Estimate your monthly payments with Cars.com's car loan calculator and see how factors like loan term, down payment and interest rate affect payments. Estimate your monthly car loan payment. Enter a total loan amount into this auto loan calculator to estimate your monthly payment, or determine your loan amount by car price, trade-in.
Calculating your auto loan payment before going to the car lot can boost your negotiating power and help you choose the best loan for your budget.
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Source for credit range information: State of the Automotive Finance Market, Experian Information Solutions, Inc.
How to use the car loan calculator
While you can’t calculate your monthly car payment to the penny, having a good estimate will put you in the driver’s seat at the dealership and help you compare auto loan offers.
Here’s how to use the auto loan calculator and a look at the different numbers that will make up your car payment.
- Car price: In this field, put in the price you think you’ll pay for the car after negotiations.
- Trade-in and down payment: Enter the total amount of cash you’re putting toward the new car, plus the trade-in value of your existing vehicle, if any.
- Interest rate: You can enter the rate you’ve qualified for or estimate your rate based on your credit score using the dropdown menu at the top of the calculator.
- Number of months: Enter the loan term, or how long you plan to take to pay off the loan.
- Results: There’s no need to search for a “calculate” button. Simply put in your numbers and the results will update immediately.
In addition to looking at the monthly payment result, be sure to face the cold, hard reality of how much you’ll pay in interest. If that’s not sobering enough, look at the total amount you’ll spend on the car loan (this excludes the down payment).
By changing the trade-in or down payment amount, the interest rate or loan term, you’ll see how it impacts your car payment and total loan costs so you can compare offers.
Use NerdWallet’s car value estimator to quickly see how much your car is worth.
If you’ve been preapproved or prequalified for an auto loan, enter the rate you’ve received from the lender. You can also check the car loan interest rates offered by online lenders, Or, if you know your credit score, you can estimate the rate you’ll likely be offered based on average rates:Credit score | Average APR, new car | Average APR, used car |
---|---|---|
Source: Experian Information Solutions | ||
Superprime: 781-850 | 3.68% | 4.34% |
Prime: 661-780 | 4.56% | 5.97% |
Nonprime: 601-660 | 7.52% | 10.34% |
Subprime: 501-600 | 11.89% | 16.14% |
Deep subprime: 300-500 | 14.41% | 19.98% |
Keep in mind that rates on new cars will be lower than for used cars. Sometimes, carmakers’ finance companies will even offer rates as low as 0%.
What happens if…
I get an auto loan with an amount of: