Buying a car: leasing, subscription, credit or on credit?
HOW IT FITS A survey by the online comparison service Comparis shows that one in two private cars in Switzerland is not paid for with your own money. The most popular form of external financing here is leasing.
Swiss roads are full of vehicles financed on credit. Only 45 percent of car owners state that they paid for their vehicle themselves. Low monthly maintenance costs and flexible vehicle availability are the most important things for Swiss people when it comes to cars. A good half of those surveyed do not care whether their vehicle is new or not.
Comparis mobility expert Sandro Spaeth: "For parts of the population, the car has obviously lost its role as a status object."
Regional differences
The representative Comparis survey also shows that cars in German-speaking Switzerland are significantly more frequently financed from own funds (51 percent) than in French-speaking Switzerland (34 percent) and Ticino (21 percent).
Sandro Spaeth: "This is in line with the general level of debt in the language regions. In Latin Switzerland, in addition to leasing, installment payments, credit, loans from family and friends and overdrafts are also common."
Leasing is very popular
The most popular form of financing with borrowed money is leasing at 31%. In 2022, around 214,800 new leasing contracts for passenger vehicles were concluded in Switzerland. According to the Comparis survey, leasing is also more common in the middle and higher income brackets than among lower household incomes.
Just under 16% of respondents obtained their vehicle via a loan or credit from family or friends. This shows that 18 to 35-year-olds, with a share of 13 percent, are more likely to ask for money from family than older car owners.
Subscription for a limited time
The car subscriptions launched around five years ago only have a small market share of around three percent. The reason: a car subscription is often only suitable for a limited period of time. Otherwise, this flexible solution quickly becomes more expensive than leasing or a cash purchase. Conclusion: In principle, any external financing is more expensive than a cash purchase.
