Spending & savings · 2 min
Car affordability advice is written by people selling cars, which is why it prices the payment and forgets the car. This instrument works from the house line — all-in vehicle cost at 10% of net income — backwards through insurance, fuel, maintenance and the depreciation nobody budgets, to the purchase price that line actually buys.
All-in drive-away price.
Mainstream cars shed 10–15% a year in the first five; the badge changes the number less than the mileage does.
Everything is calculated in your browser as you type. Nothing you enter is sent or stored, and no account is needed.
Within the line.
$16,860
the all-in annual bill of the car you're pricing
| Depreciation — the invisible payment | — |
| Capital cost — what the price forgoes each year | — |
| Insurance, fuel, upkeep | — |
| All-in, per year | — |
| The price the 10% line affords you | — |
| If the car costs | All-in / yr | Share of net |
|---|---|---|
| — | — | — |
| — | — | — |
| — | — | — |
Depreciation is the payment you make whether you finance or not — the car takes it directly out of resale. A three-year-old car hands most of it to the first owner.
The 10% line prices transport, not identity. If the car is genuinely the hobby, budget it as one — from the same pool as the boat and the watches, with open eyes.
Two cars double everything except the fuel. Run the household's fleet through this page, not one vehicle at a time.
Everything below is calculated from your inputs. Depreciation and market return are assumptions you control.
all_in = price × dep + price × r + insurance + fuel + upkeep
line = 10% of net income
afford = (0.10 × net − running) / (dep + r)
The gauge reads the all-in bill against net income, the house line at 10% — transport as a utility. Capital cost charges the purchase price at your market return, because money parked in a driveway also stopped compounding; financing swaps that term for interest at a similar magnitude.
Limitations. Depreciation curves are steepest in years one to three and flatten after; a single rate averages them. Financing costs, brand-specific resale and the second car are yours to layer on.