Enter one new vehicle and one used vehicle. We adjust both for financing, sales tax, insurance, maintenance, equity built, and the opportunity cost of your down payment.
⚠ Estimates only, not financial advice — see the note below the results for details. US only for now.
Each line already includes every adjustment above it — this isn't a list to add up. Compare using the bottom line only.
Estimates only, not financial advice. Loan payment uses standard amortization on the financed amount (price minus down payment, plus sales tax, per your city). Default APRs reflect Experian's Q1 2026 State of the Automotive Finance Market report: 6.39% average for new-vehicle loans, 11.43% for used. Default resale percentages reflect iSeeCars' 2026 study finding 41.8% average 5-year depreciation for new vehicles, and the well-documented pattern that already-depreciated used vehicles lose value more slowly from that point on. Equity built values the vehicle's expected resale value, spread evenly across your ownership period.
New Car vs Used Car takes one new vehicle and one used vehicle and runs both through four stages to estimate the true monthly cost of each.
Both sides use standard loan amortization on the financed amount — price minus down payment, plus sales tax financed into the loan. Used-car loans typically carry a meaningfully higher APR than new-car loans, even though the loan amount itself is usually much smaller.
Both sides add annual insurance, maintenance and repairs, and registration/license costs. New cars generally cost more to insure but less to maintain in the early years, since they're still under warranty; used cars are the reverse — cheaper to insure, more prone to repair bills.
Every vehicle you own eventually has resale value — we spread the expected resale amount evenly across your ownership period as a credit. Because used cars have already been through their steepest depreciation years, they typically retain a higher percentage of their (lower) purchase price than a new car retains of its (higher) purchase price over the same period.
A down payment ties up cash that could otherwise be invested. We add back the monthly opportunity cost of that capital, valued at the investment return rate you enter, to get each option's net true monthly cost.
No. New Car vs Used Car gives a directional estimate to help you think through a decision, not a substitute for a financial advisor or the actual numbers in a loan offer. Real deals vary by lender, dealer markup, vehicle condition, and your credit profile.
We currently support a set of major US cities, using the same sales-tax dataset as our Lease vs Buy a Car calculator. Use the "View supported cities" button at the top of the page for the full list. This calculator is US-only for now.
6.4% for new and 11.4% for used come from Experian's State of the Automotive Finance Market report for Q1 2026, which put the average new-vehicle loan rate at 6.39% and the average used-vehicle loan rate at 11.43% — used-car buyers typically pay a meaningfully higher rate, largely because used loans skew toward lower credit tiers and older collateral.
Depreciation is steepest in a vehicle's first one to two years. iSeeCars' 2026 study found new vehicles lose 41.8% of their value on average over five years — but a used vehicle you buy at, say, four years old has already absorbed most of that early drop, so it depreciates more slowly (as a percentage of its own purchase price) from that point forward.
New cars are typically still under manufacturer warranty, which covers many repairs. The default of $1,520/year for a used car reflects reported 2024 data (via Cars.com, citing AAA and BLS figures) for repairs, maintenance, and tires on a 5-year-old vehicle driven 15,000 miles a year — compared with a lower default for a new vehicle still under warranty.
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Rate data: 2026