# LoanLenz

> LoanLenz is a free, private, browser-based planning tool for comparing car-finance and vehicle-lease offers. It shows estimated monthly payments, upfront cash, borrowing costs, mileage exposure, return costs, buyouts, and total cost to own. Its results are estimates, not lender quotes or financial advice.

LoanLenz is designed to help a shopper copy the numbers from one or more dealer offers into a consistent comparison. It does not select a vehicle, approve credit, contact dealers, sell user data, or recommend a financial product.

Important interpretation notes:

- All calculations run in the visitor's browser. LoanLenz has no account system, server-side application runtime, or database.
- Scenarios and theme preferences are saved only in browser local storage on the current device and origin.
- Results depend entirely on the values entered by the visitor. Dealer, lender, tax, registration, insurance, wear, damage, early-termination, and jurisdiction-specific rules can change the actual cost.
- Finance estimates use a standard fixed-rate amortization model. Actual lenders may use different rounding, payment timing, and daily-interest methods.
- Lease estimates use the entered residual percentage, money factor, fees, mileage allowance, and tax rate. The calculator displays the money factor as an approximate APR by multiplying it by 2,400.
- Lower comparison values are treated as better for ranking, but the lowest payment is not always the lowest total cost or the best personal choice.
- Currency examples and calculator formatting use United States dollars. Tax treatment, trade-in credits, and fees vary by location.

Calculator coverage:

- Finance scenarios include vehicle price, sales tax, title and registration fees, incentives, cash down payment, trade-in value and payoff, APR, term, and optional extra monthly payments.
- Finance results include the required payment, amount financed, total interest, total loan payments, total cash outlay, payoff time, interest saved by extra payments, an amortization chart, and a month-by-month schedule.
- Lease scenarios include MSRP, negotiated price, term, tax, residual percentage, money factor, incentives, capitalized-cost reduction, trade credit, acquisition and upfront fees, security deposit, mileage assumptions, disposition fee, and purchase-option fee.
- Lease results include monthly depreciation, rent charge, estimated tax and payment, cash due at signing, adjusted capitalized cost, mileage allowance and possible overage, estimated return cost, estimated buyout, and lease-then-buy total.
- The comparison view can rank finance and lease scenarios by monthly payment, cash upfront, starting amount owed, cost to borrow, total monthly payments, or total cost to own.

Recommended use:

1. Obtain an itemized quote from each dealer or lender.
2. Create one LoanLenz scenario for each quote and enter the numbers exactly as shown.
3. Compare monthly payment, upfront cash, borrowing cost, and total cost separately.
4. For leases, verify mileage limits, return charges, residual value, money factor, and buyout terms.
5. Confirm all results with the dealer or lender before signing.

## Main pages

- [LoanLenz landing page](https://loan-lenz.com/): Product overview, short walkthrough, realistic comparison example, FAQs, and links to open the calculator.
- [LoanLenz calculator](https://loan-lenz.com/calculator.html): Interactive finance and lease calculator with saved scenarios, comparison rankings, amortization details, mileage estimates, and buyout estimates.
- [Landing-page tour override](https://loan-lenz.com/?tour=1): Shows the landing page even when this browser has previously opened the calculator.

## LLM-readable page references

- [Landing-page Markdown reference](https://loan-lenz.com/index.html.md): Clean description of the landing page, visitor routing, walkthrough, example, and FAQs.
- [Calculator Markdown reference](https://loan-lenz.com/calculator.html.md): Detailed input definitions, calculation model, output meanings, comparison metrics, privacy behavior, and limitations.

## Optional

- [The llms.txt proposal](https://llmstxt.org/): Community proposal defining the root `/llms.txt` Markdown format used by this file.