Price out real cars with your own loan or lease, insurance, driving mix and state prices, then see how they rank against what's typical, how much CO₂ they're responsible for, and how they score overall.
Every car in your list, run with the profile above. Best value in each row is green. Add or remove cars on the Your cars tab, or add one here.
Lifecycle emissions = building the car and battery + producing and burning its fuel or generating its electricity, spread over its lifetime miles. "est." marks a value from a secondary source or our own estimate; check the window sticker.
Each factor is scored 0–100 on a fixed scale (so adding a car never changes another car's score), then weighted by the sliders. If a car is missing data for a factor, that factor is left out of its score and the other weights are scaled up.
Pick one car from your list. Its yearly cost (from the profile above) is set against covering the same miles by bus, streetcar, rideshare, rental car, e-bike or bike, alone or as a mix.
Share of your yearly miles each way of getting around would carry. Long out-of-town trips are what the rental car is for.
Typical-cost benchmarks: AAA Your Driving Costs 2026 (Sept 15, 2026). Car catalog: EPA fueleconomy.gov data via a public mirror, Oct 2026; price estimates from KBB Sept 2026 segment averages. Gas prices: AAA state averages, Oct 15, 2026. Electricity: ElectricChoice state residential averages, Oct 2026. Grid emissions: EPA eGRID2023. Safety: NHTSA and IIHS. Transit: Sun Tran (fare-free, Oct 2026), Ridewise rideshare rates, FRA emissions by mode. Not financial advice; check quotes and window stickers. Teaching environmental science? The Drivetrain Lab Classroom Edition is a simpler version focused on emissions, with lesson plans for teachers.