As a mathematician at heart (math was my fav subject at school), here’s my take:
price(age, dist) = new_price * (100% - dep_rate) ^ age * (100% - dist / limit)
new_price: price after leaving the salon
dep_rate: deprecation rate per year, sth like 10%
age: in years
dist: in km
limit: theoretical maximum of km to drive, ca. 500-1000k
So for example:
price(5 y, 200'000 km) = 60'000 CHF * 90%^5 * 60% = 21'257 CHF
using:
dep_rate = 10%
limit = 500'000 km
OK, but if you go for the low mileage option, you get 200 km for 80 CHF per day. That’s 0.40 CHF/km, which also ain’t bad. Rent it for 4 weeks, and you can make a really impressive european road trip spanning 5’600 km.
If you squeeze these 5’600 into two weeks (14x400), you will end up at 0.35 CHF/km.
The 4 weeks trip sounds fun. 400km/day not so much. On their website they say, you can ask if you need more milage. The price they offer might be interesting. But to get some insight about their cost you’d also need to know how many km/year the cars are driven.
What about your situation, how many km/year would you drive your friends car? How many days would you use it. How many km/year is the car driven in total?
I mean if you really drive a lot, buying your own car might just be easier. Also if you buy your own car you can buy one that optimally suits your needs. You then also know, you pay exactly the cost you cause.
On the other hand, if you just drive to Poland once a year, the trip is already payed for by you not having to own your own car (insurance, Strassenverkehrsamt, parking, …).
It’s 5’600 km as 28x200 km, not 400.
I think I’m at around 15’000 km per year. Could do more, but the rate for longer trips is too prohibitive.
The Model A is what I pay now (0.50 CHF/km). Model C is my theoretical suggestion of 10 CHF per day + 0.24 CHF per km. As you can see, up to 15’000 km it’s more expensive, then it becomes cheaper. So it wouldn’t be a clearly worse deal for the friend, up to 15’000 km per year, it would be even better.
I meant for the two week variant.
That’s a lot. The calculators of TCS and ADAC use 15’000km for their calculations. Actually most seem to use 15k km for their estimates.
I also found this: https://www.abrechnungen.ch/2020/02/18/kilometerkosten-nach-fahrzeugmodell/#1582293432641-277a7a94-fb8d
They say the Model 3 costs CHF 0.79/km (assuming 15k km/year). Now, if the car is driven a lot more than 15k km I’d try to find out what part of the CHF 0.79 the fixed costs are and distribute them over the real milage driven in a year. You could even do this at the end of the year when you know the exact amount.
I’d also consider owning the car together with your friend if you have similar milage. You could share the real cost proportional to the milage (also expensive repairs) and assume something for depreciation. When the car is sold at one point you’ll know the exact value for depreciation and can correct if you were off by a lot.
What I’d probably do, if I drove 15k or more a year, is buying a cheap car myself. In the link I posted, they state the Dacia Sandero Stepway only costs CHF 0.334/km (assuming 15k km/year). It might not be as nice as the Tesla, but it would save 2.5k (assuming CHF 0.50/km for the Tesla) a year and you’d have your own car. If you buy a used one you can probably go even cheaper. You could also do repairs and maintenance in Poland, saving even more.
Forget it, I’m not driving anything else than an EV 
and I love driving the Tesla, the white minimalistic interior, the big screen, listening to spotify and choosing songs via voice commands. I’m not buying a Dacia 
if I had to go for ICE, I’d take a 5-year Audi A5.
Have you checked https://www.carvolution.com/ or https://gowago.ch/ (long term rental) ?
They bill 0.29 per km on top of the 3250 for the i3.
You can choose a tesla, but the minimum duration is longer. Maybe you can negociate
Hey, Dacias are cool!
Plus, they’ll soon be available in EV shape: Spring Electric – die elektrische Revolution zu Dacia Preisen - Dacia Schweiz
No idea about the fiability of their technology, though. I’d probably still trust Tesla’s expertise more in that area.
Edit: just to dispel any doubt, this post is mostly tongue in cheek, though I’m a Dacia proponent, still.
Not many are so high any more…at 0.70 they are indeed subsidizing your car. 0.50cts / km in my opinion isnt a bad compromise… remember they need to amortise their car… so they need to make money. Fair is not necessarily what its actually worth if you want to calculate your own rate.
Edit:
Sorry to hear about the bad luck. This is my point about choosing the car not only for resale value but reliability … major breakdowns after 3 years driving is not normal…shouldnt be anyway.
A car usually costs 500-600 CHF per month, all things included (car depreciation, taxes, insurance, gas, price after resale etc).
They are amortizing their investment…they wont stop using the car to rent, just like a taxi wont stop driving until repairs start to be an issues. They are banking on the reliability of the car out lasting its sex appeal so the avg chf/km over the life of the car is below what the offer you. Plus, they arent paying the same for the cars probably either…like mobile homes. Buy 10 get one free. 
The 50-60k will be paid off in a few years (regardless of the km) and they will be able to use the same car 2 years more before selling it for even more profit (even if high km)…remember the car wont mind highway km as much as urban km. 
This i agree with 100% … not worth buying for 1 major trip a year.
Edit: sorry i should reply all at once to avoid too many posts 
Shit happens 
It was a used one but in general in good condition. Sometimes one just has bad luck. What happened is actually a known problem (Wild Motoren is under construction). So be careful if you buy a car with that engine. For me it was an Octavia.
I probably wouldn’t buy from Volkswagen again, but then you can have bad luck with any brand.
I used to have my own car a couple of years ago. They were very cheap, in the 250-1200 CHF range. Always sold them 2 years later when the next MFK check would be.
Now I think it’s just not a frugal thing to have a car at all. I pay 1430 CHF per year for public transport and that’s it.
If I ever buy a car, it would be a Tesla for sure.
I had the same issue with my wife’s Skoda Yeti (1.8 TSI). After 100k kms I had to change the engine, total bill ca. 6k CHF…
Many things are not frugal. Like living alone instead of in a WG, traveling, eating out, having an expensive hobby. But these are the things that bring comfort and joy in life.
We could discuss what would be an acceptable percentage of income/wealth, that could be annually spent on a car. E.g. my net income is over 10k/month (or 100/h) and my NW is nearing 1m. Should I still be looking at Flixbus rides to Poland, used Dacias, or $22 Wizzair flights from Basel (first take a train to Basel, then a bus to Mulhouse, then again a train & bus from Warsaw)?
Only you can and should decide that. My financial situation is similar to yours and I’d look at Flixbus (but would end up flying from Zurich). But that doesn’t mean you should do so too. You are in a frugalist forum, so you get frugal recommendations.
In my opinion, you are fine as long as you are happy with your choices and accept the tradeoffs.
I’m sorry but I can’t respect this logic. The closest Flixbus connection is from Frankfurt, so let’s for a moment imagine Zurich is Frankfurt.
30 hours travel time for 95 EUR and this is frugal to you. You should not only be frugal with your money but also with your time. Going for this option is just bizarre unless you’re broke. But that’s just my opinion 
Frugality is the quality of being frugal, sparing, thrifty, prudent or economical in the consumption of consumable resources such as food, time or money
You are right. I didn’t know that. I actually never used Flixbus. I meant it more as a synonym for “Bus-Company”. When I went to Poland (it’s actually great for rock climbing between Krakow/Katowice) I always took the plane.
There’s actually an MMM-Article related to this: https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/09/13/domestic-outsourcing-practical-or-wussypants/
Not that it changes anything, but Basel should be connected to Warszawa by a few bus lines.
