The money side of owning a car.
Loans, leases, insurance, fuel, repairs and the slow arithmetic of depreciation, written out plainly and with the numbers shown. 100 articles, no sales pitch, nothing to sign up for.
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What a car really costs per month
A month of car debits as a bank statement, then what the statement quietly leaves out.
Your real cost per mile
A fill-in worksheet for your car's true cost per mile, with a worked example beside every line.
How an auto loan payment is built
Same payment every month, a different mix inside it: interest versus principal, drawn to scale.
Your options at lease end
Return, buy or trade: three doors at lease end, and the steps behind each one.
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Budgeting
Fitting a car into a household budget, and the bills that sneak up on it.
20 articlesBorrowing
How car loans are built, what they cost, and what you sign.
16 articlesInsurance
Coverage, deductibles and claims, explained without the sales pitch.
14 articlesRunning Costs
Fuel, maintenance, tires, fees and the slow cost of depreciation.
15 articlesLeasing
Lease payments, lease-end choices, and when keeping the car makes sense.
22 articlesBuying & Selling
Setting a price, paying safely, and knowing when to let a car go.
13 articlesLease ending soon?
You usually have three choices: hand it back, trade it in, or buy it. Buying only makes sense if the payoff is fair against what the car is worth, so run those numbers first.
- Your options at lease end
- Should you buy out your lease?
- When your leased car is worth more than the payoff
- Twelve questions before a lease buyout
If keeping it comes out ahead and you need to finance the purchase, lease buyout financing is arranged by firms such as Champion Auto Finance. It is not a lender itself, so terms depend on lender underwriting.
Useful tools elsewhere
Auto loan tools and guides
Plain-language explainers and checklists from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Financing or leasing a car
The Federal Trade Commission on what to check before you sign either kind of contract.
Compare fuel economy by model
Official mileage figures and annual fuel cost estimates from FuelEconomy.gov.
Check for recalls
Look up open safety recalls by VIN at NHTSA before you buy, sell or keep a car.
True cost to own
Edmunds' five-year estimates of depreciation, insurance, fuel and repairs by model.
Recently published
A car budget for a college student
Four semesters of car costs laid out side by side, with the lumpy months marked and a way to fund them.
BudgetingSetting up a car budget spreadsheet
Four tabs, every column and every formula, row by row — a car budget you build once and keep for years.
BudgetingA car budget when a baby arrives
Every line of an illustrative car budget, before the baby and after, and why each one moves or stays put.
BudgetingBuilding a car fund, envelope by envelope
Five envelopes, five sinking funds, and a plain method for deciding how full each should be.
BudgetingThe add-ons that end up inside your car loan
Eight common add-ons, each with two prices: the menu price and the financed cost.
BorrowingAdding a driver to your policy
Six illustrative households, one new driver each, and what adding that person tends to change on a car policy.
InsuranceBefore you co-sign a car loan
Co-signing, set out as numbered I-understand-that clauses, each with a plain explanation.
BorrowingBudgeting for a teenager behind the wheel
A letter to the parent of a new driver about the money: insurance, the car, and who pays for what.
BudgetingBuy here, pay here lots, examined
Seven claims from the banners on a buy here, pay here lot, and what each one usually means once you sign.
BorrowingBuying your leased car vs another used one
What you already know about the car you lease, set against what you would have to guess about someone else's.
LeasingCar costs in retirement
A composite couple in three scenes: the last working year, the first retired year, and a decade on.
BudgetingCar costs on an irregular income
Lean month, normal month, flush month: a playbook of car-cost rules for incomes that won't sit still.
Budgeting