Is flexing really cheaper than buying? How we do the math

How the comparison is built

Every figure here follows nine rules. Leave one out and the comparison tilts toward one side.

• The same car. Flexing a car is compared with buying that same car, with the same year, make, model, trim, and mileage. Never a new car against a used one.
• The coverage flexing includes. Flexing includes covered repairs and leaves no loan to pay off if the car is totaled. Buying assumes the dealer add-ons closest to that, an extended warranty and GAP, at their average prices, though their terms differ, and not the ones for coverage Flexcar doesn't include, like tire, wheel, and key protection. Leaving one out means going without that protection.
• Every cost, as each side pays it. Buying pays the purchase price, the state's taxes and fees, financing, insurance, maintenance and repairs, registration, and roadside. Flexing pays the vehicle price, protection, the membership, and Flexcar's taxes as billed.
• Matched insurance. Buying's insurance matches Flexcar's Essential protection as closely as a car loan allows: your state's minimum liability, and comprehensive and collision with a $1,000 deductible. The buyer is still a little better covered, since Essential's deductible is $2,000 or $3,000.
• The same driver. Both sides assume a driver who pays on time and drives safely: buying's insurance is priced for a clean driving record, and flexing counts the OnTrack discount Flexcar gives members with good, average, or low credit who do both.
• The same miles. Both sides drive the miles the Flexcar plan includes.
• After the sale. Buying gets back the car's forecast trade-in value, less what's left on the loan.
• Money tied up in the car. Money buying ties up until the sale could have earned interest, so buying carries that cost of capital. Flexing is the baseline.
• The same length of time. Both sides cover the same 1, 3, or 5 years.

Results by horizon

Results within 5% either way are a close call: small changes in the price paid or the resale value could flip them. Buying's totals include its cost of capital (below).

What each side counts

Buying

• The purchase price of the same car, with the same year, make, model, trim, and mileage: its Black Book wholesale value plus the average dealer markup (12.4%). Each model's figures are for one car at the average price, mileage, and costs of the cars Flexcar has of it.
• The tax the state charges on a dealer used-car sale, plus documentation, title, registration, and inspection fees for the market (tables below).
• The dealer add-ons closest to what Flexcar includes, the extended warranty and GAP coverage, at their average prices (below). Their terms differ from Flexcar's.
• A 60-month loan with 15% down, the first payment a month after purchase. Insurance is paid at the start of each month.
• Insurance matched to Essential protection as closely as a car loan allows (below), maintenance and repairs per mile that rise as the car's mileage climbs, less the repairs the extended warranty pays (below), registration and inspection renewals once the period paid at purchase ends, counted for the months the car is kept, yearly taxes on the car's value where the market levies them, and roadside assistance.
• At the end, the sale of that car at its own forecast trade-in value, after paying off what is left on the loan.

Flexing

• The monthly vehicle price for the mileage plan that matches the miles driven, with Essential protection, from Flexcar's rate card for the driver's age and credit band. The first month is charged at checkout and each later one at the start of its month (Membership Agreement, section 3.4(a)).
• For about 15,000 miles a year, both sides drive the Cruiser plan's 1,200 miles a month: the bought car's maintenance is priced at 14,400 a year, and flexing pays for no extra miles.
• The $249 annual membership, which covers routine maintenance, including new tires when they wear, covered repairs, and roadside assistance, paid upfront and renewed each year; renewals cost 10% less in year two, 25% less in year three, and 50% less from year four on under Flexcar's loyalty program.
• Flexcar's OnTrack discount takes a fixed amount off the vehicle price, before tax, for members with good, average, or low credit, from the seventh payment once they've made six months of on-time payments with a passing driving score (a late payment or a low score restarts the count). By credit: good, $15, $25, and $35 a month on the 850-, 1,200-, and 2,000-mile plans; average, $25, $45, and $65 ($50, $75, and $100 at ages 21–24); low, $50, $75, and $100. It's counted for a driver who pays on time and drives safely, just as buying's insurance is priced for a clean driving record.
• Taxes as Flexcar's bills charge them in each market. New York assumes the 12-month option, which a New York resident can choose at checkout and renew each year: it charges the year's sales tax upfront (section 3.4(d)), without the state's two extra 6% taxes. Payments go by bank transfer, which is free for every member; card payments add 3% (Membership Agreement, section 3.3(f)).
• After years two and four the vehicle price steps down toward a forecast base, each step capped at 20%, the way the calculator on every Flexcar vehicle page models it. Future prices are estimates.

Both sides leave out fuel, tolls, parking, mileage beyond the driving picked, swaps, damage, and other applicable charges.

Cost of capital

Buying ties up more money than flexing until the car is sold: a down payment and taxes up front, often a higher monthly payment, and money back only at the sale. That money could have earned interest in the meantime, so the calculator adds what it would have earned to buying's total as its cost of capital: each payment's difference from flexing's grows at 4.27% a year over 1 year, 4.84% over 3 years, and 4.97% over 5 years, the Treasury yields for the same length of time on October 5, 2026, until the car is sold. Each payment counts from when it's made: the down payment at purchase and loan payments from a month later; Flexcar's bills, the first at checkout, and buying's insurance at the start of each month; New York's prepaid tax at the start of each year. Flexing is the baseline, so its cost of capital is $0. The receipt shows the cash totals too.

Insurance and protection

Flexing's monthly price includes insurance and Essential protection. Under the Membership Agreement, a member who reports damage and follows the agreement pays at most $2,000 or $3,000 per incident for damage to the car, depending on location (sections 5.2 and 5.3), and with no loan, a totaled car never leaves a loan balance to pay off, the gap that GAP coverage exists to fill for buyers. Enhanced protection lowers that to $500 or $1,000 and covers glass. Liability coverage meets the state minimum and applies after any other auto insurance the member has (Membership Agreement, sections 5 and 6).

Buying is priced with the closest coverage a financed buyer can carry. A car loan requires insurance on the car itself (CFPB), so buying includes comprehensive and collision coverage, the counterpart of Essential's damage protection. Liability is set at your state's minimum, like Essential's, and the deductible at $1,000, the most many lenders allow. The buyer is still a little better covered, since Essential's deductible is $2,000 or $3,000.

The calculator starts from each model's full-coverage estimate and brings it down to that coverage with 2026 rate data for each state: what state-minimum liability, liability at higher limits, and full coverage cost (CarInsurance.com, Insurance.com), and what a $1,000 deductible saves (CarInsurance.com). Full-coverage estimates don't all assume the same limits and deductible, so each market takes the smallest reduction the data support:

Dealer add-ons

Dealers sell optional protection products when you sign. Every Flexcar includes covered repairs and leaves no loan to pay off if the car is totaled, so buying assumes the dealer products closest to that, the extended warranty and GAP coverage, at their average prices. They aren't the same coverage: a warranty has its own deductibles and exclusions, and GAP pays only what a loan still owes after an insurer pays out on a totaled car. The warranty's is the CFPB's average for warranty, service, and maintenance plans, the closest published figure. Other dealer protection products aren't counted: tire and wheel protection for pothole and curb damage, key replacement, and paint and fabric protection. Flexcar's Essential protection leaves that kind of damage to the member, up to the deductible. Worn tires are different: Flexcar's membership replaces them, and buying's maintenance cost includes them. What dealer customers typically pay is further down.

Two charges are left out. A dealer prep fee: federal and state rules require any fee a dealer charges every buyer to be included in the advertised price (FTC), and reconditioning is already in the purchase price. A loan origination fee: dealers are paid for arranging a loan through its interest rate (CFPB), which the APR below already counts.

Leaving add-ons out lowers what buying costs at the dealer, but the buyer gives up what they cover. The biggest is repairs: without the extended warranty, the buyer pays every repair the warranty would have covered.

Repairs the extended warranty pays

An extended warranty pays for some repairs, so the buyer shouldn't pay for both the warranty and every repair. The calculator credits back what a dealer warranty realistically pays, which is far less than it costs. The money set aside to pay claims is usually less than 30% of the price, according to an actuarial firm; another industry breakdown puts it at 25%, and a third at 36% including the cost of handling claims. The rest goes to the dealer, commissions, and administration. Claims also net out deductibles, denials, and what contracts exclude, such as brakes, tires, batteries, fluids, and routine maintenance. In a Consumer Reports survey, 55% of owners never used their warranty, and those who did saved a median $837 on contracts that cost $1,214 on average.

So buying gets back 30% of the warranty's price, $1,004 of $3,346, the high end of those estimates. It's spread over the contract's 5 years the way repairs come once the factory warranty ends: nothing in a car's first two years, then more each year, following Argonne National Laboratory's repair estimates. Only the years the car is kept count, and no year gets more than a zero-deductible, top-coverage contract would pay. The credit comes off buying's monthly costs in the year it's paid, so it lowers buying's cost of capital too. A buyer who skips the warranty gets none.

For the 163 models here, a 25–34 driver with good (670–739) credit driving about 15,000 miles a year, with the dealer's extended warranty and GAP coverage, averaged across Flexcar's 8 markets, the credit comes to a median of $0 over 1 year (most are still under their factory warranty), $267 over 3 years, and $1,004 over 5 years.

Sources: Kerper Bowron, vehicle service contracts (June 2025); Warranty Week (August 2010); Hayne, Extended Service Contracts (CAS Variance) (2007); Consumer Reports owner survey (2014); Argonne National Laboratory, total cost of ownership (2021).

Financing

A 60-month loan with 15% down, at the APR for the credit band you pick, with the first payment a month after purchase, as on a standard car loan. The APRs are Flexcar's modeled rates, the same ones its vehicle-page calculator uses. For comparison, Experian's averages for used-car loans in the second quarter of 2026 ran from 6.29% for super prime borrowers (781 and up) to 21.62% for deep subprime (500 and below), with prime (661 to 780) at 8.81% (Experian). Your own offer may be higher or lower.

The calculator uses a 60-month loan. Most car loans now run longer: 61 to 72 months is the most common term for new and used cars alike, and about three in ten loans run 73 months or more (Experian, third quarter of 2025). The average term was 69.46 months for new cars and 67.86 for used in the second quarter of 2026 (Experian). Experian reports terms in ranges, so 60-month loans fall in the 49-to-60 range and 72-month loans in the 61-to-72 range.

Resale

When the period ends, the buyer sells the car. The calculator credits the forecast Black Book trade-in value for the car's age and the driving picked (Black Book's 15,000-mile value for about 15,000 miles a year), then pays off what is left on the loan. If the car is worth less than the loan balance, the shortfall adds to the cost of buying.

Insurance and maintenance

Insurance starts from each model's full-coverage quote for a driver 45 or older, which tracks CarEdge's estimate for that model, and is then matched to Essential protection (above). Your age band scales it by the band's average rate against drivers 45 and over, from Bankrate's rates by age: 1.62 times for 21–24, 1.18 for 25–34, and 1.07 for 35–44. That's the higher of the two age curves we checked; the other is CarInsurance.com's. Your market and credit band set the level, from Bankrate's state averages by credit score. Bankrate and CarInsurance.com both use Quadrant rate data, built from insurers' filed rates.

Rates in most of these cities run above their state's average. Where Bankrate and Insure.com agree that the same cities sit above it (or below it), the market is priced for those cities, by the smaller of the two steps. Elsewhere it stays at the state average. Each city against its state's average, in each source's own figures:

Maintenance and repairs start from a per-mile rate for each model and rise with the car's mileage, following Consumer Reports owner data, which counts what owners pay for maintenance, tires included, and repairs (Consumer Reports): 2.8 cents a mile for the first 50,000 miles, 6.0 cents to 100,000, and 7.9 cents beyond, in 2019 dollars. The per-mile rates match that curve for a car bought at about 22,500 miles and kept 5 years at 15,000 miles a year, once they're brought to 2026 prices with the BLS repair price index. Fewer miles cost less per mile: at the Cruiser plan's 14,400 miles a year, a 1-year hold runs at 58%, a 3-year hold at 82%, and a 5-year hold at 99% of that rate.

Taxes by market

Each side pays its own taxes. Buying pays what the state charges on a dealer used-car sale; flexing pays what Flexcar's bills charged in each market from July to October 2026, all state and local taxes included (Flexcar taxes).

Fees at purchase and each year after, from each market's own schedule:

Some states charge electric and hybrid cars an extra registration fee each year, which buying pays on those models and Flexcar pays for members. The first year is what the state charges when the car is registered to the buyer:

Across Flexcar markets

The model table, the answers to common questions, and the data feeds quote one reference scenario: a 25–34 driver with good (670–739) credit driving about 15,000 miles a year and keeping the same car 3 years, with the dealer's extended warranty and GAP coverage, averaged across Flexcar's 8 markets. Each market's result is weighted by its share of the Flexcar fleet, the same weights for every model, so rows differ by vehicle rather than by where a model happens to be stocked.

What it doesn't cover

• A cash purchase, or a comparison longer than five years.
• Leasing, or buying a new car. Every figure compares flexing a car with buying that same car.
• Trading in a car you own now.
• Your own purchase price, loan offer, or insurance quote.
• Individual cars and local inventory. Figures are pooled averages by make and model, and models with too few cars to average aren't listed.
• Taxes for a buyer registered outside the market's main area. Buying uses each market's main rate; flexing uses what Flexcar's bills charged there.
• Refunds on a sale. A buyer who sells early can often cancel a service contract or GAP coverage for a partial refund; the calculator doesn't credit one, because not every buyer gets one (below).
• Flexcar's refundable deposit, which some members pay at checkout depending on their approval. It comes back after the car is returned, less anything owed (section 3.2).

What dealer customers typically pay for add-ons

Not every buyer takes every product. For anyone who wants to run their own expected-value math, here is how often buyers take each one, from published research, and what that comes to for a typical dealer customer: about $2,185, against $4,432 for both. That buyer goes without some of the coverage and pays for whatever it would have covered, so the comparison counts both. The table also lists the products that aren't counted, for reference.

Refunds when the car is sold early

A buyer who sells before the loan ends can often cancel GAP coverage and the extended warranty for a partial refund. The comparison doesn't count it, because not every buyer gets one. For anyone who wants to count it, here is what a buyer could get back on the average prices above, and how many buyers get it. Pro rata by the time left: GAP on the loan's term, the extended warranty on its 5-year term. A cancellation fee of up to $50 can come off where it's allowed, and a warranty refund can also lose any claims paid.

• GAP coverage: about 70% of buyers get it (55% to 85%). Automatic in about 13 states, about a third of US residents (California, Texas and New Jersey among them), and at some lenders everywhere; elsewhere the buyer has to ask, usually within 90 days of payoff. Sources: CFPB Supervisory Highlights, auto finance (October 2024); California Civil Code 2982.12 (automatic GAP refunds); Texas Finance Code 354.007; Martin v. Toyota Motor Credit, final approval (November 2022); Herrera v. Wells Fargo, final approval (November 2021).
• The extended warranty: about 30% of buyers get it (15% to 50%). Never automatic: the owner has to cancel in writing, with the contract and the mileage. Sources: CFPB Supervisory Highlights, junk fees (October 2023); GM Protection plan sample contract (October 2022); California Civil Code 1794.41 (cancellation fees); Colonnade Advisors, vehicle service contract industry (industry) (August 2017).

Estimates, not measured rates: no source counts the buyers who get these refunds. When two lenders' settlements offered refunds to past borrowers by mail, 12% to 15% claimed them.

Sources

Every source behind the comparison, in one place.

• Argonne National Laboratory, total cost of ownership (2021)
• Atlanta registration and inspection fees
• Atlanta: Georgia's yearly fee for electric cars
• Bankrate, car insurance in California by city (November 2025 rates; archived copy)
• Bankrate, car insurance in Georgia by city (November 2025 rates; archived copy)
• Bankrate, car insurance in Massachusetts by city (November 2025 rates; archived copy)
• Bankrate, car insurance in New York by city (November 2025 rates; archived copy)
• Bankrate, car insurance in North Carolina by city (November 2025 rates; archived copy)
• Bankrate, car insurance in Tennessee by city (November 2025 rates; archived copy)
• Bankrate, car insurance in Texas by city (November 2025 rates; archived copy)
• Bankrate, car insurance rates by age (Quadrant data, November 2025 rates; archived copy) (May 2026)
• Bankrate, car insurance rates by credit score (Quadrant data, November 2025 rates; archived copy) (May 2026)
• Black Book 2026 outlook (January 2026)
• Black Book vehicle values
• BLS consumer price index (CPI-U) (August 2026)
• BLS price index, vehicle maintenance and repair (August 2026)
• Boston / New England registration and inspection fees
• California Civil Code 1794.41 (cancellation fees)
• California Civil Code 2982.12 (automatic GAP refunds)
• California sales tax
• CarEdge: dealer fees
• CarEdge: maintenance
• CarInsurance.com, $500 vs. $1,000 deductible (April 2026)
• CarInsurance.com, average rates by age (Quadrant data) (September 2026)
• CarInsurance.com, liability vs. full coverage (Quadrant data) (July 2026)
• CarMax 10-K (fiscal 2026)
• CFPB auto finance data (December 2022)
• CFPB Bulletin 2013-02, dealer markup (March 2013)
• CFPB Supervisory Highlights, auto finance (October 2024)
• CFPB Supervisory Highlights, junk fees (October 2023)
• CFPB, insurance required on a financed car
• Charlotte registration and inspection fees
• Charlotte vehicle property tax
• Colonnade Advisors, vehicle service contract industry (industry) (August 2017)
• Consumer Reports owner cost data (2020)
• Consumer Reports owner survey (2014)
• Consumer Reports, the cost of car ownership (what owners pay)
• Dallas–Fort Worth registration and inspection fees
• Dallas–Fort Worth: Texas's yearly fee for electric cars
• Experian State of the Automotive Finance Market (Q2 2026)
• Experian State of the Automotive Finance Market (Q3 2025)
• Experian, average car loan interest rates by credit score
• Experian, average car payment
• Federal Reserve staff paper (2022)
• Flexcar Loyalty Program
• Flexcar membership
• Flexcar Membership Agreement, section 3.3(f)
• Flexcar mileage plans
• Flexcar taxes
• FTC, automobile industry pricing transparency FAQs
• Georgia title ad valorem tax
• GM Protection plan sample contract (October 2022)
• Hayne, Extended Service Contracts (CAS Variance) (2007)
• Herrera v. Wells Fargo, final approval (November 2021)
• How swaps work
• Insurance.com, average cost of car insurance by state (Quadrant data) (June 2026)
• Insure.com, car insurance in Atlanta (August 2026)
• Insure.com, car insurance in Boston (August 2026)
• Insure.com, car insurance in Charlotte (August 2026)
• Insure.com, car insurance in Dallas (August 2026)
• Insure.com, car insurance in Fort Worth (August 2026)
• Insure.com, car insurance in Los Angeles (August 2026)
• Insure.com, car insurance in San Francisco (August 2026)
• Insure.com, car insurance in San Jose (August 2026)
• Insure.com, car insurance in Yonkers (August 2026)
• Kerper Bowron, vehicle service contracts (June 2025)
• Martin v. Toyota Motor Credit, final approval (November 2022)
• Massachusetts sales tax
• Nashville registration and inspection fees
• Nashville: Tennessee's renewal fee for electric and hybrid cars
• New York sales tax (Westchester)
• New York Tri-State registration and inspection fees
• North Carolina highway use tax
• San Francisco Bay Area registration and inspection fees
• Tennessee sales tax
• Texas Finance Code 354.007
• Texas motor vehicle sales tax
• Treasury par yield curve (October 5, 2026)
• Warranty Week (August 2010)

Data and citation

Every figure is available as JSON or CSV, one scenario per request. Add the calculator's settings to the link (age, credit, miles, years, market, car, and zipadj, a ZIP pricing group from a calculator link, never a ZIP) for any other scenario; each row states the scenario it answers. Buying's totals include its cost of capital, and each row also carries the cash totals. Cite as: Flexcar, Flex vs. Buy Savings Calculator, version 1.8.0, data as of October 2026, https://www.flexcar.com/flex-vs-buy-savings-calculator.

Estimates, not quotes. Figures use fleet-average prices as of October 2026, forecast resale values and Flexcar prices, and the assumptions above; your actual costs, terms, and availability will differ, and savings aren't guaranteed. Buying's totals include its cost of capital. Insurance limits, deductibles, and exclusions apply. Terms vary by plan and state; see the Membership Agreement.