Cost of Car Ownership Calculator

Owning a car can be a great convenience. Mobility on demand and the ability to haul a reasonable amount of cargo and passengers is worth something. But how much is it worth? Here is an online car ownership cost calculator that lets you find out. It takes purchase price, financing ( bank loan ) costs, maintenance and of course gasoline as inputs and returns the monthly cost of car ownership. It also provides some comparisons, showing for example how much money you would have at retirement if you didn't own a car and instead invested the ownership money.

The calculator comes preset with default average values for each cost category. You can adjust each one, in particular the gasoline cost. That lets you see how bad things could get in a future with much higher gasoline prices.