Wanted to check if someone has experience buying a car in Germany with financing the car in Switzerland?
Please share if it makes sense and if there are some tricks.
Thanks!
Hi Guys!
Hi antonb,
Have you found an answer to your question? I am in the same boat. Currently comparing prices on Mercedes-Benz between CH and DE on the official sites. On the DE site they offer some nice financing options, however the CH site only offers leasing (or pay full price now).
Older posts here mentions that you have to go through your bank and obtain a ́private loan ́, however not all offers car financing and those that does (at least those I found) had crazy interest rates.
Regards - Allan
You'll need to pay cash or get a personal loan - with a high interest rate.
You just have to work out whether the full cost of ownership/purchase is cheaper than buying in Switzerland.
may be a silly question.
is it possible to lease a car from Germany (and of course later import it) and pay the monthly leasing payments from Switzerland?
are there any rules about cross border leases?
cheers
happycreature
The car would be on German number plates, which would rouse some suspicion when you cross the border and have a Swiss permit? Also I would imagine that Leasing companies do not lease cars to a non resident
Have any of you considered taking out a loan in Germany on a German made car?
If you live here the car MUST be registered here, with Swiss plates.
You'll have to really go some to find any lender willing to lend (unsecured or secured) to a non-resident - and even if they did the terms would be brutal.
It seems you have two choices with respect to financing:
1. Get a normal personal unsecured loan at a higher rate than leasing, as the car/asset provides no security.
2. Get a local lease on a local car as the car is secured via the lease, at a somewhat lower nominal rate.
Or, finance thyself (save cash).
It's true the cost of finance in CH seems prohibitive compared to France/Germany at the moment, especially on cars, but this is due to various factors.
I have seen relatively new Minis/BMWs being offered on very low leases here, but that's probably leveraging German financing thru BMW, and reflecting the glut of nearly new and second hand cars generally.
Why not take some time to save enough cash, be independent of financing, and then being free to scout options on both sides of the border? Prices are dropping all the time and there's a glut of good vorführwagen/occassionen out there. I seem to see more and more lots every year. Plus you won't need to have full casco unless you want it.
30 years ago we bought a used FIAT from a FIAT garage in Munich, with a 5% loan from the FIAT bank in Germany. One year later we moved here and continued re-paying the loan to FIAT Germany. They didn't seem to be worried that we had moved away.
First rule: if you don't ask you won't get anything.
With Mercedes, you also get free yearly maintenance (except for liquids) - for Swiss cars (10 years /100k km whichever you reach first).
Does anybody know how much a typical E-class service costs in Switzerland for a non-Swiss car - at an official Mercedes garage?
In Germany, you can find better-spec'ed used cars that aren't completely high-end (e.g. a petrol E250 with DISTRONIC, which is almost unheard of in Switzerland because cars are either taxis with no extras or "full house" E350/E400s or E63s.)
I'm contemplating buying in Germany, too, but also having it serviced there (spending a day at my parents' place each time and going shopping - not too much inconvenience).
Financing - not sure if it's worth it. Can you invest the money with higher interest rates than you pay?
Budget 250chf for fluids only and 1,000chf for a full service - it might not be spot on but it will be a good ballpark figure. I'd say a service every 20,000km - so if you can get 5 services - the pack is worth 3,750chf.
As for buying a car that isn't popular in Switzerland - will you sell it used in Switzerland in a few years? You may then find it difficult to shift as buyers want 350/400/63 models
I don't really plan on selling it until I need a new car (requirements change or car becomes unrepairable from an economic point of view)
Though that may not be a wise decision, with a 50k car.
E.g. Airmatic repair is over 1k € per leg, AFAIK.
My current car is over 15 years old and needed no repairs outside the normal maintenance intervalls and what MFK requested.
If I buy in Germany, I plan on buying the German warranty extension (the Swiss warrany extension is of course not available to import cars).
Wanting a towbar also severly limits the selection of available cars (though that can be fitted after-market, of course).
New cars in Switzerland are not necessarily more expensive:
1. Many times, the Swiss base price is much more expensive from the equivalent German but usually the car has more equipment. Especially true with the big-3 Germans.
2. Ask the dealer what kind of discount can you get depending on employer, seasonality etc. If you work in a big company you can get more than 10% off, with minimal hassle.
3. There are leasing deals so cheap it doesn't matter if the retail price is more expensive. The resale value is also higher than the equivalent in DE, so the total ownership cost might not be too different.
Don't just look at the retail price to judge a car as expensive or not.
You got a good deal - according to the Bundesbank the average annual effective interest rate for a sub 15,000eur loan in 1986 was 9.82%
(Unless you are talking flat rate instead of APR)
A new E-class station wagon with the right extras is usually at the 100k mark or over.
Two years down the line, it's half of that, sometimes less.
Unfortunately, a lot of car-owners seem to spend money on absolutely useless optical enhancements (AMD styling without an actual AMG engine - WTF?) instead of stuff like DISTRONIC, dead-spot-assistant, break-assistant etc.pp that can actually prevent accidents.
I'm not going to swallow a 50k deprecation on a 100k car in two years. No. Chance. Ever.
One might argue that even buying a 50k car is nonsense because after all insurance for a Dacia Duster is less than half of what it costs for an E-class SW plus you don't need to bother with Vollkasko there anyway.
BTW: Out of curiosity, I recently checked and insurance for e.g. a Lamborghini Huracan is apparently only about 50% more expensive than for an E-class SW....
I don't work at a big company, so no discount.
I hate the concept of leasing. You pay for it every month and still don't own it at the end. I might take out a 1.9% loan - but even that is questionable, as I don't really invest the money I would pay cash otherwise and as such it's an "investment" with a 1.9% negative interest plus the depreciation of the car...
Owning a paid-off car is expensive enough, with insurance, tax, liquids, tires, maintenance and repairs.