Keep Above
New or used car
Two ways to own the next car. Each side takes its price, what it would sell for after the years you'd keep it, its running costs, and — if it's financed — the loan's interest, and lands on a cost per year. The sale values start from commonly cited car depreciation figures, marked EST.; every one is an estimate you can overwrite, and no winner is ever declared.
Not counted while this is $0
Sets where it enters the depreciation curve
Not counted while this is $0
Put in what each one would cost. Nothing here is read from your budgets, and nothing is saved.
| New | Used | |
|---|---|---|
| Paid up front | — | — |
| Value lost | — | — |
| Loan interest | — | — |
| Running costs | — | — |
| Total over 5 years | — | — |
| Cost a year | — | — |
| Cost a month | — | — |
Why does how long you keep a car change the cost per year?
A car loses value fastest in its early years and more slowly after that, so where each side sits on that curve is most of what separates the two figures. The new side starts at the steep part of it; the used side joins further along, where the same year of ownership takes less off. Stretch the keep out and both sides spend more of it on the flatter stretch, which is why changing the years field moves both cost-per-year figures rather than one.
Running costs carry more of a car's total than the two prices alone suggest, because fuel, servicing and tyres arrive every year whatever the car's age. There are no separate fields for registration, insurance or a pre-purchase inspection, so those go in the running-costs box — left out, the cost per year would sit under what the car would really take.
This is one of the tools built into Keep Above
Keep Above is a budgeting app where you enter your bills and income and it works out the balance you need to keep — so you can see what's safe to spend. No bank connection, no ads on your data.
New against used resolves into a cost per year across the years something is kept — which budgeting apps forecast your balance, and how far ahead.
About this calculator
How is each side counted?
One formula for both, cash or loan: the price, plus any loan interest, plus running costs over the years you'd keep it, minus what it would sell for at the end. Selling mid-loan settles the remaining balance, and if the sale wouldn't cover it the shortfall is stated as a fact.
Where do the car sale estimates come from?
Picking the car category seeds both sale fields from commonly cited published depreciation ranges for cars — broad averages, marked EST., never a valuation of any particular car. Mileage, body style and engine are averaged away long before the figure reaches the field, so it describes cars of that age in general and not the one in front of you. Type your own figure and the estimate steps aside; "Use estimate" brings it back.
Why does the used car have an age field?
Because a used car joins the depreciation curve partway along: how much value the next few years would take off depends on how old it already is. That age is the only thing the estimate reads. Where mileage or service history would move what the car would really fetch, the figure is yours to change, and the seeded one is only ever a starting point.
What counts as running costs for a car here?
Everything the car would take each year just to stay on the road — fuel, servicing, tyres, registration, insurance, and whatever a roadworthiness inspection turns up. The box takes one yearly figure a side, so where the two would differ, an older car needing more attention or a newer one still covered by a warranty, the difference belongs here rather than in the price. Leaving both at $0 keeps the comparison to the purchase and resale figures alone, and the cost per year then describes only that part of it.
Why is no winner shown?
Because the figures that decide it — what a particular one would really sell for, what it would really cost to run — are estimates only you can make. The page states both results identically and leaves the call with you. Nothing is read from anywhere, nothing is saved, and nothing here is financial advice.