Reverse Auto Loan Calculator: What Your Payment Buys

The reverse auto loan calculator determines how much loan your monthly payment can finance.

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Updated Dec 4, 2025 3:17 p.m. PST

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If you know how much car payment you can afford each month, a reverse auto loan calculator can tell you how that translates into the total amount you can borrow. But, of course, there are variables: the length of the loan and the interest rate you get.

Say you have decided that you can afford to spend $500 a month on a car. How far that goes depends on your interest rate. At 5% APR, a $500 payment will buy you a loan of about $26,500 for 60 months. At 9.5%, you could finance a loan of around $23,800. The loan length has an even more dramatic effect; that 9.5% loan stretched out to 84 months would finance about $30,500.

Below you can see how your loan amount changes by moving the sliders for payment and loan term. We've provided average rates by credit tier as determined by Experian Information Solutions for the third quarter of 2025 .

Filter Loans

3 auto loans found

LightStream

New car purchase loan

4.5

NerdWallet rating

Best for borrowers with good or excellent credit who want fast approval and funding to buy a new car.

Min score: 660 Amount: $5,000 - $100,000

Min. Amount $5,000

Max. Amount $100,000

NerdWallet rating

4.5

Est. APR: 6.74 - 15.24% Term: 24 - 84 months

You will be redirected to the partner's website

MyAutoloan

New car purchase loan

4.0

NerdWallet rating

Best for applicants who want to compare multiple new car purchase loan offers.

Min score: 600 Amount: $8,000 - $100,000

Min. Amount $8,000

Max. Amount $100,000

NerdWallet rating

4.0

Est. APR: 6.24 - 29.90% Term: 24 - 84 months

You will be redirected to the partner's website

Auto Credit Express

New car purchase loan

Not yet rated

Best for new-car buyers who can’t qualify for a lower-rate loan through a traditional lender and need help finding a dealer with subprime lending.

Min score: 525 Amount: $5,000 - $50,000

Min. Amount $5,000

Max. Amount $50,000

Not yet rated

Est. APR: N/A - N/A Term: 24 - 84 months

You will be redirected to the partner's website

Compare auto loan rates

Try our other auto loan calculators

Our main auto loan calculator lets you enter information like vehicle price, interest rate, loan term and down payment to see monthly payment amount and total loan cost. It's helpful for running different auto financing scenarios.

Our auto loan refinance calculator compares your current auto loan with a lower-rate one. You can see how much a lower rate might reduce your monthly car payment.

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1. Experian. State of the Automotive Finance Market Report. Accessed Dec 4, 2025.