Auto Lease Calculator
Oct 05, 2023
Use this auto lease calculator to estimate what your car lease will really cost. Enter the car's MSRP, final negotiated price, down payment, sales tax, length of the lease, new car lending rate and the car's value after the lease ends. The calculator will estimate the capitalized cost, lease price, residual value, depreciation and lease fees, the monthly payment without taxes and the monthly payment after the tax is applied.
Terms to know
Before you sign any lease agreement, familiarize yourself with common terms your lessor may use.
- Capitalized cost
- Also called cap cost, this is the amount you finance with the lease. If you were buying a car, it would be the selling price. For a lease, the capitalized cost is the main number used to determine depreciation and monthly payment.
- Depreciation fee
- The depreciation fee is the cost of depreciation spread out through your monthly payments. If the vehicle is worth $30,000 and is estimated to depreciate by $10,000, you will pay $10,000 in depreciation spread over your lease period. For a 36-month lease, this is a monthly depreciation fee of around $280.
- Down payment
- A down payment reduces your monthly payment, taxes and other fees. However, if something happens to a leased car, you won’t get that money back — your insurance will reimburse the lessor. Experts recommend against making a large down payment on leased vehicles for this reason.
- MSRP
- Manufacturer’s suggested retail price, or MSRP, is the cost a manufacturer recommends for its vehiclse before negotiation. You can find the MSRP for every vehicle on the manufacturer’s website or third-party resources like Kelley Blue Book and Edmunds.
- Residual value
- Residual value is the estimated value of a vehicle after the lease period ends. It is used to determine your monthly payments and will be the price you pay if you decide to buy the vehicle after leasing.