Frequently Asked Questions

Start with the Vehicle tab in the left sidebar. Enter the drive-away price — this is the price you will actually pay at the dealership including dealer delivery, but before stamp duty (the calculator adds stamp duty for you based on your state).

Then select your state, enter your annual kilometres, and set how many years you plan to keep the car. These three inputs have the biggest effect on the comparison results.

Once you have those set, the Overview tab will show you a ranked comparison of all active finance structures immediately.

Enter the drive-away price — the total you will pay the dealer before any government charges. This is the negotiated price including dealer delivery and any accessories you are having fitted, but excluding stamp duty, CTP, and registration.

The calculator automatically adds stamp duty on top of this price based on the state you select. It also calculates Luxury Car Tax (LCT) if the vehicle price exceeds the relevant threshold and you have the LCT toggle enabled in the Extras tab.

All five finance structures are calculated simultaneously. The Overview tab shows them ranked from cheapest to most expensive by true total cost. You can click the method badges at the top of the screen to show or hide specific options.

For novated lease to appear in the comparison, you need to enter your gross salary in the Novated tab of the sidebar. The calculation uses your marginal tax rate and the ATO statutory FBT formula.

Running costs are in the Running tab. The defaults are reasonable averages for an Australian driver but you should adjust them for your situation:

• Fuel: Check your usual servo price and your car's stated fuel consumption. For an EV, adjust the charging rate to your home electricity tariff.
• Insurance: Get a real quote — insurance varies enormously by age, location, and vehicle. A young driver in Sydney will pay much more than the default.
• Servicing: European premium brands cost more to service than Japanese brands. Budget $800–$1,500/yr for European brands, $400–$700 for Japanese.
• Registration: Check your state transport authority for the current fee for your vehicle type.

More accurate running costs produce a more meaningful comparison — particularly if you are a high-km driver where fuel costs dominate.

In the Novated tab, enter your gross annual salary (before tax, including super if your salary is quoted that way — check your payslip). Then set the lease term and your expected annual kilometres.

The calculator sets the ATO statutory residual automatically based on your km input. If your novated lease provider has quoted a specific residual percentage, you can override this.

If your employer charges a management fee through the novated lease, enter it in the provider fee field — this is often $500–$1,500/year and has a meaningful effect on the comparison.

If you are considering an EV, toggle the EV switch in the Extras tab and select BEV — if the vehicle price is below the LCT fuel-efficient threshold, the FBT exemption will be applied automatically.

Yes — use the Save button in the toolbar at the top of the calculator. Give your scenario a name (e.g. "Toyota RAV4 – 5yr personal loan") and it will be saved to your browser's local storage.

You can save multiple scenarios and switch between them using the scenario panel. This is useful for comparing two different vehicles, or the same vehicle with different finance terms.

You can also use the Share button to generate a URL that encodes all your current inputs — paste it into a bookmark, send it to yourself, or share it with a partner to review together.

The opportunity cost rate (in the Extras tab) is only relevant for the Cash Purchase option. It represents what your money could earn if you invested it instead of buying a car outright.

The default is 5% — a conservative estimate for a diversified investment portfolio. Some useful benchmarks:

• 4%: High-yield savings account or term deposit
• 5–6%: Balanced investment portfolio
• 6–7%: Your mortgage rate (money in offset effectively earns your mortgage rate tax-free)
• 7–9%: Long-term growth portfolio estimate

If you have a mortgage at 6.2%, setting the opportunity cost to 6.2% is a reasonable choice — it models the cost of not having that money in your offset account.

In the Finance tab of the sidebar, the Dealer Finance section has a balloon percentage slider. The default is 25% — meaning 25% of the vehicle price is owed as a lump sum at the end of the loan term.

A balloon reduces your monthly repayment but leaves a lump sum owing at the end. The calculator shows both the monthly repayment and the total cost including the balloon in the comparison.

Set balloon to 0% to model dealer finance without a balloon (equivalent to a standard principal-and-interest loan secured against the vehicle).

Luxury Car Tax is a federal tax on vehicles priced above a threshold ($80,567 for standard vehicles, $91,387 for EVs and fuel-efficient vehicles in FY2025-26). It is charged at 33% on the GST-exclusive value above the threshold.

The LCT toggle in the Extras tab adds LCT to the effective purchase price when calculating total cost. Turn it on if your vehicle is priced above the relevant threshold. For vehicles below the threshold it has no effect.

Note: the EU-Australia Free Trade Agreement (signed March 2026) proposes raising the fuel-efficient threshold to $120,000, but this requires legislation to take effect. Check the EU trade deal article for the latest.

True total cost is every dollar spent on your car over the hold period, minus the amount you recover when you sell it. It is calculated as:

Most car finance tools only show the monthly repayment. That number is designed to make borrowing look affordable. True total cost is the honest answer to the question: what does this car actually cost me?

Cash looks cheap because there is no interest to pay. But the calculator adds an opportunity cost to the cash option — the return you could have earned by investing that money instead.

If your savings are in a mortgage offset account at 6.2% and you can get a car loan at 5.9%, financing the car and keeping your money in the offset actually costs less over time. The spread between the opportunity cost rate and the loan rate determines which wins.

If you set the opportunity cost to 0%, cash will always show as the cheapest option (no interest, no opportunity cost). The default of 5% is a reasonable estimate for most people with some savings or investments.

For employees earning above $80,000 with a supportive employer, novated leasing genuinely is significantly cheaper — especially for EVs where the FBT exemption removes what would otherwise be a large post-tax contribution.

The saving comes from two places: salary packaging reduces your taxable income (saving income tax on every dollar of lease and running cost), and for eligible EVs the FBT exemption means no post-tax contribution is required at all.

However, there are real constraints: you must be a permanent PAYG employee, your employer must offer salary packaging, and the vehicle reverts to the finance company if you leave your job (you can typically pay it out, but the terms vary). Make sure you understand the exit provisions before committing.

The Exit Simulator tab shows what it costs you to exit each finance structure at any point during your hold period — year by year. It shows your vehicle's estimated market value, your remaining loan balance, and the net cost of ownership to that point.

Use it when you are not sure how long you will keep the car, or when you are considering dealer finance with a balloon and want to understand your position at the end of the loan term. It also shows the residual buyout cost for novated and finance leases, and the gap or surplus between market value and residual.

Depreciation — the loss in vehicle value over time — is steepest in the first 1–2 years and flattens out over time. If you only keep a car for 2 years you absorb the worst of the depreciation curve. Over 7 years the depreciation cost per year is much lower.

Finance structures also have different term lengths. A novated lease is typically 3 years; a personal loan may be 5–7 years. Comparing them over your actual planned hold period gives you a much more honest picture than comparing them over their respective terms.

The depreciation model uses a declining-balance formula — a percentage is applied each year to the remaining value. The defaults (15% year 1, 12% year 2, 10% year 3+) represent a broadly average Australian passenger vehicle.

Actual depreciation varies significantly by make, model, colour, km, and market conditions. Toyota and Mazda SUVs depreciate slower than average; European premium brands typically depreciate faster. You can adjust the depreciation rates in the Extras tab to better reflect your specific vehicle.

For a more accurate estimate, look up your specific make and model on RedBook or CarsGuide to see typical 3–5 year resale values, then back-calculate the effective annual rate.

Quick Compare guides you through five steps to collect just the key inputs, then shows a simplified comparison result. It is designed for people who want a fast answer without navigating all the settings in the full calculator.

The full calculator has six analysis tabs (Overview, Cash Flow, Equity, Exit Simulator, Deep Dive, On-Costs) and exposes every input. Quick Compare uses sensible defaults for the inputs it does not ask about. If you want to go deeper — adjust depreciation rates, model a refinance, or see year-by-year equity — use the full calculator.

Yes — use the Back button at the bottom of each card, or click any completed step in the progress bar at the top to jump back to it. Your answers are preserved when you go back.

You need to toggle Novated lease on in Step 3 (Finance Options), and then enter your gross salary in Step 4 (Your Details). If salary is left at zero the novated calculation will not run.

Also note that novated leasing is only available to permanent PAYG employees whose employer offers salary packaging. If that does not apply to you, the comparison is not relevant to your situation.