Edmunds.com, an online car buying site, has so many great tools for used and new car shoppers that it's hard to know where to start. There are the usual car finder options (loan calculators, and decision tools that help you decide whether it's more beneficial to take the rebate or the lower financing rate). However, perhaps one of the best tools on the site is the "TCO" tool.
TCO stands for True Cost to Own. You plug in a few simple pieces of data such as make, model, and year, and whammo! You have a concise, easy to read summary of the true cost of ownership for any car you're interested in (including the original purchase price, the cost of financing, maintenance, taxes, fees, and repairs).
*You can also expand the report to view comparisons of how this car stacks up against others in its class.
