The Maths of Mobility car-sharing

Transportation, Travel and Trips
1
I've been doing some sums for the mobility car-sharing scheme and come to the following conclusions, for which I would value alternative perspectives (read: corrections) if needed.

Background assumptions: Our family has 2 kids, one in school other at home. One parent (me) working in Geneva. Likely going to live in/near Nyon. Also good to note, we haven't needed a car for the past 5.5 yrs (living in Holland so biking everywhere).

2 trips per week by car to do shopping or local visit to friends house or similar

= 4h/15km per trip. I thought this would be a good average. Total from use (no penalties)= 2,000CHF per annum (based on 10 months due to holidays abroad). Base subscription of 290CHF. this works out at 2,290CHF.

I will be buying a train commuting annual pass (at 1,674CHF), which may (?) bring the Mobility subscription cost down to 190. Will get the Half-price ticket for my wife and kids train tickets, so 175+30+30CHF.

I have also budgeted for 5 weekend road trips for the year at 1,750CHF (car rental + fuel).

So total for mobility needs will be a minimum of: 6,000/y (need to add the cost of random train tickets mainly, adults only though)

Is this realistic or am I missing something? Does it start to look like we would be better off getting a cheap car?

2
Yes you will only pay 190 if you have a half fare card.

I have used mobility before. When I lived alone for 6 months and only needed a car about 2 times a month either longers trips to visit someone or day out or shorter shopping trips. Probably spend on aberage 70-80 per month. This was definitely more economical than owning a car. Even with a very cheap 2nd hand ca, there is alway the worries of breakdowns and subsequent repair costs or loss of capital.

6000 CHF is quite a lot. In your position, ignoring environmental concerns, I would be very tempted to get a car. Since having a car can certainly be more convenient especially for a family of 4 where driving is more economical than public transport (compared to a single person).

Have you looked into how much it would cost though? Insurance, car parking, depreciating capital, service and tyre changes, maybe you get an older cheaper car, but then the risk for breakdown and repairs go up.

Also if you bought a cheap car would you use it for everything? or would you still commute by train? in which case you should lower your estimate of 6000CHF to 4250CHF.

If you live near a mobility station, I would give it a go. You could reduce your needs further if you use a bike to shop - why not get a trailer.

3
I live near Zurich so can't comment on public transport near you, but just wanted to say that you might be overestimating how much you need to use a car for weekend trips, visits to friends etc, even shopping (we do a big order online every month or so and fill in the gaps locally).

The public transport really is amazing here, and we manage to go to just about everywhere we want with it, using mobility to fill in the gaps.

You might find you want a car anyway, but it might be worth waiting until you are here to make a final decision, and use mobility in the meantime.

4
This number sounds high to me. If you rent from one of the big chains (Hertz, Avis, etc), you should be able to get a decent-sized car on a weekend deal for around CHF150. Even with a couple of tanks of fuel, you should come in closer to CHF1000 a year.

5
For the two or three times a year that I need a car I use Europecar in Germany and spend 60€ for the weekend, last time I got a Range Rover for three days for 70€.

Done the math and I find that these car sharing thingies are a waste of time.

6
Mobility is for short trips. For a day or more's hire it's cheaper to go to a more "normal" hire company.

7
We have mobility in Zurich, also family of 4.

We became cooperative members as then you have discounts depending how much you use the car of 10 or 20%.

We spend about 6000 CHF annually broken down in:

1 summer holiday in Europe of 2 weeks

3 trips a ylong weekends to Europe

1 ski week in Austria/CH

4 day trips in CH

Weekly small usage (swim lessons, shopping, dog to kennel) etc etc

For us there is no reason to change as aside from cost, owning a car is also work (cleaning it, changing wheel, adding oil or wiper liquid, repairs etc etc etc)

Of course there are also downsides but we do not regret the choice and have been living like this for many yrs now.

Why don't you try it out and buy a car only if it does not work? Easy to revert the Mobility choice, less the other way.

Cheers,

K

8
One thing I think you may be missing is the cost of renting a parking place. I don't know what it's like in the Geneva-Lausanne area (check Homegate to get an idea, I guess) but here in Glarus it'd run about 100/month.

9
Some places include a parking spot (mine does), plus I keep the spare car at work.

Used to keep my bikes at work too, until I finally got a couple garages (for the bikes).

Tom

10
Living in Geneva means my annual ticket (trains, trams, buses, boats) across the canton is 550 CHFs.

And, one daughter (5) travels free, and the other (10) costs 30 CHFs per year as long as she is accompanied by either my wife or me.

11
Thanks to everyone for the wisdom! Since I just joined this forum, I'm not able to thank or groan yet using the icons... Nothing to groan here though, just thanks all around!

@JoMIiFa, thanks for confirming the half fare card thing, was not 100% sure about that. As you point out, the monthly usage is likely to be lower than my first estimate but I'd prefer to budget on the side of caution; I can imagine a few more trips might be useful compared to a single person. Also, thanks for pointing out that I am double-counting on the train commute. I would never dream of commuting by car given the 20 min direct train ride.

On the cost of owning a car, assuming I buy a 2nd hand 2006 Opel Astra 1.8L (100k km on meter) for 10kCHF and pay it over 5 years, this equals 2,000 per year. Add insurance for said car for 700/y, add fuel 1,980 (100L per month at 1.80per L), then teh hardest to estimate is servicing so lets say a contingency of 2,000/y. All this adds up to 6,680CHF/y.

@MathNut, I can't add add the parking to the total above as I seem to be forced to pay for a parking space in the flats I'm currently looking at irrespective of if I own a car or not!!!

@VillageIdiot and slammer, forget to say that I had added ski-rack and GPS to a staionwagon car rental. But you are right, it could be lower.

@tildaoz, agree that when you don't own something you do not need to keep the utilisation rate high to justify its purchase. We may very well end up using the car much less than in my estimate. But again I'd rather err on the side of caution.

@adrianlondon, agree, hence the short trips budgeted for Mobility car and the extra car rentals for the longer trips.

@kri, thanks for the very relevant experience shared. Uncanny that you should have ended up with a total of about 6,000CHF /y! However, I think that you could probably reduce this significantly in a best case scenario following some of the above principles.

@HIOA, were dead set on not living in Geneva, so I'm stuck with the higher train commute cost...

In conclusion, the new total for public transport + car-sharing + car rental racks up at: 2,895CHF/y. Which is nice compared to the owning option coming out at 6,680CHF/y. So, based on this thread, we will defer the decision of buying a car to at least 6 months down the line from when we move.

Incidentally a nice little statistic I picked up: average annual cost of owning, using and maintaining a car (across all personal light duty vehicle segments) in France is 6,000 EUR (15,000km/y). That's all the possible costs you can think of being included.

Thanks to everyone who contributed!

12
There are a couple of points.

For your children aged 6 to 16 you can buy a travel card which gives them free accompanied travel http://www.sbb.ch/en/travelcards-and...dchildren.html

The Mobility includes all costs, including fuel, but not extra parking fees.

The Mobility scheme is not designed as a car hire, it is meant to supplement public transport: take the train and then the Mobility.

13
One more thing: Mobility always has offers during school holidays where you get a substantial rebate (like 20%) on the hourly tarrif.

I have often compared to the car rentals and Mobility (with the member of cooperatif discounts) and considering lack of hassle to get car and flexibility of booking, always wins

K

14
It depends on weather you are driving long distances or not.

We compared it once when we had visitors staying for a couple of weeks who had 4 kids and needed their own 7-seater car.

Once you factored in the kilometeres, Mobility just wasn't worth it when you want to drive long distances. Better to rent for a day with free kilometers than to use Mobility. For the occasional trip to collect something large with a van or wagon it is worth it.

15
I disagree based on the cooperative member prices which drop by 10 or 20% quite quickly. We use it all the time for long trips and believe it is worth it with all factored in.

K

16
Regarding the cooperative membership the mobility website says:

10% on a volume of more than CHF 600

20% on a volume of more than CHF 2’000

Do I only get a 10% discount on the hourly/KM rates from 601-2000 and then a 20% discount on the hourly/KM rates once I exceed 2,000?

So for example I would only receive a 10% discount (CHF10), if I accumulated a total CHF650 of fees in one year.