Car-buying calculators that show their working
Five tools for the numbers that decide what a car really costs. Each one shows every line of its answer, so you can check it and take it to the dealer.
- Out-the-door price
An advertised price plus sales tax, fees, rebates and your trade-in: what you’ll pay or finance.
- Trade-in or sell privately
Whether selling your car yourself beats the dealer’s offer once the trade-in tax saving counts.
- Registration and title fees
Title, plate and registration fees, split into what’s due now and what comes back each year.
- Lease buyout
Return a leased car, buy it, or buy it and sell it: the cash each path costs.
- Dealer quote checker
Add up a dealer’s quote line by line, and get questions for anything that doesn’t add up.
Which one do you need?
- You have an advertised price
- Start with the out-the-door price: tax, fees and trade-in turn it into the amount you’ll actually pay or borrow.
- The dealer has offered for your old car
- Check trade-in or sell privately before you accept. Where a trade-in lowers the sales tax on the new car, a lower offer can still come out ahead.
- You need to register the car
- Use the registration fee worksheet with your DMV’s fee chart to see what’s due now and what comes back every year.
- Your lease is ending
- The lease buyout calculator compares returning the car, buying it, and buying it to sell.
- You have a quote in hand
- Run it through the dealer quote checker before you sign. It adds up every line and gives you questions for anything that doesn’t.
How they work
You enter the tax rate and fees that apply to you; nothing pretends to know your state’s rules from a ZIP code. If you aren’t sure how something is taxed, say so: the estimate takes the more expensive reading and tells you what you’d save if the cheaper one is right. Everything is calculated in your browser, and the numbers you type are never sent anywhere. There are no accounts, ads or cookies.