Used Car True Cost Calculator

The asking price is the smallest decision in a used car purchase. Sales tax and registration are fixed and predictable; deferred maintenance is neither, and it is what turns a good price into a bad one.

Every car has a maintenance schedule with expensive items at known mileages — timing belt, transmission service, brake fluid, tyres. If the seller cannot produce records showing they were done, price them as due now.

Use free records before paid ones

The federal VIN decoder confirms what the car was built as. The NHTSA recall lookup shows open safety recalls by VIN. Both are free and take a minute, and they catch problems no paid history report will phrase as plainly.

What the inspection is really for

Not to find a reason to walk away — to convert unknowns into numbers. An inspection that finds $1,400 of upcoming work has not ruined the deal; it has just moved $1,400 from your surprise column to your negotiation column.

Records beat reports

A folder of dated service invoices from a real shop tells you more than any history report. No records is not proof of neglect, but it means you are buying the maintenance schedule from scratch — which is exactly what the box above prices.