With a subscription, your vehicle costs can be almost halved

Price is very important. This is especially true for big budget items like your own car. After all, anyone who buys a car—a new car in Switzerland costs an average of 53,000 francs—must be liquid enough. This is why the vast majority of newly registered vehicles on Swiss roads are rented. Because the rates seem temptingly cheap. Renting also has the advantage of being able to switch to a new vehicle or even a new driving technology in a relatively short period of time.

You can also subscribe to your own car for four years. Bernese start-up Carvolution is a pioneer in the subscription model and currently offers over 70 models from various brands at a fixed monthly price. Customers can choose one of the maturity options between 3 and 48 months.

Calculate total costs correctly

Compared to car rental, car subscription seems more expensive at first glance. Léa Miggiano, co-founder of Carvolution, hears this a lot. He also knows how the impression of high subscription costs arises: “When buying or renting a car, you usually don’t look at the actual total costs. As a result, these are often underestimated and our all-encompassing monthly fixed prices seem expensive.»

With the subscription, tire replacement and storage, and tire tax, insurance, maintenance, service costs are included in the monthly fixed price. This is the opposite of a leasing rate that covers finance only. The so-called all-inclusive full-service rental is not very common in Switzerland among private individuals. Carvolution’s calculator provides an overview and comparison of total costs.

Subtract individual expense items

When making a direct comparison, Miggiano recommends deducting insurance, taxes, maintenance, tires and ancillary expenses from the subscription price to see direct car costs. If you do this using an example with the Peugeot 208 Allure Pack with 36 months maturity, the car costs 315 francs per month with a Carvolution subscription. The leasing rate, determined by the Comparis leasing calculator, is between 451 and 481 francs, depending on the interest rate (see picture gallery below).

If you want to compare prices, it’s also important to look at the same equipment, similar runtime, mileage and same vehicle model without prepayment. This has been taken into account in the examples of VW Tiguan, Peugeot 208 and Opel Mokka.

Anyone who pays a down payment at the time of the lease—also known as the “first major lease interest”—reduces the cost of the monthly installments. As a result, the down payment needs to be spread over the months of the entire rental period and added accordingly to ensure the costs are correct. For example, if the down payment is 5,000 francs, this is around 140 francs per month, which must be added to the rental rate. No down payment is required with Carvolution, a one-time initial fee of 390 francs is charged only to new customers.

Compare prices with several offers

Calculations are based on Touring Club Schweiz’s (TCS) indicative operating costs, Comparis’ rental calculator and Cembra’s indicative values. In addition, discounts were calculated over list prices. The lowest indicative rental price has always been taken for the calculations in the gallery, so it is possible that the rental will be higher.

For a detailed price comparison of your own dream car, it is always recommended to get one or more rental offers, as interest rates can change. A non-binding offer can also be ordered free of charge from Carvolution.

The advantage of leasing is that customers can configure their dream car completely according to their needs: model, engine, equipment, color, interior and other extras can be freely chosen. The lease usually lasts from 24 to 48 months, sometimes even up to 60 months. The longer the period, the lower the monthly rate.

With the Carvolution car subscription, the vehicles are pre-configured, the subscription period can be freely chosen from 3 to 48 months, and the mileage package can be adjusted monthly to your own needs.

stay flexible

With leasing, there is usually an option to buy the car at the end of the contract. The purchase is usually agreed in advance and takes place at the market price. Rental installments are not a payment. Depending on the car, Léa Miggiano says Carvolution also offers the option to take over the car at the end of the subscription period.

One of the biggest advantages of subscription and rental is that you can switch to another car after the contract expires and not have to worry about selling or replacing it on your own.

Therefore, price will also be decisive when deciding whether to purchase a car subscription or rental. Flexibility in terms of model and equipment versus flexibility in term and mileage package with full cost transparency.

The autumn campaign in Carvolution will run until November 21, 2022. This saves additional money. The promotional price of the Opel Mokka Ultimate is CHF 606 per month (36 months, 850 kilometers per month, amortized in the canton of Zurich). The pure car cost is 408 francs per month, which corresponds to a savings potential of 48 percent compared to leasing.