The Full Cost

Car vs Commuting: Is Owning a Car Worth It for Your Commute?

If a car is mostly how you get to work, is it cheaper to keep it — or to go car-free and cover those trips with transit and the occasional rideshare? The honest catch most people miss: most of a car's cost is fixed. Depreciation, insurance, finance, and registration happen whether you commute five miles or fifty — so going car-free saves the whole car, not just commute gas. Enter your numbers and see the per-year and 10-year gap.

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How far you commute

Only your commuting miles — the trips you're deciding whether a car is worth keeping for. Default is about half of AAA's 15,000-mile yearly average.

Miles per year for commuting specifically. This drives the per-mile costs (fuel + maintenance); the fixed costs don't move with it — which is the whole point.
2,00020,000
Owning a car
The cost of keeping the car

Defaults are AAA's 2025 Your Driving Costs averages (the same figures as our full-cost guide). Edit any to match your situation.

Value lost per year — usually the biggest single cost, and entirely fixed. Default = AAA new-vehicle average.
$0$8,000
Annual full-coverage premium. Fixed — you pay it parked or driving. Default = AAA average; varies most by state, age, and record.
$0$4,000
Loan interest per year — set to $0 if you own the car outright. Default = AAA average.
$0$3,000
License, registration, and taxes per year — the most location-dependent line. Default = AAA national average.
$0$2,500
Switches commute fuel from gas (13.0¢/mi, AAA) to home charging (5.0¢/mi, our charging-cost page). Maintenance is set separately below.
Service, repairs, and tires per mile — the other cost that scales with commuting. Default = AAA's 11.04¢/mi.
0¢25¢
Going car-free
The cost of the same trips without a car

These are yours to set — the defaults are national placeholders. Transit passes run roughly $50–$150 a month by city.

A monthly transit pass. Default $100 is a national midpoint; set your city's actual fare. May be pre-tax or employer-subsidized (see notes).
$0$200
For trips transit doesn't cover — roughly four $15 trips a month at the default. Set your own.
$0$400
Occasional errands or trips you'd otherwise drive — Zipcar, a weekend rental. Optional; default $0.
$0$400

The 10-year picture

What you've spent on each path at the end of every year. The costs are roughly linear, so there's no break-even — one option is simply cheaper every year, and the gap widens the longer you go.

YearOwning a carCar-freeDifference

What's driving the cost — and the honest caveats

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    How this is calculated: owning a car is split into fixed costs (depreciation, insurance, finance, registration) that don't change with how much you commute, plus variable costs (fuel and maintenance) that scale with your commute miles. Defaults are AAA's 2025 Your Driving Costs averages; the EV fuel figure (5.0¢/mi home charging) is from our charging-cost page. Going car-free is the sum of your transit, rideshare, and car-share costs. Both sides are treated as roughly level year to year, so there is no break-even — the result is which costs less per year and the cumulative gap over 10 years. The transit and rideshare defaults are national placeholders, not your city's numbers; transit may also be pre-tax or employer-subsidized (the IRS 2026 commuter benefit runs up to $340/month), which lowers the car-free cost further. This compares a car kept mainly for commuting against going car-free; if your car does much more than commute, its full cost isn't purely a commuting cost. Transparent assumptions, not forecasts — adjust them to your situation. Not financial advice.

    Going deeper