Buying & Financing
What the car costs to acquire
A monthly payment is the number a dealership leads with, and it is the number that hides the most. The same payment can come from a longer term, a higher rate, a bigger down payment, or a lease whose interest cost is buried in a decimal called the money factor.
These tools take the payment apart. Every term in the formula is printed and editable — price, rate, term, residual, cap cost — so you can see which one is actually moving the number, and what the deal costs in total rather than per month.
The lease payment built from its own parts — cap cost, residual, money factor — set against financing the same car and keeping it.
Open tool →Auto Loan Payment CalculatorMonthly payment and total interest on a car loan, built from the amount actually financed — price, tax, fees and the trade-in — with the amortization formula shown.
Open tool →Car Affordability CalculatorWork backward from what you can spend each month to the cash price it actually buys — after insurance, fuel and upkeep, and after the tax and fees the lender finances alongside the car.
Open tool →Negative Equity CalculatorWhat you owe against what the car is worth, month by month — when the loan gets above water, how deep the hole gets first, and what rolling an old loan forward costs in interest.
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