Car Affordability Calculator
The vehicle price a monthly budget actually reaches, with sales tax, dealer fees and any negative equity inside the loan rather than forgotten.
The address carries whatever you changed, so anyone opening it sees these numbers. Nothing is saved on our side.
Vehicle price you can afford
$26,833
At $500 a month over 60 months, with $4,000 down. Sales tax of $1,878 and $600 of fees are inside that price, not on top of it.
- $500
- At the price above
- $25,311
- $1,878
- $4,689
- $34,000
- Over the whole term
- 60 months
What a longer loan really buys
Stretching the term raises the price your budget reaches, which is exactly why long loans are offered. It also means owing more than the car is worth for most of the loan.
| Term | Price | Total interest | vs yours |
|---|---|---|---|
| 36 months | $18,334 | −$2,906 more in total | |
| 48 months | $22,729 | −$1,609 more in total | |
| 60 monthsyours | $26,833 | — | |
| 72 monthsMore car, and more of it owed for longer | $30,663 | +$1,901 less in total | |
| 84 monthsMore car, and more of it owed for longer | $34,239 | +$4,075 less in total |
The price rises far less than the term does. Going from 60 to 84 months adds two years of payments to buy a modestly better car, and the extra interest usually costs more than the upgrade is worth.
How this calculator works
Solved by search rather than by formula, because the tax depends on the price it is trying to find.
Sales tax is a percentage of the price, and it is financed along with the car. So the amount borrowed depends on the price, and the price is what we are solving for — there is no clean rearrangement.
Instead the calculator brackets the answer between $0 and $2,000,000 and halves it sixty times, checking the payment at each step. The payment rises strictly with the price, so bisection cannot miss the answer or wander off the way a derivative-based solver can.
The result is rounded down to the dollar, so the payment it reports is always at or under the budget you set rather than a cent over it.
What is assumed
- Every dollar of the budget goes to the loan payment.
- Tax and fees are financed rather than paid in cash.
- No rebate. A rebate would raise the price you can reach, so the answer here is the conservative one.
A worked example
A $500 monthly budget, $4,000 down, 6.9% over 60 months, 7% sales tax and $600 of fees.
| Vehicle price | The most the budget supports |
|---|---|
| Sales tax at 7% | Financed with the car |
| Fees | Financed with the car |
| Down payment | Deducted |
| Amount financed | 26,833 + 1,878 + 600 − 4,000 |
| Monthly payment | 60 months at 6.9% |
Note how much of the loan is not the car: $2,478 of tax and fees, financed at 6.9% for five years like everything else. Stretch the same budget to 84 months and the price reaches $34,239 — $7,406 more car for $4,075 more interest and two more years of payments.
Questions people ask
Not close. Insurance, fuel, maintenance, tyres, registration and parking all come out of the same budget, and on a cheaper car they can exceed the loan payment. The figure here is the loan alone, so set your monthly budget as the amount you can commit to the payment specifically, not everything you can spend on driving.
It is a rule of thumb: 20% down, no more than four years financed, and total vehicle costs under 10% of gross income. It is deliberately conservative and worth knowing, but it is a guideline rather than arithmetic — this calculator asks you what you can pay and works from that instead of prescribing a figure.
Because interest is charged for longer on a balance that falls more slowly. Going from 60 to 84 months on a $500 budget adds around $7,400 of car and roughly $4,100 of extra interest — two more years of payments for a modestly better vehicle. The payment falls in a straight line; the value does not.
Rarely. This is a ceiling, not a target, and it assumes nothing else changes for the length of the loan. Leaving room means a repair does not become a missed payment, and it means you can sell the car without needing to cover a shortfall.
Related calculators
An estimate of what the loan payment supports. It excludes insurance, fuel, maintenance and every other cost of running a car.