About CarCostByState
CarCostByState is a privately owned, independent site with free calculators that show what a car really costs in your state: sales tax, the out-the-door price and the loan payment.
Updated Nov 10, 2026
Not a government site, dealer or tax adviser
We are not a state revenue agency, a DMV, a car dealer, a lender or a tax adviser, and we are not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them. Results are estimates, not financial or tax advice. Your dealer, lender or state agency has the final figures.
Who runs this site
CarCostByState is run by MRServices, a sole proprietorship registered in Poland, which also runs DMV Decoded. Calculators and state pages are built and checked by Matt Rum. Full details are on who runs this site.
How we check information
- Every rate, limit and fee comes from a source we read for that state, preferably the state revenue agency, DMV or statute. Each state page lists its sources with the date we checked them.
- Where only a non-government source exists, the page marks it as secondary.
- Where no source settles a rule, we choose the assumption that cannot understate what you pay, and the page says so.
- A state page is published only when every figure its calculator needs has a source.
- The calculators run the same tested formulas as the examples and tables on each page. The full method is on our methodology page.
The official source wins: when anything here differs from the agency's own website, the agency is right. To report a mistake, use the contact page; we check each report against the official source and correct the page when it confirms the report.
About the author: Matt Rum
Matt Rum is passionate about cars and web technology. He built CarCostByState because the price on a car's sticker is rarely what you pay: tax, local rates, trade-in rules and dealer fees differ from state to state, and they are hard to find in one place before you sit down with a dealer.
He reads each state's rules from the agency's own pages, records where every figure comes from and when he checked it, and publishes a calculator only when its figures are sourced. He is not a CPA or tax adviser, so the site shows its sources rather than asking you to take its word. If you spot something out of date, he wants to hear about it through the contact page.
How we make money
The site is free to use. It is funded by ads from Google AdSense and, where clearly labelled "Sponsored", offers from partners such as lenders or insurers. Advertisers and partners have no influence on the data or on what our pages say. Our privacy notice explains the cookies ads use.