Money is tight for almost everyone right now. Rent, energy, food: it has all gone up, and most of us have learned to look harder at where each pound goes. Strangely, the car, usually the second biggest purchase in a person's life, still gets decided on one number: the monthly payment. That number hides most of what you'll actually pay.
SmartCarCosts is a free tool that answers one question properly:
"For this exact car, over the years I'll keep it, which is actually cheapest: cash, PCP, HP or leasing?"
It treats a car the way an accountant would. Money in, money out. What you pay, what you get back when you sell, and how much value the car loses while you own it. That last one is the big one: depreciation costs more than fuel and more than interest, and the honest difference between the four ways of paying is simply who ends up covering it.
We crunched UK market prices for 162 real models to build depreciation curves, so the comparison runs on data rather than guesswork. Pick your car, adjust the assumptions if you like, and read the ranking. We show the reasoning too, because a recommendation you can't interrogate is just someone else's opinion.
Try the calculator Or read how it works first