How this is calculated
difference = (payment + insurance + fuel/parking/maintenance) − transit cost; invested value compounds the difference monthly at 7% for 10 years
Car ownership hides its full price across a dozen line items — payment, insurance, fuel, parking, maintenance, registration, depreciation — while a transit pass presents one visible number. This tool simply gathers the car's real monthly total and puts the two side by side. Studies like AAA's annual driving-cost survey put average US ownership near $1,000 a month once everything is counted; most owners guess half that.
The subtle input is the first one. A paid-off car isn't free — it's depreciating toward a future replacement purchase, so honest accounting sets aside its decline in value monthly. Skip that and the comparison flatters the car by hundreds a month.
The ten-year invested figure is the real punchline: a $600 monthly difference compounds to over $100,000 of forgone wealth in a decade. That doesn't automatically mean 'sell the car' — transit must actually work for your life, and time, safety and flexibility have real value. It means the choice is worth making consciously, at its true price.
Frequently asked questions
My car is paid off — surely it wins?
Often it still costs more than expected: insurance, fuel, parking and maintenance continue, and depreciation quietly consumes the car's remaining value. Enter a replacement-savings amount in the payment field for the honest total.
What about my time?
Legitimate factor the math can't settle. If driving saves an hour a day, value that hour honestly — but count transit time you can read or work as partially recovered, and driving time as fully spent.
Is the 7% investment assumption fair?
It's the standard long-run, inflation-adjusted stock-index figure. The point isn't precision — it's that a recurring difference of hundreds per month operates at life-changing scale over a decade.
What about car-sharing or a mix?
Add realistic car-share/rental costs into the transit field. For many city dwellers, transit-plus-occasional-rental beats ownership by the widest margin of all.