Do you want to get a good value the next time you buy a new car? Of course! But what does a “good value” mean? Most people think it means choosing a nice-looking, reliable car, and negotiating the lowest possible price for it. So, they trek through dealerships comparing car features and prices.

This may be a reasonable-sounding approach, but it doesn’t have much to do with getting a good value. That’s because ultimately a car’s value has less to do with its initial price than it does with its cost to own and operate. You don’t believe it? Let’s take a closer look.

The price you pay to buy a car is not a cost. Price and cost are related, but there’s a distinct difference between them. A car’s price is simply the amount of your hard-earned cash that you must exchange to own the car. There’s no expense involved at the time of the purchase because, at this point, the car is still worth exactly what you just paid for it. If you paid the dealer $20,000, he or she will have the money, but you will have something of equal value - the car.

Ah, but as soon as you slip behind the wheel, turn on the stereo, drive home and park your new car in the driveway hoping to attract envious glances from the neighbors, you’ll start to run up a tab. The car will immediately begin to depreciate. It will use fuel. You’ll have to pay insurance premiums, state fees and taxes, finance charges, regular maintenance costs, and at some point down the road, repair bills. These are the car’s ownership costs. When you want the best value, it makes more sense to consider these costs than just the purchase price.

By the time the typical car is five years old, the cost to own and operate it will exceed its original purchase price. Even more important, similarly priced cars can have very different ownership costs over a five-year period.

(Figure 1). An inexpensive car to buy could be an expensive car to own.

That’s why it’s important to understand ownership costs when you search for the car that will truly be the best value. Our goal at IntelliChoice is to provide you with a complete financial profile of today’s new cars and detailed cost projections for five years into the future.

Our methodology is designed to be an economic guide. It doesn’t offer subjective reviews of a car’s comfort, handling or style. It doesn’t list braking or zero-to-sixty performance figures. Nor does it provide the results of government crash tests. Of course performance, comfort, handling, style and safety are important factors in buying a new car. But then, if you can’t afford to buy and operate the car you want, nothing else really matters, does it? If you want to continue the research road trip, you may want to visit our corporate partner sites, automobilemag.com and motortrend.com, for complete reviews.