Enter the vehicle price, down payment, trade-in value, and sales tax rate to see the actual amount financed and your monthly payment.
How each year's payments split between principal and interest, and how the balance falls.
| Year | Principal paid | Interest paid | Balance |
|---|
Your trade-in reduces the amount you need to finance, just like a down payment. In most US states, it also reduces the taxable amount — sales tax applies to (price − trade-in), not the full price, which is why the trade-in appears twice in the math: once reducing the loan amount directly, and once reducing the tax added on top.
Most buyers roll sales tax into the loan rather than paying it upfront in cash, so this calculator adds it to the financed amount by default. If you're paying tax separately in cash, set the sales tax rate to 0 here and account for it outside the calculator.
36, 48, 60, and 72 months are the most common terms in the US, with 72 and even 84 months increasingly common as vehicle prices rise. Longer terms lower the monthly payment but increase total interest paid substantially and raise the risk of owing more than the car is worth ("upside down") for longer, since cars depreciate faster than a long loan pays down principal.
Worked example: a $32,000 car with a $4,000 down payment, no trade-in, and 7% sales tax has a taxable amount of $32,000, adding $2,240 in tax — financing $30,240 at 6.5% over 60 months costs roughly $592/month and about $5,261 in total interest.