Ontario · Free tool · Step 4
Not just the payment — insurance, fuel and upkeep too, against what you actually earn.
Carried over from the last step if you came from there.
Four numbers. Nothing leaves your browser.
After tax and deductions.
What you already spend
Rent, debt and living costs are monthly. Total savings is the whole amount you have put away — we use it to check you keep a cushion after the down payment.
Budget checked. Last: what it costs to insure.
A widely used guideline keeps total car costs under roughly 15 per cent of take-home pay, treating 20 per cent as the ceiling. Total means everything: the payment, insurance, fuel and maintenance, not just the payment. These are guidelines rather than rules — someone with no other debt and a short commute can carry more comfortably than the numbers suggest, and someone with high fixed costs less.
No. The whole calculation happens in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to us, stored anywhere, or attached to your visit in any way. There is no account, no login and no submission step. Close the tab and it is gone.
It means the numbers as entered do not leave room, not that the car is out of reach. The usual levers are a longer term, a larger down payment, a less expensive vehicle, or driving less. The lease-or-finance step shows what each of those actually buys you. What the tool cannot see is irregular income, a bonus, or anything else going on in your life.
Because the payment is usually the smaller part. Insurance, fuel and maintenance together often exceed it, and they vary far more between vehicles than payments do. Two cars with an identical payment can differ by hundreds a month once insurance and fuel are counted — which is the entire reason this site exists.