Compare cash, bank, credit union, and dealer financing, then use the calculator below for a real out-the-door price — tax, title, and registration included. This is factual information, not personalized financial advice (Clear Auto Choice isn't a licensed lender or advisor); every figure is dated and sourced.
Ties up the full price at once.
By credit tier (Experian, Q2 2026).
Requires membership — see lenders below.
Often marked up over the lender's approved rate.
Enter a price and your state, and this adds real tax/title/registration formulas on top — not a rough guess. Every default is editable.
Estimating financing for a specific vehicle? Browse EV Inventory or open the Comparison Tool and use its "Estimate financing for this vehicle" link to bring that car's real price and details in here automatically.
Credit unions often beat bank and dealer rates, but only members can borrow from them. Below are seven real examples with their eligibility rules and most recent used-auto rate — not "the best rate for you," since that depends on your own credit and who you can actually join. Get your own pre-approval before assuming any of these apply to you.
A consumer-first ranking should weigh more than the headline rate — rate competitiveness against a real benchmark (this page already sources one: the live FRED bank/finance-company rates and Experian's credit-tier averages above), membership accessibility (open to the public vs. restricted to an employer or affiliation), real bonus/incentive value against any minimum-loan requirement, and flexibility (skip-a-payment options, zero-down availability, EV/PHEV rate discounts).
We're not publishing a numeric score across all seven: none has a currently-confirmed cash bonus or EV-specific rate discount we could find published, so a composite number would imply more precision than the data supports. What's below instead is every fact we could confirm and cite for each one — including the "consumer protection" facts (prepayment penalty, max loan term, GAP insurance cost, pre-approval validity) — so you can weigh them yourself, or by whatever weighting matters most to you.
Who qualifies: active duty, reserve, veteran, and retired members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, National Guard, or Space Force; Department of Defense civilian employees, contractors on a DoD installation, and DoD retirees/annuitants; and family members (parents, grandparents, spouses, siblings, children, grandchildren, and household members) of an existing member. A $5 minimum savings balance is required to join. This is not open to the general public without one of these ties.
Source: navyfederal.org/membership/eligibility. Rates shown assume excellent credit, change without notice, and rise for longer terms (roughly 5.3% for 37–60 mo, 5.4% for 61–72 mo, 7.0% for 73–84 mo as of the same capture). Consumer-protection facts above captured Sept 16, 2026 from Navy Federal's own FAQ and GAP disclosure pages — confirm current terms before relying on them.
Who qualifies: military, DoD/DHS employees, retirees, and family members of current members qualify directly — but PenFed's own signup flow lets anyone join by opening a $5 minimum savings account, with no military or association tie required. In practice, membership is open to the general public.
Source: penfed.org. PenFed's own rate page loads rates dynamically rather than as static text, so the range above is from third-party rate trackers (Bankrate, updated Aug 21, 2026; NerdWallet, updated Aug 7, 2026) rather than scraped directly from penfed.org — check penfed.org/auto for PenFed's current published number before relying on this. Consumer-protection facts above captured Sept 16, 2026 from PenFed's own FAQ and GAP pages — confirm current terms before relying on them.
Who qualifies: anyone who lives, works, worships, or attends school in Hampton Roads, VA (Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg), parts of Richmond, VA, Currituck/Gates counties, NC, or Gloucester/Isle of Wight/James City/Mathews/York counties, VA — plus immediate family of an existing member. Join with a $5 minimum deposit.
Source: 1stadvantage.org/join-1stadvantage. The 4.74% rate includes a 0.25% autopay discount and a 0.25% discount for B+ credit with loan-to-value at or under 80%, assumes excellent credit, and rises for longer terms (4.99% at 60 mo, 5.24% at 66 mo, 4.99% at 75 mo, 5.99% at 84 mo, as of the same capture) — changes without notice. Consumer-protection facts above captured Sept 16, 2026 from 1st Advantage's own pages — confirm current terms before relying on them.
Who qualifies: DC-area residents, workers, worshippers, and students and their families; employees, retirees, and contractors of participating employers, including USDA; or the public, by joining an affiliated association plus a $5 minimum savings deposit.
Source: agfed.org/membership/about-us/faqs. Rates assume excellent credit, change without notice, and rise for longer terms (4.99% at 48–60 mo, 5.74% at 72 mo, 6.24% at 84 mo, as of the same capture); used vehicles must be model years 2019–2024. Consumer-protection facts above captured Sept 16, 2026 from AgFed's own pages — confirm current terms before relying on them.
Who qualifies: NIH employees, contractors, fellows, volunteers, and retirees; immediate family or household members of a current member; employees of NIHFCU@work partner organizations; or the public, via a complimentary American Consumer Council membership.
Source: nihfcu.org/join-nihfcu. The 4.24% rate includes a 0.25% auto-debit discount, assumes excellent credit, and rises for longer terms (4.74% at 60 mo, 5.74% at 72 mo, 6.24% at 84 mo, as of the same capture) — varies further by credit and payment history, and changes without notice. Consumer-protection facts above captured Sept 16, 2026 from NIHFCU's own pages — confirm current terms before relying on them.
Who qualifies: employees and retirees of participating employers; Potomac, MD or certain Washington, DC-area residents; MD/VA/DC residents via a free American Consumer Council membership; anyone in the U.S. via a one-time $10 Home Ownership Financial Literacy Council membership; or immediate family of a current member.
Source: lfcu.org/open-an-account. Rates include a 0.25% discount for direct deposit plus autopay and a 0.125% discount for fuel-efficient vehicles, assume excellent credit, and rise for longer terms (5.50% at 60–72 mo, 6.25% at 84 mo, as of the same capture) — vary further by credit and loan-to-value, and change without notice. Consumer-protection facts above captured Sept 16, 2026 from Lafayette's own pages — confirm current terms before relying on them.
Who qualifies: residents, workers, worshippers, or students in parts of Alexandria and Arlington/Fairfax counties, VA, Prince George's/Montgomery counties, MD, and all of Washington, DC; employees of HHS, the Department of Education, SSA, FERC, FDA, Gallaudet University, and other participating employers; or immediate family/household members of a current member. No public join-by-deposit option was found.
Source: democracyfcu.org/eligibility. Rate depends on loan amount and term together rather than a single credit-tier number: 5.50% for loans up to $15,000 at 66 months, 6.40% for $15,000–$35,000 at 78 months, 7.40% for $35,000+ at 84 months (as of the same capture; the source page posts no effective date and rates are stated as subject to change). Maximum financing up to 100% of NADA Clean Retail value for 2019–2023 models, 80% for 2013–2018. Consumer-protection facts above captured Sept 16, 2026 from Democracy FCU's own pages — confirm current terms before relying on them.
These seven are examples, not a recommendation — plenty of other credit unions exist with their own eligibility rules and rates (often tied to an employer, a state, or a local community). The point is the same either way: check what you'd actually qualify for and get a real rate quote before assuming any number on this page is what you'll get.
Some sellers do offer a discount for a cash/no-financing deal — and just as often the opposite is true, since dealers can earn a commission (reserve) on arranging your financing and may prefer a financed sale. We don't have live, per-listing data on which sellers currently offer a cash discount — nothing on this site claims one exists for a specific vehicle unless a seller states it directly. If you're looking at a specific VIN in our EV Inventory, use its VIN Audit page to find the seller's own listing and ask them directly, and always compare the cash price against a pre-approved loan offer before deciding — a dealer's "cash discount" advertised price is sometimes just the price with a financing rebate removed, not a true discount for paying cash.
The same formulas the calculator above uses, laid out for a typical passenger vehicle (roughly 3,500–4,000 lbs) so you can sanity-check the numbers without entering anything.
| Fee | Virginia | Maryland | Washington, DC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales/excise tax | 4.15% of price, $75 minimum | 6% of price, $100 minimum | 1.5%–10% of price by weight & MPG (EVs: 1–3%) |
| Title fee | $15 | $200 | $30* |
| Registration (typical car, per year) | $30.75–$35.75 | ~$120.50–$191.50 (2-yr fee, halved here) | $70–$175 |
| Electric vehicle | +$135.63/yr Highway Use Fee | +$125/yr EV surcharge | Reduced excise rate; standard registration (new EVs get a temporary $40/yr rate, not modeled here) |
| Plug-in hybrid | Small mileage-based fee, not calculated here | +$100/yr surcharge | No EV benefit — taxed & registered like a gas vehicle |
*Flagged as needing verification at publish time — see sources below for exactly what's uncertain and why.
Virginia: Sales/use tax and Highway Use Fee chart from the Virginia DMV (dmv.virginia.gov/vehicles/taxes-fees/sut; HUF chart effective July 1, 2026–June 30, 2027, updated annually). Title and registration fees from DMV Fee Schedule form DMV 201 (rev. Aug 10, 2026). VA's mileage-based fee for PHEV/high-MPG gas vehicles is not calculated here — the published chart is indexed by EPA combined MPG, not fuel type, so we're not guessing a bracket for you; see VA DMV's own chart for your specific vehicle's MPG.
Maryland: 6% excise tax and title fee from official MVA bulletins (mva.maryland.gov); title fee $200 effective July 1, 2025. Two-year registration fees reflect Maryland's FY2026 budget increase, effective July 1, 2025, confirmed via MVA's own bulletin (mva.maryland.gov) for the effective date and affected weight classes, with exact dollar figures cross-checked against independent fee references: $241 (≤3,500 lbs, up from $221), $251 (3,501–3,700 lbs, up from $241), and $383 for vehicles over 3,700 lbs (up from $323) — this heaviest bracket saw the largest increase. EV ($125/yr) and PHEV ($100/yr) surcharges from MVA's official surcharge bulletin.
Washington, DC: Excise tax table (weight × MPG, EVs at a reduced 1–3%) effective February 17, 2025, from DC DMV (dmv.dc.gov). Registration fee classes and the EV registration discount from DC DMV's registration-fees page. DC DMV issued a fee-change notice on March 30, 2026 covering title and registration fees; the $30 title fee and registration figures above are the last confirmed amounts before that notice and may now be out of date — verify current fees at DC DMV's own fee estimator before relying on them.
APR by credit tier: Experian's State of the Automotive Finance Market, Q2 2026 — average used-vehicle APR by credit tier (super prime 6.29%, prime 8.81%, near prime 13.93%, subprime 19.10%, deep subprime 21.62%; overall average 11.19%).
Live rate context: Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) — new-auto bank rate (series RIFLPBCIANM60NM) and used-car finance-company rate (series RIELPCFAUNM), fetched live each time this page loads; see the calculator's "Live rate context" card for the exact figures and dates.
Credit union eligibility & rates: Navy Federal Credit Union (navyfederal.org), PenFed Credit Union (penfed.org), 1st Advantage Federal Credit Union (1stadvantage.org), AgFed Credit Union (agfed.org), NIH Federal Credit Union (nihfcu.org), Lafayette Federal Credit Union (lfcu.org), and Democracy Federal Credit Union (democracyfcu.org), captured September 2026 — see the "Membership lenders" section above for exact dates and caveats.