Car Ownership and Mileage Cost Calculator
See the annual cost of owning a car, including depreciation, energy, insurance and maintenance. Divide the result by your mileage to understand what each mile or kilometre costs.
How to use Car Ownership and Mileage Cost Calculator
1. Choose the currency used for results. 2. Use an expected resale value and ownership period, then add annual running expenses. Enter finance interest and fees only, not the full loan repayment. 3. Change a value to update the results, or select Calculate. Review the chart and notes with the total. 4. Use Copy results, Share results or Download result graphic to keep the answer. Shared links include your figures. 5. Reset restores the editable example inputs.
Why use this tool?
Fuel is only one part of motoring cost. A car can be cheap to drive yet lose substantial value or carry a large insurance bill. Putting depreciation beside the running expenses gives a fuller economic ownership estimate. The mileage result also shows why low annual use can produce a high cost per mile: fixed costs are divided across fewer miles. This is different from a cash-flow budget for monthly loan payments, because buying the vehicle creates an asset and depreciation measures the value lost.
How the calculation works
Annual depreciation = (purchase price − expected resale value) ÷ years owned. Annual energy cost = annual distance × energy cost per selected mile or kilometre. Annual ownership cost adds depreciation, energy, insurance, vehicle tax, servicing and repairs, parking and tolls, and finance interest and fees. Monthly cost is the annual total ÷ 12; daily average uses 365 days. Cost per distance is annual cost ÷ annual distance and is unavailable at zero distance. A resale value above the purchase price creates negative depreciation, representing an assumed gain rather than a guaranteed outcome.
Example
A car bought for £18,000 and expected to sell for £10,000 after four years loses £2,000 a year on average. With £1,500 energy costs and £1,400 of the entered other annual costs, total ownership cost is £4,900. At 10,000 miles a year, that is £0.49 per mile.
Practical tip
Use the same mileage unit for the annual distance and energy rate. Keep a reserve for repairs in a cash budget even when the economic estimate uses a smooth annual average.
Frequently asked questions
Should I enter my whole monthly finance payment?
No. Enter annual finance interest and fees only. Adding capital repayments as well as depreciation would count part of the vehicle cost twice. Use the finance calculator for the total cash paid under an agreement.
Does this include annual mileage cost?
Yes. It includes mileage-related energy cost and spreads all ownership costs across the entered annual mileage. At zero mileage, the yearly fixed costs remain but cost per mile is unavailable.
How accurate is the resale assumption?
It is your estimate. Vehicle condition, age, mileage and the market can change resale value. Try more than one value to see how strongly it affects the total.