Find out how much car you can afford from the monthly payment you're comfortable with. Enter your target payment, loan term, rate, down payment, and trade-in to see your maximum car price.
Max price from your payment
Instead of starting with a car price, this tool works backward from the monthly payment you're comfortable with. It calculates the maximum loan that payment can support at your rate and term, then adds your down payment and trade-in to find your total buying power — and backs out sales tax to give the sticker price you can actually afford. A common guideline is to keep your total car costs (payment, insurance, fuel, maintenance) under about 15–20% of your take-home pay.
For example, a $450/month budget over 60 months at 7% APR supports a loan of about $22,700. Add a $3,000 down payment and you can afford a roughly $25,700 car (before tax). Shortening the term raises the payment but cuts interest; lengthening it lowers the payment but you pay more interest and risk being "upside down." Use this to shop with a firm number in mind and avoid dealer payment-stretching.
Pick a comfortable monthly payment; the tool finds the car price it supports — not the other way around.
Put 20% down, finance no longer than 4 years, and keep total car costs under 10% of gross income.
72- and 84-month loans lower the payment but pile on interest and leave you owing more than the car's worth.