About TrueCostMotors
The sticker price is a lie. We're here to show you what a performance car actually costs to own.
What this site is
TrueCostMotors is a true cost-of-ownership calculator and guide for performance cars. A window sticker shows you the MSRP and a salesperson quotes you a monthly payment — but neither tells you what five years of insurance premiums, fuel, maintenance, repairs, and depreciation actually add up to. We put all of it on one page, in plain numbers, so you can compare cars honestly before you buy.
We cover popular performance cars — the BMW M3, Ford Mustang GT, Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, Porsche 911 Carrera, Toyota GR Supra, and Nissan Z — with full ownership-cost breakdowns for both new and used purchases. Our calculator lets you adjust the price, down payment, loan terms, mileage, and fuel costs to fit your own situation.
Our methodology
Every figure on this site is built from the same transparent model. Our default assumptions are 10% down, a 60-month loan at 7% APR, 12,000 miles driven per year, $3.60 per gallon of fuel, 8% tax and fees, and a 5-year ownership window. The total true cost adds up six things:
- Loan payment + taxes and fees. We finance the price plus tax, minus the down payment, using standard loan amortization.
- Insurance range. Annual premium estimates shown as a range (because quotes vary wildly by driver, age, and location); we use the midpoint in totals.
- Fuel. Annual mileage divided by the car's real-world MPG, multiplied by the price of gas.
- Maintenance. Annual scheduled maintenance costs, multiplied by 1.25 for used cars since wear items come due sooner.
- Depreciation. Estimated value lost over five years, plus the projected resale value at the end of ownership.
- Common issues. Known problems and their typical repair costs, gathered from owner forums and repair-cost aggregators, labeled as approximate.
Data sources
Our numbers draw on pricing data from Kelley Blue Book and Edmunds, insurance estimates from national carrier rate surveys and comparison sites, fuel-economy figures from the EPA, maintenance and repair estimates from RepairPal and similar repair-cost aggregators, and common-issue reports from owner communities and forums. No single source is perfect, so we cross-check figures across multiple sources and refresh the dataset periodically.