What will this car really cost you?
Pick a vehicle type, answer three questions, and get a 5-year total cost of ownership — depreciation, fuel, insurance, maintenance, and financing — built from published Canadian figures. Every number is sourced, dated, and adjustable.
1 · Pick your vehicle
The fuel and price defaults below reconfigure for each class. Everything stays editable in step 3.
2 · Answer 3 quick questions
We build your cost breakdown from your answers — every figure stays adjustable below.
Natural Resources Canada uses 20,000 km/year as its standard annual distance.Sourced
Financing adds the interest cost; the loan principal is equity in a car you own.
Blends the published city/highway ratings below. NRCan's combined rating assumes 55% city / 45% highway.Sourced
3 · Your cost breakdown
1–10 years.Yours
Where the money goes
Share of total ownership cost over your ownership period.
Year by year
| Year | Depreciation | Fuel | Insurance | Maintenance | Interest | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total |
Every number, traced
All figures researched and accessed 2026-09-28. Defaults are starting points — your own numbers always win.
- Fuel consumption — Natural Resources Canada, 2026 Fuel Consumption Guide (50th Anniversary Edition), 5-cycle lab ratings. Representative models: Mini Cooper Convertible 8.8 city / 6.4 hwy / 7.7 combined L/100km (compact); Honda CR-V 1.5L 8.4 / 7.1 / 7.8 (SUV); Ram 1500 4X4 13.2 / 9.9 / 11.7 (pickup); Hyundai Kona Electric 16.3 / 20.3 / 18.1 kWh/100km (EV). Combined rating = 55% city / 45% highway per NRCan methodology.
- Gas price: $1.81/L — Ontario regular unleaded average, week of September 21, 2026 (Ontario Ministry of Energy motor fuel prices, Kalibrate survey data).
- Electricity: $0.098/kWh — Ontario Energy Board regulated price, time-of-use off-peak, effective May 1 – October 31, 2026. Energy charge only; HST and delivery charges extra. New RPP prices effective November 1, 2026 had not been announced as of late September 2026.
- Depreciation curve — CAA Driving Costs data (Vincentric): ~30% value loss in year one; 60–70% over the first five years. Model residual by vehicle age: 70%, 60%, 52%, 46%, 40% for ages 1–5; ages 9+ are an extrapolated ~7%/yr decline (labeled estimate).
- Insurance: $2,164/yr — Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA), Ontario-wide average annual premium for private passenger vehicles, 12 months ending October 2025. FSRA publishes only this overall average — your class, record, and postal code move your real quote.
- Maintenance: $600/yr — midpoint of CAA's $500–$700/year range for routine scheduled maintenance (excludes tires and winter tires).
- New purchase price: $53,400 — DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, average transaction price for new light vehicles in Canada, 2025 (DesRosiers also reported $49,500 for Q1 2026).
- Used purchase price: $36,690 — AutoHebdo Q2 2026 price index (DesRosiers data, July 2026), average used-vehicle price in Canada. Modeled as a ~3-year-old vehicle for the depreciation curve.
- Loan rates — new 6.57% (Bank of Canada, average chartered-bank auto loan rate, April 2026); used 10.49% (2026 FCAC lender disclosures via industry reporting). Adjust to your actual offer.
- 20,000 km/year — NRCan's standard annual driving distance used across the Fuel Consumption Guide.
- Use blends — mostly city 80/20, mixed 55/45 (NRCan combined definition), mostly highway 20/80. The blends are simulator assumptions; the underlying city/highway ratings are NRCan's.
Want the reasoning behind these numbers?
The guides below explain each cost category in plain language — what drives it and what you can do about it.
Read the depreciation guide