Vehicle EconomicsCost of Owning a Car for 5 Years
A fixed, 60-month ownership scenario, the horizon that matches a typical auto loan term.
Why this comes up
"What does this car cost me over 5 years" matches the most common new-car loan term, and is a distinct question from the open-horizon True Cost of Car Ownership hub or the shorter 3-year version. This page answers it directly, with its own worked example at exactly 60 months.
How we calculated this
We sum every material ownership cost, depreciation, financing interest, fuel, insurance, maintenance, repairs, and registration, over exactly 60 months using your own annual figures, then show the total, annual, and monthly equivalents.
Worked example, using this page's own defaults: over 5 years, depreciation costs $11,000, financing interest $3,500, and combined insurance, maintenance, repairs, and registration add roughly $13,150, before fuel. Run the calculator above to see the exact total with your own numbers.
What this means
- A car that is paid off before the 5-year mark still keeps depreciating and needing repairs, this figure does not stop counting cost once the loan ends.
- Comparing this to Cost of Owning a Car for 3 Years shows how per-year cost tends to fall as fixed costs spread across a longer horizon.
- This is a planning estimate from your own assumptions, not a forecast or guarantee.
Limitations
Depreciation, financing interest, and every operating cost are your own flat annual estimates held constant across the 5 years; real costs, especially repairs, tend to rise later in a longer window. See Methodology.
Methodology
This engine reuses Vehicle Economics' ownership total cost model (every ownership cost summed over your horizon) and fuel and charging cost model, with the horizon fixed at 5 years. See Methodology for the full detail.