Car Affordability Calculator NZ

This calculator works out the car price your budget can comfortably sustain in New Zealand, once you have allowed for the true cost of owning a car, not just the loan repayment. Rather than starting with a car price and hoping the numbers work, it works backwards from what you can actually afford each month. You enter the monthly amount you can set aside for a car, your expected running costs (fuel, insurance, registration, warrants and maintenance), the finance rate you expect to pay, the loan term in years, and any deposit or trade-in you have towards the purchase. The calculator subtracts your running costs from your monthly budget to find what is genuinely left for finance repayments, then works out the loan that repayment could service over your chosen term at your finance rate, and adds your deposit to give the maximum car price you can afford. You get back the car price you can afford, the monthly amount going towards finance repayments, and the loan amount that repayment supports. Use it before you start car shopping, so you know your ceiling rather than discovering it at the dealership, and remember that paying cash avoids interest altogether while a bigger deposit and shorter term both reduce it. This is an indicative estimate to guide your budget, not a loan offer or finance approval.

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Sets aside running costs first, then uses the rest of your monthly budget for finance over the term, and adds your deposit. Paying cash avoids the interest entirely. Estimate only, not a loan offer.