A cheaper car that burns more fuel or needs more repairs can cost more than a pricier, efficient one. Enter two cars and see the year the pricier one catches up, counting fuel at your state's gas price, maintenance, insurance if you want it, and what each is worth when you sell.
Enter each car's price and miles per gallon, your state, your miles per year and how many years you will keep it. The chart and the cost breakdown need JavaScript; the questions below explain how the numbers are worked out.
Fuel is miles per year divided by miles per gallon, times the price of gas. The gas price starts at EIA's weekly average for the state you pick ($4.28 a gallon for the U.S., week of Oct 19, 2026); EIA publishes a weekly price for only 9 states, and every other state uses its EIA regional average. Pick a listed model and its EPA combined mpg is filled in, with the model year and engine named. Switch insurance on for a car and it starts at your state's average full-coverage premium from NAIC. Every figure stays editable, and today's gas price is used for every year you keep the car, with no inflation.
For each car it adds up the purchase price, fuel (miles per year divided by miles per gallon, times the price of gas), maintenance, and optional insurance, year by year, and optionally subtracts what the car is worth when you sell it. The break-even year is where the two running totals cross, found by drawing a straight line between whole years. Take a $22,000 car that gets 26 mpg and a $31,000 car that gets 48 mpg, driven 15,000 miles a year with gas at the U.S. average of $4.28 a gallon (EIA, week of Oct 19, 2026). Fuel costs about $2,472 a year for the first and $1,339 for the second, a gap of about $1,133 a year. If maintenance starts at $700 and rises $200 a year on the cheaper car, against $500 rising $150 a year on the efficient one, the efficient car catches up after about 6.2 years.
When you sell, part of the purchase price comes back, so what a car really costs you is the money you do not get back. A pricier car has more to lose in dollars but also more to recover. With the calculator's example ($22,000 at 26 mpg against $31,000 at 48 mpg, 12,000 miles a year at the U.S. average gas price, equal maintenance), the pricier car catches up after about 10 years if you ignore resale and about 6 years if each car loses 15% of its value a year. That 15% is an editable assumption, not a forecast; each year the car loses that share of what it is still worth. AAA's Your Driving Costs 2026 study, released September 15, 2026, puts the cost to own and operate a new vehicle at $12,863 a year over 5 years and 75,000 miles, with depreciation the largest single cost at $4,422 a year.
Miles per year divided by miles per gallon, times the price per gallon. A 2022 Toyota Corolla 1.8L (EPA 33 mpg combined) driven 12,000 miles a year at the U.S. average of $4.28 a gallon (EIA, week of Oct 19, 2026) burns about $1,558 of gas a year. The gas price starts at EIA's weekly average for the state you pick and you can type your own. EIA publishes weekly prices for only 9 states (California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Texas and Washington); every other state uses its EIA regional average, and the calculator says so. Pick a listed model and its EPA combined mpg is filled in, with the model year and engine named; mostly-city driving, towing or a different engine will move it, so you can change it. It is today's price for every year - not inflated over the years you own the car.
Fuel cost is miles per year divided by mpg, times the price of a gallon, so the saving depends on how far you drive and how big the mpg gap is. At 12,000 miles a year and gas at the U.S. average of $4.28 a gallon (EIA, week of Oct 19, 2026), 26 mpg costs about $1,977 a year in fuel and 48 mpg about $1,071, a gap of about $906 a year. A $9,000 higher price would need about 10 years of fuel savings alone to pay back. More miles, dearer gas or a wider mpg gap shorten that; fewer miles lengthen it, which is why the calculator asks for your own miles and starts at your state's gas price.
Insurance is optional and set for each car. Switch it on and it starts at your state's average full-coverage premium (liability, collision and comprehensive) from the NAIC Auto Insurance Database Report, 2023 data, updated to 2026 with the BLS consumer price index for car insurance and rounded to the nearest $10 - $1,700 a year for the U.S. as a whole. NAIC cautions that a state average does not account for the driver, the vehicle, coverage limits or deductibles - individual quotes vary widely. Treat it as a placeholder and type your own quote when you have one.
It counts the purchase price, fuel, maintenance and repairs, insurance if you switch it on, and resale value if you count it. Maintenance comes from our year-by-year data for the listed models, or from a flat yearly figure you enter for any other car. It does not include loan interest, sales tax, registration and fees, or electricity: fuel is priced with one gas price per gallon, so use a blended mpg for a plug-in hybrid, and it is not set up for fully electric cars.
Yes. Enter the price you would pay today, set the value lost per year to match how that model ages, and optionally say how many more years you expect the car to last. If you plan to keep it longer than that, the calculator warns you that you would need a replacement before then. It does not add the cost of a replacement car, so treat any total past that year as incomplete.
They are typical costs drawn from CarEdge, RepairPal, Edmunds TCO and our own cost-by-year articles, so they are best read as a fair comparison between models rather than a quote for your car. Choosing "I DIY some work" lowers the maintenance estimate by 25% and "Full dealership" raises it by 20%. Your own repair history, local labor rates and driving conditions will move the real figure.
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Total cost and maintenance cost by year for each car
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Is the Cheaper Car Really Cheaper?
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Sets the gas price, and the insurance figure for a car that includes it.
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Years you will keep it
Count what it's worth when you sell
Subtracts each car's resale value from its cost, using the value lost per year you set for each car.
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How the break-even year is worked out
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