Here's The Salary You Need To Make To Buy A New Car In Your State

Unless you're lucky enough to live in a walkable city like New York or San Francisco, chances are you'll need a car to get around. For hundreds of millions of Americans, owning a car is as vital as owning a phone — cars allow you to get from Point A to B, after all. Forget the romanticism of freedom or the status they provide. Having a good, reliable car provides the average American with the means to get to school or work, buy groceries, visit friends, and so on. It's also a major household expense for a lot of people.

First and foremost: What car do we use? For one, plenty of cars are still around for less than $30k, including ubiquitous models like the Toyota Corolla. In 2026, a brand-new Toyota Corolla runs for $22,965 at MSRP, so let's call that $28,000 out the door. For simplicity's sake, we'll round it up to $30,000 even and assume you get a few options.

The average new car in America recently exceeded $50,000, though it now stands at a relatively quaint $49,855 as of Q2 2026. But as we all know, the dealerships need to put food on their tables as well, so let's go ahead and round that up to $55,000 for a blanket estimate. That's $55,000 for the average new car in the United States, which is far outside many people's individual budgets.

Ultimately, here's a good conversion: We're using the average price of $30,000 weighed against 10 percent of your income, including expenses like gas and maintenance. You can buy the car and barely drive it and stretch the budget thinner; this is more for daily commuters. That said, let's take a look.

We're defining the Northeast according to the American Census Bureau's definition, so anything east of Ohio and north of Maryland. This is your classic Rust Belt, characterized by its sheer density and variety. You'll have a ton of snow in northern parts of this region — places like Maine and upstate New York — so be sure to factor rust-proofing your car into the overall budget. It's also among the most populous places in the world, thanks to the New York – Philadelphia Megalopolis alongside Boston, so expect traffic to factor into it, especially if you live somewhere where you have to deal with Interstate 95.

The cheapest Northeast state as far as overall living expenses go is Pennsylvania, with a cost of living index of 97.2 — so 97.2 percent of the national average of $6,545/month including transportation. That means its average living cost is about $6,361 per month. Next, we'll take out the $30,000 car for 72 months at $500/month (about 30% less than the average), plus gas, insurance, and everything else. Assuming we want the base 10 percent of our monthly expenses to go to the car, that leaves us with an annual personal income of $86,166 to afford it all. That's the car, gas, insurance, maintenance, things like tolls and other expenses, and a budget for unforeseen stuff — $782 per month. By comparison, the national average is $88,649.

A per-state breakdown for the Northeast following this formula is as follows:

• Maine: $100,173
• New Hampshire: $98,524
• Vermont: $100,705
• Massachussetts: $125,172
• Rhode Island: $98,045
• Connecticut: $99,907
• New York: $110,899 (Note: This includes both NY State and NYC, which skews the results)
• New Jersey: $102,349
• Pennsylvania: $86,166

Overall, this represents the most expensive region to live in by state average, so it's no surprise to see these numbers.

Here we're looking at anywhere south of the Northeast all the way out to Texas and Oklahoma, excluding anything north of that which is treading into midwest territory. Technically places like Maryland and Kentucky are included in this region according to the Census Bureau despite being over the 36°30′ line, making it certainly one of the most varied regions in the country.

You have the desert climate of Texas coupled with the humidity of places like Louisiana and southern Missouri, the long highways of Florida and salted roads of the northeastern quadrant. Coupled with a huge disparity in gas prices, and you have the most disparate region in terms of transportation and living costs if we exclude California. All this is further complicated because some states produce their own oil, which bolsters regional pricing. Because gas prices fluctuate so wildly, we won't be factoring them in with the overall graph; calculating commute times and gas prices by state is a Sisyphean exercise with how much it changes on a daily basis in 2026.

That said, this region tends to skew on the cheaper side the further south you go, aided by the fact that snow isn't an issue in the majority of the South. The prices for this group of states is as follows:

• Maryland: $102,300
• Delaware: $90,333
• Virginia: $89,358
• West Virginia: $78,277
• Kentucky: $82,000
• Tennessee: $80,049
• North Carolina: $86,698
• South Carolina: $83,950
• Georgia: $82,000
• Florida: $90,599
• Alabama: $78,542
• Mississippi: $77,390
• Arkansas: $79,429
• Louisiana: $81,822
• Oklahoma: $76,238
• Texas: $81,645

This is arguably one of the most car-centric regions in the country, with states like Georgia and Texas in particular being extremely car-dependent. These factors, along with the general distances between places being so long, mean more fuel-efficient cars benefit disproportionately higher here.

The Census Bureau defines this region as west of Pennsylvania and north of Kentucky and Oklahoma, with the Dakotas being the furthest west it goes. As with the South, this area is characterized in parts by its ludicrous stretches of open nothingness, with areas like the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas being mostly open farmland. It's called America's Breadbasket for a reason, after all, but it's equally juxtaposed by the dense urban sprawls of places like Chicago and Detroit.

The Midwest is, as far as transportation infrastructure goes, like the Northeast but with straighter roads that go on for longer distances. Factors like snow and somewhat higher gas prices influence it just as much, though the low population density serves as a counterbalance for factors like insurance rates. Moreover, like the South, those distances really help more fuel-efficient cars with taller gearing, since you'll be making plenty of highway mileage up here.

You'll be looking at gas prices deep into the $4 territory in states like Minnesota and Michigan, the latter of which also has some of the highest auto insurance costs in the country at $217/month average. Conversely, Wisconsin has insurance set to just $100/month, making it more lucrative with its average hourly wage of $30.90 versus Michigan's $31.21. Basically, you'll be spending more in Michigan to keep a car, but less living expenses overall. Here's a look at every Midwest state:

• Ohio: $83,595
• Michigan: $79,872
• Wisconsin: $86,609
• Minnesota: $83,361
• North Dakota: $81,025
• South Dakota: $81,468
• Nebraska: $82,089
• Iowa: $79,518
• Indiana: $80,670
• Illinois: $83,950
• Missouri: $78,897
• Kansas: $78,720

In general, the numbers go up the further north you get because of factors like snow and the general commute distances. With gas prices being comfortably within the average to above-average range, owning a car here is a pricey endeavor.

The Pacific Northwest is perhaps most famous for three things: gorgeous mountain ranges, deep forests, and cities that seem to be perpetually caked in rainfall. It's truly a region of extremes, going from Montana's Big Sky Country with its wide-open roads and tax-exempt registration — which is why so many exotic cars are registered there — to Oregon's lush greenery. There's not a lot in the grand scheme here that's exceptionally walkable outside of major hubs like Seattle. Montana in particular is well-known for its sparsely-populated highways. Those eastern states are some of the least densely-populated regions in the country as well, barring Alaska.

That does come with a caveat, though, which is that despite having some of the lowest overall insurance rates in the United States, it also has among the most consistently expensive oil. Even Alaska, well-known for its oil industry, averages over $5 a gallon in 2026 in-part due to how remote some regions actually are. It's a massive pain to transport all that fuel across those vast distances. Washington State is the worst, with fuel costs over $5.56 a gallon, a number eclipsed only by California.

There's no official Census definition for the Pacific Northwest, so instead we'll use the colloquial vibe-based definition of anything north of California and the Four Corners states. We'll also include Alaska in here as well for good measure. Here's the list of what you'll need for a new car in each state:

• Alaska: $110,722
• Washington: $101,148
• Idaho: $88,560
• Montana: $84,659
• Wyoming: $83,064
• Oregon: $99,109

Despite having the most land of any region thanks to Alaska's contribution, the Pacific Northwest has the fewest states within it. The dramatic differences in region make these numbers inconsistent, however; the states themselves are so large that averages are hard to pin down beyond the most basic generalizations.

The Southwest might as well be California and all the other states, because let's be honest, that's the state which dominates the region based on population, average income, and economy. Not in cost of living, though — Hawai'i leaves everyone else in the dust there, boasting the United States' highest metric by far with a Cost Index of 185. That means that if you want to live in Hawai'i, it costs a full 185% more than the national average for living expenses including transportation.

California is the special case here, though. Between smog, road taxes, and the borderline European price of fuel because of California's unique gas situation, it's easily the worst place in the country to own a car on paper. Just about the only consolation is an average $142/month insurance bill, plus all the infrastructure for alternative fuels like hydrogen and electric cars. So while it's one of the worst car states, it's simultaneously one of the best if you have something like aToyota Prius to drive around.

It's fairly diverse elsewhere in the region, with major cities like Las Vegas, Denver, and Phoenix dictating their respective states' averages one way while the massive swaths of open land swing it the other. Infrastructure is either all there, or there's nothing at all. There's very little in between here, at least outside of western California. Here's what to expect as a new car buyer:

• California: $126,147
• Hawai'i: $164,001
• Nevada: $88,826
• Utah: $90,599
• Arizona: $98,134
• Colorado: $91,042
• New Mexico: $83,064

Obviously Hawai'i is the exception because of its sky-high cost of living, otherwise it's relatively tame by comparison. If we factor in infamously expensive places like San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles, California's not too bad, either.

Calculating the average cost by state is a complex and time-consuming process, taking in a variety of different points. First and foremost, this is representative of the average individual salary and the general advice that a car should be no more than 10 percent of your earnings.

To make it as comprehensive as possible, we took into consideration these factors on a per-state basis: Average annual individual salary and hourly rates, insurance quotes, gasoline prices (we're weighing exclusively combustion-powered cars for simplicity's sake), and the monthly household expenses — bills like rent/mortgage, power, water, etc. The sources we used all came from official government bodies or accredited organizations, such as AAA, World Population Review, Forbes, U.S. News, and the U.S. Census Bureau.

To calculate the actual number, what we did was account for all of these factors to come up with a baseline average of $88,648.92 needed for a new car across the entire United States. That is $500 for a car payment, plus $336 for gasoline, maintenance, and other upkeep costs, paid per month, for a total of $10,632 per year. Next, given that it's a new, fuel-efficient car and various bills would be covered by the warranty, we downsized that again to $615.61 per month for all expenses on a Toyota Corolla, at its absolute cheapest. That's 10 percent of the aforementioned salary per month.

Each state was then calculated based on its cost of living index, meaning a state with a CI of 100.0 would require exactly $88,648.92 to afford this car at a 10-percent salary metric. However, given the breadth and variety of commute times and gas prices, this number varies greatly sometimes within a single state, so your mileage may vary.