Car Loan Calculator

Dealership financing conversations tend to focus entirely on the monthly payment number, since stretching a loan from 48 months to 72 or even 84 months makes that figure look more attractive. What rarely gets mentioned at the same time is that the longer term adds meaningfully more total interest and increases the odds you'll end up owing more than the car is worth at some point during the loan.

That last scenario, called being "upside down" or having negative equity, happens because new cars depreciate fast, commonly losing around 20% of their value in the first year alone, while a long loan term pays down principal slowly. The gap between what you owe and what the car is actually worth can persist for years on a long-term loan with a small down payment.

Enter the vehicle price, your down payment, any trade-in value, the lender's annual rate, and your loan term in months. The calculator outputs your exact monthly payment alongside total interest paid over the full loan term.

Sales tax on the vehicle's purchase price should factor into your numbers too, since it's rarely included in the sticker price shown. Entering it into the vehicle price or down payment fields here gets you a more realistic total before you're actually negotiating at the dealership. Your budget and loan details stay private, calculated entirely in your browser.