Net cost over 5 years (today's dollars)
Net vehicle cost — what you pay minus what you recover at resale (lighter) — plus running costs: insurance, fuel, maintenance (solid). Everything is in today's dollars, discounted at your assumed return, so the cost of money is already built in. Hover a bar for the breakdown. The two segments sum to the net total.
Net vehicle cost (after resale)
Running: new
Running: CPO
Running: used
What's baked into the defaults
- New vehicle price: Default MSRP is $35,000 — a reasonable midpoint for a new mainstream SUV or sedan. Use the MSRP and % off MSRP fields on the card to match your actual vehicle and negotiated deal.
- Financing: Default shows 1.9% APR for 36 months — representative of a promotional rate you might see during an incentive period. Change the rate and term on the card to match your actual offer. The market rate for new-car loans is currently around 6–7%.
- Insurance: Low / Mid / High presets represent rough annual full-coverage costs. Your actual rate depends heavily on driver profile, ZIP code, and coverage level. Type your own number in the boxes to override.
- Maintenance + repairs: New & CPO sit under warranty early on (~$400/yr); older used cars carry more risk (~$900/yr). Adjust these on the card if your vehicle or driving history is different.
- Fuel: Enter your vehicle's EPA combined MPG using the slider. Default is 29 mpg — typical for a midsize SUV. The fuel cost is miles × (1/mpg) × gas price × years.
- Cost of money (present value): All cash flows are discounted to today's dollars at your assumed return, so a dollar paid in year 4 counts for less than a dollar paid now. This is what makes cheap financing pay off: spreading payments at 1.9% while your cash compounds at a higher return lowers the present-value cost. Set the return equal to the loan rate and financing is a wash; set it higher and financing beats paying cash; set it lower and paying cash wins. At a 0% return the total reduces to plain cash in minus cash out.
- What "cost of money" shows on each card: the difference between the present-value total and the plain nominal cash-out. A negative number (a credit) means the timing of payments and your investment return are working in your favor; a positive number means they cost you.
- CPO & used pricing: Pick the model year on each card — the tool fills in a typical midsize-vehicle price for that year. CPO adds roughly $2,200 over plain used for the inspection and factory warranty extension. Hit auto to snap back to the year's estimate, or type your own price.
- Resale value: The default curve reflects a well-maintained midsize car or SUV — keeping roughly 87% / 67% / 54% of its value at 3 / 5 / 7 years. Actual resale varies significantly by make, model, condition, and local market. Age at purchase comes straight from the model year you pick, so a 2024 CPO starts at age 2 and a 2022 used car at age 4, shedding value along that curve over your hold. The "− Resale at sale" line auto-tracks the curve; type your own number to override, or hit auto to revert. Because a new car depreciates fastest in its first years, this is where used/CPO claw back much of the price gap.
Not included: sales tax, title, and registration fees (similar across options) and any financing origination fees. This tool compares net cost over the hold period — everything you pay out, minus what you recover at sale — which is what the decision actually comes down to.