The costs of owning a car in Switzerland?

Transportation, Travel and Trips
1
Hi,

I wonder what's the costs of owning a car in Switzerland. I got a quotation from insurance company that it starts from $900 - $2000/yr for car insurance. In addition to the cost of parking rental, do I have to pay anything to traffic office (Verkehrsamt)?

Thanks,

Ray.

2
road tax and the highway vignette

if you are not used to driving in Switzerland, better reserve some money for the fines too

3
Autobahn Vignette (currently CHF 40.-),

Road tax (up to your Canton and auto emissions),

Insurance (up to your age, experience and record),

Maintenance (tires, service, repairs, consumables),

Fuel (up to your driving as required),

Train/Tunnel fees (up to your destination),

Parking fees (up to your rental contract),

Parking fines (up to your rental contract) and

Moving violations (up to your driving skills).

JC

4
I'd add 1st time matriculation/plates. Was about 100 CHF's IIRC.

5
Good point!

6
I've made a spreadsheet to calculate the cost of owning a car. It is not the most accurate, but I hope this is helpful.

https://goo.gl/FVJzZw

You may change the yellow cells according to the costs you/car has, like consumptions, garage rent, cantonal taxes and so on...

To use this spreadsheet, save a copy into your account, or export it so you can edit it on Excel.

7
Did somebody mention the equivalent of MOT here, you need to get on all cars over 5 years, not to mention the cost of asking a garage to make sure it passes the test to avoid having to pay for it to be retake if it fails.

8
Since a test only cost 65 CHF in ZH, much better to see what it fails on than pay 2000 CHF to a main dealer with a stock of parts he wants to liquidate.

9
Depends on the canton.

Tom

10
Thank you!!!

11
My wife works at a major insurance company and according to their calculations, the average car costs about 10K per annum to maintain in Switzerland.

Please note that this is Swiss average meaning that you can definitely do it cheaper, and most probably will do so, particularly as it depends on so many factors as listed above by others, as well as it is down to how handy you are with performing maintenance yourself.

I really cannot stress how much it depends on the "Swiss average", as her own boss for examply pays 20K/annum in car insurance himself due to the cars he is driving.

*awaiting smart-ass comments from you-know-who-you-are on how much cheaper they can maintain their cars than 10K a year

12
Either that is including depreciation and fuel or it is unrealistically high for an average.

Personally I do not see depreciation and fuel as costs to maintain a car.

13

1) This is a calculator for the Road tax in Zürich canton (OP address). https://stva.zh.ch/internet/sicherhe...VArechner.html

A 2020 Skoda Octavia (best selling car in CH) with an engine volume of 999 cubic cm and total weight of 1838 kg pays 45 CHF. An older Octavia pays 229 CHF. Just for comparison, a 2020 911 Turbo would pay 818 CHF.

2) Gas/petrol: I drive around 2000-2500 km per month while the entertaining engine drinks 250-300 CHF. A more efficient car would bring down the bill to 160-180 per month.

3) Annual service: oil, filters, checks 100-300 CHF depending on model

3) Insurance: new cars means full CASCO which depends on the car value, engine size, age of driver, nationality, male/female (women pay less). Older cars only coverage for the damage to 3rd parties. For some quotations check comparis.ch https://en.comparis.ch/autoversicherung/default

4) Winter tires change: twice a year: 50, 80, 100+ CHF ? I don't know for sure since the tire change is included in my car leasing.

5) The vignette (highway fee), for 40 CHF per year is the only cheap thing in Switzerland.

14
60-70 rp/km x 15000 km/year for example. includes depreciation, fuel, parking, repairs, everything.

give or take

15
I suspect that "maintain" here means keep, or have, which also includes usage -- i.e. the total cost per year, which certainly involves fuel and depreciation.

16
According TCS a CHF 35k car, used for 15'000 km/year, costs around 0.71 CHF/km

https://www.tcs.ch/de/testberichte-r...eterkosten.php

More curves to get per km cost based on initial value and usage:

https://www.tcs.ch/mam/Digital-Media...eterkosten.pdf

Search by car:

https://www.tcs.ch/de/testberichte-r...-vergleich.php

Note: Actual cost depends on your insurance coverage (liability only, damage as well), cost of parking, service a main dealership or third party garage, etc. Any extra costs due to accidents or traffic fines not included. Deprecation/lease is included.

17
The range for insurance is rather between 250 and 6000 CHF/year. Possibly more. Depending on the car price and coverage.

The most expensive is the parking.

18
Ah yes... My spreadsheet doesn't consider the amortization. Ovelooked easily. Appart from that, the graph shows the same pattern

19
My real-world numbers, if helpful, for:

Mazda3, 120HP, benzin, 12/2014 vintage, leased out on 02/2018 at 3yr / 15000km/yr

Leasing: 270CHF/month = 3240CHF

Insurance (full kasko + parking damage coverage): 1400CHF

Road tax (BS): 350CHF

Public parking (BS): 280CHF

Tire change and storage (2/yr): 150CHF

Gas (ca. 15000km/year, tanking approx 2/month): ca. 1500CHF (loving that 6l/100km consumption <3)

Service (oil and filters changes): ca. 350CHF

Summing it all up comes to ca. 7300CHF/year; ca. 600CHF/month

P.S. Not accounting for depreciation. Partially also due to the fact that its residual buyout value at the end of lease (Feb 2021) will be a couple of thousands less than its market worth - so I am planning to buy it out at the end.

20
Real world data for my (used) Tesla Model S 85 which we drove for 3 years and 95000 km

Purchase price (3 years ago): 63k

Annual costs:

Insurance, full casco Zurich: 2000 (we're in our late 20's)

Road tax: 750 (heavy car in BL, some cantons it would be 0)

Maintenance and repairs: ~700

Fuel: 0

Tires: 500/year (800 for a new set)

Annual cost w/o depreciation: 3950

Depreciation is the big bit which cost about 25k in the past 3 years.

Per KM cost ends up being extremely low across 3 years at 39 cents per km which as I calculate is on par with a golf GTD. We only managed to get about 200 CHF of fines in that time thanks to the cruise control.