Car Loan Payment Calculator
Estimate your monthly car payment, total interest, total out-of-pocket cost, and payoff timeline. You can account for down payment, trade-in value, sales tax, fees, rebates, and extra monthly principal payments to see the real cost of financing a vehicle.
Burrow Tip: Don’t evaluate a car loan by monthly payment alone. Dealers can make a payment look affordable by stretching the term.
Always compare the monthly payment together with total interest, total cash down, and total cost over the full loan.
Vehicle and financing inputs
Advanced assumptions
Results
Loan balance over time
Cost breakdown
Loan summary
Amortization schedule
| Month | Date | Payment | Extra | Interest | Principal | Balance | Cumulative interest |
|---|
Payoff timeline (Mermaid code)
If your site supports Mermaid elsewhere, you can paste this snippet into a Mermaid block. This tool does not load Mermaid.
How to use these results
Car loans are easy to underestimate because the dealer conversation is often framed around the monthly payment. But the more useful decision is to look at the payment, total interest, and total cost together.
- Compare 60 vs 72 months: the longer term may look easier monthly, but the total interest often jumps significantly.
- Test down payment options: more cash down reduces the loan size, but it also ties up liquidity. Use the opportunity-rate field to pressure-test that tradeoff.
- Watch negative equity carefully: rolling old debt into a new car loan can make the purchase far more expensive than it first appears.
- Use extra principal intentionally: even a small extra monthly payment can materially reduce interest and shorten the payoff period.
This tool is best used as a planning calculator before you negotiate financing. Final terms may differ based on lender rules, taxes, DMV fees, and dealer documentation charges.