Buy a Car Project

In this consumer math project, students learn about the costs associated with buying and owning their own car.

To start, students choose a car from the 6 car choices. Each car comes with stats: purchase cost, gas mileage, gas tank size, annual insurance premium and deductible.

Students then choose a bank loan. There are 4 loans to choose from. Each loan has a different term, interest rate and down payment.

For the first part of the project, students choose 4 car/loan options. You can have students choose 4 different loans for the same car, 4 different cars with the same loan, or have them choose themselves.

Students record the price of their vehicle, interest rate, term and down payment. They then use an online auto calculator (linked inside) to find total interest paid over the course of the loan, total paid for their car and monthly car payment.

Next, students figure out the cost of gas based on their car’s mpg and tank size. Students then calculate the cost to fill their car’s tank, miles that can be driven on one tank of gas, and cost per mile. Formulas are provided to make these calculations.

Students summarize the project by recording total monthly costs of owning the cars they chose, then compare their cars for most/least interest paid, most/least expensive to fill with gas, most/least cost per mile, etc. They then complete the project analyzing which car they would prefer and what they learned during the project.

This project comes with full answer keys, including all costs for each car/loan combination (24 combinations).

This project has been added to the Scaffolded Consumer Math Curriculum's Car Loans folder.

This project is also on TPT, if you prefer shopping there.