Car Deal Worksheet
Fill this in BEFORE you go, and again at the desk. If the two columns disagree, that is the conversation.
BFCBrilliance · bfcbrilliance.com/tools/car-loan-calculator
The deal
- Vehicle
- Dealer
- Date
- Agreed price
- Deposit / trade-in
- Amount financed
- APR
- Term
- MONTHLY
- TOTAL COST
Compare terms — change ONLY the months
| Term | Monthly | Total interest | Total cost |
|---|---|---|---|
The arithmetic
- Amount financed
- price - deposit
- Monthly rate r
- APR / 1200 — so 7.5% gives r = 0.00625
- Payment
- amount x r / (1 - (1 + r) ^ -months)
- At 0% APR
- amount / months
- Total interest
- payment x months - amount financed
- TOTAL COST
- price + total interest
- Not included
- tax, fees, warranties, gap insurance
- Also not included
- insurance, fuel, servicing, DEPRECIATION
At the desk
- Negotiate the PRICE first — never the monthly payment
- Trade-in negotiated separately, after the price is agreed
- Financing discussed last, and only after both are settled
- Own financing arranged beforehand as a benchmark to beat
- Every fee identified — and whether it is being rolled into the loan
- Term checked: is the quoted payment on 60 months or 84?
- TOTAL COST compared between offers, not the monthly figure
- 0% offers compared against the cash rebate you would forgo
- Nothing signed the same day if anything feels rushed
The payment is not the price
Almost every uncomfortable car deal comes from negotiating the wrong number. A monthly payment can be lowered without a single thing getting cheaper — stretch the term, roll costs into a longer loan, and the figure people actually feel goes down while the amount they hand over goes up. Agree the price, then the rate, then look at the payment last.
Depreciation is the cost nobody schedules
Interest appears on a payment schedule and depreciation does not, which is why it gets ignored — and on a new car it is usually the single largest cost of ownership, often more than every other line combined. It is worth knowing roughly what the car will be worth at the end of the term before deciding how long that term should be.