Two caps on purpose
A long loan can hide an expensive car behind a small payment. The guideline therefore caps both the total monthly cash cost and the payment share of take-home. Those percentages are planning thresholds, not a credit union rule.
Your numbers
Car affordability
What a car costs you out of pocket each month, and how much of your take-home pay that would be. Depreciation is not included.EIA WEEKLY GAS
Texas: $3.806/galTexas weekly average · EIA · Sep 14, 2026 · A newer release is expected
$After taxes and deductions. Not gross salary.
Sets the energy price
$The number you are quoted. We do not look up market prices.
Trade-in, fees and running costs
Every one of these has a working default. Fill in the ones you know.
$Cash you hand over at signing
$Optional. Credited like a down payment, but not cash.
$Optional. Added to the amount financed.
%Your quoted rate. There is no car-loan rate feed here.
monthsUse 0 for a cash purchase
miles
MPG
$/ galLeave blank to use the EIA average
$/ monthYour premium. The starting number is a placeholder, not a quote.
$/ monthA budget you choose, not a service schedule.
$/ yearOptional. State fee tables are not modeled.
Total estimated monthly car cost
$895.5622.4% of monthly take-home pay · loan payment alone is 13.4%On our affordability guideline this lands in the Risky range: the whole vehicle or the payment is above 20% and 15% of take-home pay, which is the top of our range. A lender may still approve it.
Those percentages are CostAnswer planning thresholds on take-home pay, not a lender decision and not a rule that fits every household.
That verdict still uses our planning defaults for insurance and upkeep. Enter your own quote to make this yours.
Cut the price by about $15,000, or put that much more down, to reach the comfortable range with these running costs.
Loan payment$534.63$27,000 financed
Fuel$135.9312,000 miles a year ÷ 12
Insurance, upkeep, fees$225.00$150.00 + $75.00 + $0.00
Yearly cost$10,747Depreciation not included
Cash at signing$5,000Down payment
Left each month$3,104.44Take-home minus this car
Cost per mile$0.896Everything except depreciation
Total interest$5,078$32,078 paid over the term
Comfortable-range priceabout $17,000Our guideline: ≤ 15% of take-home
Fuel: EIA regular-gasoline average for Texas (Texas weekly average), Sep 14, 2026.
How we got this
- Monthly loan payment$27,000.00 financed over 60 months at 7%$534.63
- Fuel each month428.6 gal per year at $3.806 ÷ 12$135.93
- Insurance, upkeep, registration$150.00 insurance + $75.00 upkeep + $0.00 registration$225.00
- Total monthly vehicle cost$10,747 a year. Depreciation is not included.$895.56
- Share of take-home pay$4,000.00 take-home per month · loan payment alone is 13.4%22.4%
- Cash at signingDown payment.$5,000.00
What we assumed
- This is a planning screen on take-home pay, not a lender approval, a quote, or advice to buy a particular car.
- The vehicle price is the number you type. This tool has no dealer, book-value, or market-price feed.
- This is cash out of pocket. Depreciation and resale value are not included, so it is not a full total-cost-of-ownership figure.
- Comfortable, Stretch and Risky are our own labels for bands on take-home pay: comfortable keeps the whole vehicle at or under 15% and the loan payment alone at or under 10%, stretch still fits 20% and 15%, and anything above that is the top of the range. They are planning thresholds, not a lender decision and not a rule that fits every household.
- The rate is a nominal annual interest rate, not APR. There is no car-loan rate feed here, so the rate is whatever you type. Origination and prepaid finance charges are left out.
- Financing assumes 60 equal monthly payments with interest compounded monthly.
- Taxes and fees are a single amount you type. Registration is the yearly amount you type. State and county vehicle tax schedules are not modeled.
- Insurance and upkeep are only the numbers you enter. The starting values are placeholders, not quotes, and real premiums and repair bills vary widely by driver, vehicle, and coverage.
- Fuel uses a published EIA regular-gasoline average for your state or region. That is not the price at a specific station.
- Real MPG changes with speed, weather, terrain, and load.
- Take-home pay is the monthly amount you entered. Nothing about your taxes is estimated here.
Technical details
Method car-affordability-v1.0.0Data eia-gasoline-regular-weekly-2026-09-14-v1
Discrepancy in the numbers? You can click Report incorrect result below or email hello@costanswer.com with the Method and Data lines.
Guide
Monthly cash cost of a car versus take-home pay
Loan payment, fuel or charging, insurance, upkeep, and registration are added into a monthly cash cost, then compared with take-home pay using CostAnswer bands. Depreciation is left out, so this is out-of-pocket cost, not total cost of ownership.
Energy reuses the same engines
Gasoline and home charging use the same EIA snapshots as the EV vs. gas and electricity pages. Insurance and maintenance are whatever you type; there is no vehicle-price API.
Questions about this calculator
How much car can I afford?
The inverse prices (comfortable, reasonable, aggressive) take running costs out of the budget first, then turn leftover room into a sticker price. They are CostAnswer bands on take-home pay, not a dealer pre-approval.
Why isn’t depreciation included?
There is no honest used-car residual on this site. Cash out of pocket is still useful; it is just not TCO.
Terms used here
- Out-of-pocket cost
- Cash that leaves the account: payment, energy, insurance, upkeep, registration. Not resale loss.
- TCO
- Total cost of ownership, including depreciation. Not this page.
Practical tips
If take-home is estimated from a salary, unsupported states are federal-and-FICA only.
A 72-month loan that “fits” the payment cap can still fail the total-cost cap.
Limits and caveats
Planning guideline, not a lender or dealer decision, and not financial advice.
Results are for information. They are not legal, tax, medical, or financial advice. How the math is maintained · Report a wrong figure.
Engine notes
Rounding, versioning, and omissions that sit beside the guide rather than repeating it.
- Total monthly cost, not just the payment. The loan payment uses the same fixed-rate amortization as the loan and mortgage tools, on whatever is left after the down payment and trade-in. Fuel or charging reuses the same energy math as EV vs. Gas. Insurance, upkeep, and registration are added at the amounts you enter. Yearly figures are the monthly total times twelve.
- The number first, then our guideline. The headline is the calculated monthly cost and what share of take-home pay it is. Only after that do we place it on our own guideline: comfortable keeps the whole vehicle at or under 15% of take-home pay and the loan payment alone at or under 10%, stretch still fits 20% and 15%, and anything above that is the top of the range. Two caps are used on purpose so a long term cannot hide an expensive car behind a small payment. These percentages are CostAnswer planning thresholds on take-home pay, not a lender decision and not a rule that fits every household.
- How much car, and the gap. The comfortable, reasonable, and aggressive prices are the inverse of the same payment math: running costs come out of the budget first, and the payment factor turns what is left back into a price. Because the model is linear, the amount this car sits above the comfortable price is also exactly the extra down payment that would close the gap.