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Car Loan Calculator: United Kingdom

Calculate your monthly car payment including sales tax, trade-in and fees, see total interest and cost, or find how much car a monthly budget buys.

Reviewed by CentExactRates effective 1 sourceCalculated in your browser. Shared links include inputs.

Britain: there is no purchase tax to add, and car tax is not one

British buyers arrive at a car loan calculator expecting a tax box, because most of them were written for the United States. There is nothing to put in it. VAT at 20% is already inside the advertised price of a car in Britain, so the price on the windscreen is the price you finance, and the field is absent on this page rather than sitting at zero.

The phrase "car tax" causes the rest of the confusion. Vehicle Excise Duty is an annual charge, not a purchase tax: it is a cost of keeping the car on the road, not part of what you borrow to buy it. The first-year rate is collected with the registration and is small against the price, so it belongs in the fees field only if the dealer is financing it.

One consequence of a tax-inclusive price is worth being clear about. A trade-in reduces what you borrow, pound for pound of its equity, but it cannot reduce a tax that was never itemised separately, there is no British equivalent of the American trade-in tax credit, so the saving is the loan interest you avoid and nothing more.

For how the calculation works, the formula behind it and what it leaves out, see the full guide. For help interpreting a result or comparing it with a quote or statement, read the questions and answers.

Data sources

United Kingdom consumer finance conventionsGOV.UKWithin its effective period

Every document each dataset was read from, its notes and how the figures were checked are listed in the guide's data sources.

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Each country has its own rates, thresholds and rules, and its own page that runs the calculator on them and cites the official sources they came from.

CentExactCalculator publisher

CentExact publishes the calculation method, worked examples and available data sources. Automated checks cover reference calculations; they do not certify a result for your circumstances or imply approval by a lender or tax authority.

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This calculator is for general information only and is not financial advice. Results are estimates based on the figures you enter and the stated formula; lenders and providers may round or calculate differently. Check any decision with the institution involved or a qualified adviser.