Buying a car in Colorado
Every figure below is sourced to Colorado’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.
Colorado at a glance
- State sales tax
- 2.9%
- 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
- Not confirmed
- We have not confirmed a cap for this state, so we do not claim one.
- Title and registration
- $7.20
- $7.20 title.
Colorado taxes the car every year, not just at purchase
A recurring annual tax on the vehicle’s value applies here — assessed at 85% of value at a representative 2.1% rate. It never appears in a monthly payment and is easy to miss when comparing states.Colorado's Specific Ownership Tax, levied annually at registration in place of a property tax. Two caveats. (1) 2.10% is the YEAR-ONE rate; it steps down with age — 2.10%, 1.50%, 1.20%, 0.90%, then 0.45% for years 5-9, and a flat $3 from the tenth model year. Applying 2.10% flat later materially overstates it. (2) The 85% ratio applies to passenger vehicles (Class C) against original MSRP, which is fixed at the year of manufacture and does not change with ownership or age; Class A and B vehicles under 16,000 lb use 75% instead. Rates are statutory under s. 42-3-107, C.R.S., not locally set, though revenue is distributed to counties, cities, school districts and special districts.
Local tax in Colorado
NO COMBINED RATE CAN BE STATED FOR COLORADO. The 2.9% state rate is overlaid by county, city and special-district taxes, and critically, home-rule cities that administer their own local sales and use taxes are 'self-collected': they set their own rules about what is taxable, and the Department of Revenue's guidance expressly does not apply to them. DOR directs taxpayers to contact self-collecting home-rule cities directly (the list is in DR 1002). Such a city may therefore treat a vehicle sale, and even the trade-in allowance, differently from the state.