The payment is only part of it. Add up depreciation, interest, insurance, registration, gas and upkeep for the years you keep the car, with your state's gas prices and insurance levels filled in.
The categories and starting figures are AAA's for 2026: a $39,376 new car kept five years and driven 15,000 miles a year costs $12,863 a year on average. Depreciation follows the same typical curve as the car loan calculator, about 45% of the price left after five years. Finance charges are the interest your loan actually charges in each year you own the car. Gas uses your state's average price from AAA. The insurance estimate is AAA's $2,098 full-coverage figure scaled by how your state's average premium compared with the national one in the insurance regulators' 2023 data; your own quote will differ, so type it in if you have one. Nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere. The link button copies your numbers into the page address and nowhere else.
AAA's 2026 study puts the average for a new car at $12,863 a year, or about $1,072 a month, kept five years and driven 15,000 miles a year. Depreciation is the largest part, followed by gas and insurance. Small sedans cost less and pickups more.
For a new car, depreciation: the value it loses each year, which you do not pay monthly but lose when you sell or trade it in. In AAA's 2026 figures it is $4,422 a year on average, about a third of the total.
Usually, per year. Depreciation is steepest in the first years and loan interest stops when the loan does, so the yearly average falls the longer you keep the car. Repairs tend to rise as a car ages, which the calculator keeps flat at AAA's average, so treat a very long horizon as optimistic.
AAA's 2026 figure for full coverage on a new car is $2,098 a year, but it varies widely by state, driver and car. The calculator scales it by your state's average premium; a real quote is always better.