How much will your car payment be?
Set the price, your down payment and how long you'll pay. We add what the ad leaves out: sales tax, your trade in, what you still owe on it, and the interest. Free, no signup, for Canada and the US.
Drag any of these three and the answer above moves with it.
Use the rate on your own approval, not the one on the window sticker: the advertised rate and the rate you are offered are often different numbers.Every extra point of interest costs you $941 more over the term.
Your province’s GST, HST or GST plus PST on a vehicle. It is financed along with the car, so you pay interest on it too.Every 1% of tax adds $350 to what you borrow.Left at 0, the monthly cost leaves sales tax out entirely.
What the dealer gives you for your old car. Where you are, it comes off the taxable amount as well as the price, so $10,000 for your old car is worth $10,000 plus the tax on it.
Fees and tax rulesoptional ▾
Freight, delivery, administration and documentation fees. Sales tax is charged on these, and they are financed with the car. In Ontario an advertised price must already include every dealer fee, so from an advertised price this is usually $0.
Licence plates and registration. Charged once, with no sales tax on top, and financed with the car. In Ontario the vehicle permit is $32 and the passenger plate sticker is free; new plates cost extra.
Set what you want to keep it under and this card will say whether $653 a month clears it, and what would.
Could you actually carry $653 a month?
That is what this car costs every month for 60 months. Finally reads your bank statement and shows whether your real spending has that room, and where it would come from.
Interest is calculated monthly on the balance you still owe, which is how car loans work in both countries. No sales tax is included: the tax rate is set to 0, and every province and most states charge it, so set yours under Your numbers. Insurance, fuel, maintenance and repairs are not included. This is information, not financial advice.
The payment is the easy part. Finding it every month is the hard part.
A car payment is a new fixed cost sitting on top of the ones you already have. Finally reads your bank statement and shows what your real monthly room is before you sign: your true surplus, the leaks worth fixing, and a free financial health score.
How this car loan calculator works
The payment is a standard amortizing loan: interest is charged monthly on the balance you still owe, which is how car loans work in both Canada and the US. The amount you borrow is the whole delivered price, not the sticker: the car, plus sales tax, plus dealer fees, minus your down payment and whatever the dealer allows you for your old car. If you still owe money on the car you are trading in, that shortfall is added to the new loan rather than forgiven, and you pay interest on it for the full term.
The one rule that changes by country is sales tax when you trade a car in. In Canada, a dealer charges tax on the price after what they allow you for your old car, so the old car is worth more than its face value. In the US it depends on the state, and some tax the full price, so the calculator lets you set it either way. Above five years it also shows what the same car would cost over 60 months, because a longer term is a real choice and it should be made with both numbers visible.
What this calculator leaves out
Insurance, fuel, maintenance, repairs, parking and depreciation. The first five vary too much by driver and vehicle for a calculator to guess without inventing a number. Depreciation is left out for a sharper reason: FCAC puts a new car's loss at about 25% in the first year and 15 to 25% a year after that, and a range that wide would turn a projection into a guess wearing a number. What the calculator does carry is the concrete version of the same problem, as a field you can fill in: what you still owe on your old car.
Frequently asked questions
How much is the monthly payment on a $35,000 car?
With nothing traded in, $2,000 down and no sales tax, a $35,000 car financed at 7% costs about $653 a month over 60 months, and you pay about $6,200 in interest. Sales tax changes that materially, because it is financed along with the car: at 13% it adds $4,550 to the loan and roughly another $90 a month. The calculator above works in either country and includes what the dealer gives you for your old car, what you still owe on it, and dealer fees.
Does trading in a car reduce the sales tax in Canada?
Yes, when you trade in to a dealer. The Canada Revenue Agency's rule for a customer who is not a GST/HST registrant is that the dealer charges tax on the net amount, meaning the price minus what they allow you for your old car. Their own example: a $25,000 car with $10,000 allowed for the old one is taxed on $15,000, so 5% GST is $750 rather than $1,250. That makes the old car worth more than its sticker value. In the US it depends on the state, and some, including California, charge tax on the full price with no credit at all.
How long should a car loan be?
The CFPB notes that some financial experts recommend five years or less. The reason is arithmetic rather than opinion: on a $20,000 loan at 4.75%, three years costs $1,498 in interest and six years costs $3,024, more than twice as much for the same car. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada makes the same point with a $25,000 car at 5%, where 36 months costs $1,974 in interest and 84 months costs $4,681. Longer terms lower the payment and raise the price of the car.
What is negative equity on a car loan?
It is when your car is worth less than the amount you still owe on it. FCAC's example is an eight-year loan on a $31,300 car: two years in, the car is worth about $18,780 while $27,300 is still owed. It matters when you go to replace the car, because the shortfall does not disappear. It gets added to your next loan, and you pay interest on it for that whole term. The calculator above has a field for it, so you can see what rolling it forward does to the payment.
Is a longer car loan with a lower payment a bad deal?
Not automatically, but you should see both numbers before you decide. A longer term buys a lower payment with more total interest, and the trade is easy to hide when only the monthly figure is on the table. This calculator prints both at once, and above five years it also shows what the same car would cost over 60 months, so the choice is made with the full price in view rather than the payment alone.
Does this calculator include insurance and fuel?
No. It answers what the car costs to buy: the loan payment, the interest, the sales tax and the fees. Insurance, fuel, maintenance, repairs and parking are real costs of running a car, and they vary far too much by driver, vehicle and postal code for a calculator to guess honestly. If you want the full picture of what a car does to your month, upload a bank statement to Finally and see what you already spend on the one you have.
Finally provides information to help you understand your finances. It is not personalized financial advice, and this calculator's results depend entirely on the assumptions you choose.