Vehicle Wear & Tear Calculator
Estimates the wear-and-tear cost your vehicle incurs on a road trip, factoring in mileage, vehicle age, type, and road conditions. Ideal for budgeting trips or comparing route costs before you leave.
Last updated: October 2026
Vehicle Wear Cost
$119.10
Formula below · 2 sources (IRS, newsroom.aaa.com) · Updated Oct 2026
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About this calculator
Wear and tear on a typical car costs about 11 cents a mile: AAA's 2025 Your Driving Costs study puts maintenance, repair and tires at 11.04 cents per mile, so a 1,000-mile road trip uses up roughly $110 of tire tread, brake pads, fluids and service life on top of fuel. This calculator scales a per-mile wear rate by your vehicle's age band, its class and the road surface to estimate the share of that cost a specific trip adds.
What counts as wear
Wear covers the consumables and parts that are used up in proportion to miles: tires, brakes, oil and filters, belts, wipers and the suspension parts that rough roads punish. It excludes fuel, insurance, registration and depreciation. Depreciation also rises with mileage, but it is usually tracked separately because it depends on the car's value.
How the inputs change the estimate
Larger and heavier vehicles cost more per mile to maintain: in AAA's figures a medium sedan or 4WD medium SUV runs close to 12 cents a mile, a small sedan about 10. Rough or unpaved roads load tires, wheel bearings and shocks harder than smooth highway, so the road multiplier raises the estimate from 1.0 on good highways to 1.6 off road. The age band adjusts for how much remaining service life each mile consumes.
Wear cost versus mileage reimbursement
The IRS business standard mileage rate (72.5 cents a mile from January 1, 2026) is a much larger number because it also covers fuel, insurance, registration and depreciation. Use the IRS rate for reimbursement and tax records, and the wear figure for deciding what a trip really costs you beyond gas. For budgeting, check the result against AAA's per-mile figures in the table.
| Vehicle type | Cents per mile | Per 1,000 miles |
|---|---|---|
| Small sedan | 10.23 | $102 |
| Medium sedan | 11.91 | $119 |
| Subcompact SUV | 10.79 | $108 |
| Compact SUV (FWD) | 11.64 | $116 |
| Medium SUV (4WD) | 11.79 | $118 |
| Average, all types | 11.04 | $110 |
How to use
Enter the round-trip mileage, then choose your vehicle's age band, its type and the road conditions you expect. The default is a 1,000-mile trip in a 3-to-5-year-old mid-size sedan on good highways. Add the result to your fuel, tolls and lodging for the full trip cost, and compare it with AAA's cents-per-mile figure for your vehicle class in the table below (for 1,000 miles in a medium sedan, about $119).
Frequently asked questions
How much does wear and tear cost per mile?
AAA's 2025 Your Driving Costs study puts maintenance, repair and tires at 11.04 cents per mile on average over the first five years of a new vehicle, ranging from about 10.2 cents for a small sedan to about 11.9 cents for a medium sedan. Older vehicles out of warranty usually cost more.
Is the IRS mileage rate the same as wear and tear?
No. The IRS business standard mileage rate, 72.5 cents per mile from January 1, 2026, is meant to cover all the costs of operating a car, including fuel, insurance and depreciation. Wear and tear is only the maintenance, repair and tire part of that cost.
Do rough roads really cost more?
Yes. Potholes, gravel and washboard surfaces put larger impact loads on tires, wheels, bearings and shock absorbers, and they raise the chance of an outright repair such as a bent rim or a damaged tire. The calculator reflects this with road multipliers from 1.2 for mixed conditions to 1.6 for off-road driving.
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Sources & references
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