The sticker price is the smallest part of the story. The real cost of a car is depreciation + finance interest + running costs — and most of that money you never get back. This free UK calculator shows your true cost of ownership across PCP, HP, a bank loan or cash, plus what that money could have grown to invested instead. No signup.
This page gives you the true cost in the abstract. WealthR's in-app Scenarios simulator runs the same decision against your real financial picture — so it stops being a generic number and becomes a choice you can actually weigh.
Free to start · no bank linking · the car decision is a Pro Scenario (£5.99/mo or £39.99/yr).
The headline true cost is the economic cost of ownership — the money you don't get back — built from three transparent parts:
resale = price × (1 − depreciation%)^years · depreciation = price − resale
The value the car loses while you own it. For most new cars this is the single biggest cost — and you pay it whether you bought with cash or on finance.
interest = interest charged during the months you own the car
Cash pays no interest. A bank loan or HP is a standard amortising loan on the price minus deposit. PCP finances the depreciation (price − deposit − balloon) plus interest on the balance, with the balloon added back if you choose to own the car. Only the interest is a true cost — the principal converts into the car, which you can resell. If you keep the car for less than the finance term, the calculator assumes you settle early when you sell, so only the interest charged while you own it counts (real settlement terms vary by lender).
running = Σ over each year ( insurance/tax/fuel × 12 + servicing/repairs × (1 + rise)^year )
Insurance, road tax and fuel are treated as steady, while servicing and repairs rise with the car's age — older cars cost more to keep on the road, so the slider compounds the year-1 figure by your chosen rate each year. This matches the in-app Scenario engine, so identical inputs give an identical number.
true cost = depreciation + interest + running · growth foregone = Σ each year's cost × ((1 + rate)^(years left from mid-year) − 1)
The growth-foregone figure is what the same money could have earned if invested at the chosen rate as it was spent: each year's depreciation, interest and running costs are grown from the middle of that year to the end of the period. It's a generic illustration — the in-app version shows the effect on your FIRE date, using your growth rate.
This free tool gives you the true cost and a generic opportunity cost. The in-app Scenario adds one-off big bills (a £1,500 clutch in year 5), the value of your current car, the comparison against keeping your current car, switching to something cheaper or going car-free, the share of your take-home pay, and the delay to your FIRE date, using your growth rate.
Ask most people what a car costs and they'll quote the monthly payment. But the payment is just how the cost is spread — it isn't the cost itself. The real bill is the value the car quietly sheds while it sits on your drive.
A £35,000 car kept four years at 15% a year loses around £17,000 to depreciation. Even on a typical finance deal, the interest might be £2,000–£4,000 — real, but a fraction of the depreciation. Add a few thousand a year of running costs and the true cost of "a £35,000 car" is often £25,000–£30,000 over four years, most of which has nothing to do with the headline price or the APR everyone fixates on.
It's also why a 2–3 year old car costs less to own: the first owner has absorbed the steepest part of the curve, and the car usually still has most of its life left. Enter the price of a used equivalent in the calculator to see the difference.
Want the story behind the numbers? Read the true cost of a car in the UK — what my 2013 Ford Fiesta taught me, where these figures come from a real car over real years.