The calculator is prefilled with an estimated 16.00% APR for a new-car loan at a 500 score (deep subprime tier). Enter your take-home pay and down payment; adjust anything, including the rate if you already have a quote.
If you would rather not enter anything, find your monthly take-home pay in the table. Payments are capped at 10% of take-home, the level that keeps a car from crowding out the rest of a budget, with a 15% stretch column for comparison.
| Take-home pay | Payment at 10% | Car budget | Stretch (15%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $2,500/mo | $250 | $12,200 | $16,900 |
| $3,500/mo | $350 | $16,000 | $22,600 |
| $4,500/mo | $450 | $19,700 | $28,200 |
| $5,500/mo | $550 | $23,500 | $33,900 |
| $6,500/mo | $650 | $27,300 | $39,500 |
| $8,000/mo | $800 | $32,900 | $48,000 |
Assumes an estimated 16.00% APR at a 500 score, $3,000 down, no trade-in, a 60-month loan, and about 9% added for sales tax, title, and fees. The "car budget" column is sticker price, not the amount financed. Change any of it in the calculator above.
For buying a car, 500 is a weak score but not a blocking one. FICO calls 500 "poor" (300-579), and roughly 4% of U.S. consumers score below it. The U.S. average is about 715.
Auto lenders price risk rather than refuse it, so approvals happen at this level every day. What 500 costs you is rate: deep-subprime pricing averages 16.0% on new cars and 21.8% on used, versus 4.6% for super-prime buyers. The honest answer is that the loan will be expensive enough that a cheaper car on a shorter term beats the car you want on a long one.
A 500 credit score sits at the top edge of Experian's deep-subprime tier, the most expensive money in consumer lending. Approval is still possible, but the average new-car rate near this score runs around 16%, and used-car loans average over 21%. On a long loan, interest at these rates can rival the price of the car itself.
The playbook at 500: bring the biggest down payment you can, keep the loan short, and get quotes from a credit union before any dealership. Be especially wary of buy-here-pay-here lots; their convenience prices in rates and repossession terms that make a bad situation worse. A co-signer with good credit changes everything if you have one available.
| Credit tier | Avg new-car APR | Avg used-car APR |
|---|---|---|
| Super prime (781-850) | 4.6% | 6.8% |
| Prime (661-780) | 6.3% | 9.4% |
| Near prime (601-660) | 9.6% | 14.2% |
| Subprime (501-600) | 13.3% | 19.4% |
| Deep subprime (300-500) | 16.0% | 21.8% |
Source: Experian State of the Automotive Finance Market tier averages (latest published quarters). Tier averages flatten a wide range; within a tier, higher scores price better than lower ones, which is what the per-score estimate above reflects.
Take a buyer with $4,500 a month in take-home pay, $3,000 down, no trade-in, on a 60-month loan, keeping the payment at 10% of take-home ($450/month):
| Estimated new-car APR at 500 | 16.00% |
| Loan amount the payment supports | $18,505 |
| Car budget (sticker, after ~9% taxes and fees) | $19,700 |
| Total interest over 60 months | $8,495 |
| Same buyer with super-prime credit | $24,800 (interest $2,921) |
At these rates the term length is the whole game: stretching to 72 months barely raises what you can afford but roughly doubles the interest you pay. Keep it short, even if that means a cheaper car.
Every tier boundary you cross is a big rate cut: 601 drops the average new-car rate to about 9.6% and 661 drops it to about 6.3%. Six months of on-time payments and lower card balances can move a score in this range faster than at any other level. At super-prime rates the benchmark buyer above affords about $24,800 instead of $19,700, and pays about $95/month less in interest for the same loan size.
Rates step down at 601, 661, and 781. Pick your exact score, or use the main car affordability calculator if credit is not your constraint:
Cars are the smaller half of the credit question. See how much house you can afford with a 500 credit score, and what credit score you need to buy a house.
Estimates for educational purposes only, not financial advice. Rates are interpolated from Experian tier averages; your quote depends on the lender, the vehicle, and your full credit file.