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Cost of Car Ownership Calculator

I used to think that buying a car involves paying for car loans and paying for petrol. It turns out that there is more spending and budgeting that needs to be done when it comes to planning for car ownership.

As a finance blog, my research is not to show you the best way to choose a car or the best car recommendation to you. At Investment Moats, we hope to equip you with a good estimate of how much it will cost you to own your prospective car.

What is Cost of Car Ownership Calculator?

My cost of car ownership calculator aims to provide you with a summary of information detailing:

  • How much is your car loan
  • How much you have paid in interest + car loan
  • How much is your total expenses in car ownership
  • How much is your yearly or monthly total cost of car ownership as a portion of your income

This will be a good budgeting tool to estimate whether you can afford a car comfortably monthly. It is design more towards a Singapore user but is flexible enough for other country’s car owners.

Requirements

  1. This Calculator is best viewed in Firefox or Internet Explorer or Google Chrome
  2. It uses Javascript so ensure that your browser have javascript enable.
  3. For new car owners, it will be beneficial that you talk to some friends regarding how much they spend on petrol, parking subscriptions, insurance, etc.

Case Study: 1.5 litre 2005 Toyota Vios

It would be easier to take you guys through with an example. My friend tested this out with his 1.5 litre 2005 Toyota Vios, by entering an accurate estimate of his car info and expenditures:

There is no Calculate button you need to press. Once the information is entered, a summary report will be calculated on the right hand side.

Some clarifications

  1. It is optional to fill in your disposable income. This will mean your % of income spend on car ownership is not calculated.
  2. If you are using this as a non-Singaporean, you can choose to ignore Certificate of Entitlement.
  3. For folks who forgotten their Certificate of Entitlement they can just lump it all under Car Sales Price
  4. Estimated Monthly Expenditure on Car refers to monthly spendings related to the car.
  5. Estimated Yearly One-time Expenditures on Car refers to yearly one off spendings. This is where the expenses recur only annually.

Your Car Budgeting Summary

A report will be generated on the fly. Here is the summary report for my friend:

Your Car Info

This section gives you a good introduction to your car. It tells how long you have own this car and what is the COE and price of your car. Nothing rocket science about this. Its simple math.

Loan Info and Payment Info

The first paragraph talks about how much down payment you decides to pay at the start to purchase the car.

The residual amount will be how much you will loan.

You will also decide how long you want the loan tenure to be.

The second paragraph talks about how much is your interest at the time the loan is secured.

This section then tells you in total, how much interest you are expected to pay after paying off the loan.

Then it’s the total amount of loan plus interest you will need to pay. this is the total cost of the car essentially.

On a monthly basis how much you have to pay to service this loan. This is one of the key figures you will be concerned with.

The last section shows you that after paying for x number of years, how much you still have to pay.

Cost of Ownership

Your total monthly expenditures refers to the total of your monthly spendings. This does not include your one-time yearly spendings. This figure will include your monthly car loan + interest.

The Total One-Time Expenditures is the one that shows all your one-time yearly spendings. This is not related to your monthly spendings.

Your Total Annual Ownership Cost totals your total monthly spendings and one time yearly spendings.

If you have keyed in your disposable income, you will be able to tell how much of your disposable income is spent on the car. A percentage greater than 50% is considered unwise.

Lastly, the last section shows your total cost of ownership in the x years you own the car.

Go to my Cost of Car Ownership Calculator!

You can assess the calculator here.

I hope this tool helps you in planning for your car purchases or gives you an idea whether you are spending within your means.

Kyith

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Vermount Hoh

Friday 8th of March 2019

Hi, Do you have the update to the property investment calculator? Really good.

Kyith

Friday 8th of March 2019

no there is no updated copy of this calculator

Winnie

Wednesday 14th of July 2010

very useful calculator!

Drizzt

Wednesday 14th of July 2010

thanks! i am glad it helps you.

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