Buying a car in Washington
Every figure below is sourced to Washington’s own revenue or motor vehicle publications and dated. Estimates only.
Auto loan calculator
The real out-the-door number — including whether your state credits your trade-in against the sales tax.
Auto lease calculator
Money factor, residual, and the payment — taxed by your state's actual method, since some states tax a lease's full value upfront instead of each payment.
Loan payoff calculator
What paying extra actually saves you — in interest and in months — on a car loan, a personal loan, or anything else that amortizes.
0% APR vs. cash rebate
Which dealer offer actually costs less over the life of the loan, and the rate at which they tie.
Personal loan calculator
Payment, total interest, and the effective APR once an origination fee is deducted from what actually reaches your account.
Debt consolidation calculator
Whether one loan actually beats paying your existing debts off as they are — measured against the best you could do without consolidating.
Auto refinance calculator
Whether refinancing your car loan is worth it — including whether a lower payment is being bought with a longer term on a depreciating asset.
Lease vs. buy a car
The same car both ways over the same months, with the resale value credited to the buyer — the part most comparisons leave out.
Washington at a glance
- State sales tax
- 6.5%
- Local tax is added on top in most states — treat this as a floor.
- Trade-in credit
- Reduces your tax
- You are taxed on the price less your trade-in allowance.
- Dealer doc fee
- $200.00
- A statutory maximum — a fee above it is over the line, not just high.
- Title and registration
- $58.25
- $15.00 title + $43.25 registration.
Local tax in Washington
IMPORTANT — the state-level rate on a vehicle is effectively 7.0%, not 6.5%. On top of the 6.5% general state retail sales tax, RCW 82.08.020 imposes an ADDITIONAL state motor vehicle sales/use tax, which rose from 0.3% to 0.5% on 2026-01-01. This field carries only the 6.5% general state rate per the schema's state-rate-only convention; add 0.5% for a vehicle. Local sales tax is destination-based and varies by delivery/garaging location, pushing combined rates to roughly 8-11%. Separately, residents inside the Sound Transit district (parts of King, Pierce and Snohomish counties) pay an annual Regional Transit Authority excise tax at a voter-approved 1.1% on a depreciated MSRP value — real and value-based, but district-only, so annualVehiclePropertyTax is omitted rather than stated as if statewide.