 9 vehicle categories, so the sedan-level split is a proportional estimate (about 72% of the fleet-average dollar figures), not a verbatim AAA-published sedan table. Fuel is the one line recalculated live from your own mpg and gas-price inputs, using today's live national average gas price rather than AAA's own (already outdated) study assumption. This tool doesn't include your loan payment — pair it with the Auto Loan Calculator for principal and interest.

Recommendations

• Depreciation is typically the single largest cost of owning a car, even though it's the easiest to overlook since it's never an actual bill — a new car can lose 20%+ of its value in the first year alone.
• Your real fuel cost varies with driving conditions (city vs. highway) and season — combined mpg is an average, not a guarantee.
• This tool excludes your loan payment entirely — combine it with the Auto Loan Calculator for the complete monthly cost of financing plus owning a car.

Frequently asked questions

Gas prices move too much and too often for a stale study figure to stay accurate — the other categories (depreciation, insurance, maintenance, registration) change more slowly and are harder for most people to estimate precisely themselves, so they default to sourced national averages you can override.