About — True Cost of Car Ownership

Why it exists

Almost every car cost calculator online is attached to a dealer, a lender or an insurer, and quietly shaped to make one particular outcome look good. This one has no vehicle to sell you and no loan to place. It asks for your figures, applies published formulas, and shows the result — including when the result is unwelcome.

How the calculation works

Every formula is published in full on the formula page, including the simplifications. If a number looks wrong, you can check the arithmetic yourself rather than take it on trust.

Your data

The calculator runs entirely in your browser. Your purchase price, mileage and running costs are never transmitted to a server — there is no server to transmit them to. Share links encode the figures in the URL itself, which means the link contains your numbers: only share it with people you want to see them. See the privacy page for detail.

How it makes money

Some outbound links to services — vehicle history checks, tyre retailers, insurance comparison — are affiliate links, and a commission may be paid if you buy. That commission never changes the calculated result, and no partner can pay to alter a number or to be presented as cheaper than it is. Recommendations are matched to your calculation, so a car with low tyre costs will not be shown a tyre offer. Full detail is on the affiliate disclosure page.

Accuracy and limitations

This is an estimate built from figures you supply. It cannot know that your model has a known gearbox fault, that your region's insurance market is unusual, or that fuel prices are about to move. Treat the output as a well-structured starting point for a decision, not as a quote. It is not financial advice.

Contact

Corrections to the formulas or the content are genuinely welcome — accuracy is the only thing this site has to offer.