Owning a new car costs about $12,900 a year once you count depreciation, financing, insurance, fuel, upkeep, and fees, according to AAA. Before you buy, add up those costs for the exact model you want, and judge the car by that total instead of the monthly payment.
That’s about $1,070 a month, and the largest piece never arrives as a bill.
Depreciation, the value a car loses while you own it, averaged $4,422 a year in AAA’s 2026 study of new vehicles driven 75,000 miles over five years. You pay it when you sell or trade in the car for less than you paid. Full-coverage insurance added about $2,100 a year and finance charges about $1,200. By our math, five years of AAA’s average costs total about $64,000, on cars with an average sticker price of $39,376.
What you drive changes the total fast. AAA puts a half-ton pickup at $1.10 a mile, 48 cents more than a small sedan. That gap works out to about $7,200 a year at 15,000 miles.
Fuel is a smaller lever than it looks. In AAA’s numbers, an electric medium sedan cost $3,080 a year more to own than a gas one, because higher depreciation, fees, and finance costs outweighed cheaper charging. Hybrids cost less to own than gas models in medium sedans, compact and medium SUVs, and pickups.
Before you sign, run the numbers on the exact car:
- Look up its five-year cost to own on Kelley Blue Book, which totals depreciation, insurance, financing, fuel, fees, maintenance, and repairs. Its fuel estimate assumes 15,000 miles a year, so adjust it if you drive more or less.
- Get an insurance quote for that model at your address.
- Compare it with two or three similar models on the same basis.
- Put down as much as you can and keep the loan short to shrink the finance charges.
If the total doesn’t fit your budget, the car doesn’t either, however low the monthly payment looks.
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