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The payment is a third of it. Here is the whole bill.
A $700 car payment feels like the cost of the car. It is not — depreciation, insurance, fuel, maintenance, registration, and loan interest roughly double it. This calculator totals all of it into the two numbers that matter: true cost per month and per mile, so comparisons against transit, used cars, or keeping the old one alive are honest.
Drivers comparing "new car vs keeping the old one" use it to see depreciation as a line item — usually the largest cost and the only one without a bill. Per-mile pricing makes transit and EV comparisons honest.
AAA pegs a new car around $0.80–0.90 per mile all-in at 12,000 miles a year — our default scenario lands at $0.84. The biggest line is not fuel: it is depreciation, typically $3,000–5,000 a year on a new car, invisible because it only shows up when you sell.
Because it is the largest cost and the only one with no monthly bill. A $38,000 car worth $17,000 after 5 years spent $4,200 a year evaporating — more than fuel and insurance combined for most drivers. Buying 3 years old lets someone else pay the steepest part of that curve.
Keep the car longer (depreciation flattens after year 5 while reliability holds), buy used, and drive it more — per-mile cost falls as fixed costs spread. The worst move is the common one: trading a new car every 3 years, which concentrates the steepest depreciation into every year you own.
Usually on fuel and maintenance (charging at home runs 3–5¢/mile versus 12–15¢ for gas), often not on depreciation and insurance yet. Run both here — swap the fuel line for your kWh cost and compare the per-mile numbers directly.