I’m planning to buy a new car at some point - my Skoda Octavia is already 11 years old, so the time to switch to something else is coming. I was thinking about buying another Skoda Octavia 3-5 years old. Any other recommendations? And I’ve read that EVs costs per km are super low. Should I buy gas, EV, or hybrid car?
PS. In terms of EV, do you need a place to charge it? I have a parking lot outside and I’m not able to get a cable there…
I have heard fast charging stations have an impact on the battery life and that slow, home charging is preferable, not sure how big of an issue it is.
I’d ask the landlord for the possibility to get a CEE16 socket at your parking spot wired up with your power counter as a first step. They might be open minded.
It’s unlikely, it’s an old block and my parking place is outside in front of a garage used as a storage room by my neighbor. There’s no wall next to it, it would have to be somehow built next to the parking place.
If you are not driving that often and if you feel okay ‚not owning‘ one, Mobility can also make sense. I use it for both business and private cases and I am quite happy with it. For the numbers you can check @thepoorswiss blog. He did the math for mustachians 
I was using Mobility before my son was born. The main disadvantage was vacationing when I wanted to go somewhere for a couple of days and stay there - with Mobility this is not very cost-efficient. I eventually bought a car when my son was born - renting a car before going to the doctor or hospital with a sick kid would be too much of a pain in the neck.
I don’t drive too often. I basically use the car only on weekends to get from the suburbs of Zug, where I live, to the supermarket and Ökihof. Otherwise, I mostly use bikes - both to commute to the railway station on workdays and to get to the beach in Zug or Cham on weekends (maybe except the beach in Unteraegeri - that one is a bit too far for a bike trip with a kid).
You may also want to compare the ecological impact of the three options, not only the financial one 
That’s why I’m considering an EV or hybrid - I think it makes sense both ecologically and financially. And I do try to bike whenever I can (it’s also good for my health 
).
Why?
You are having a family proof car, dont drive to often, targetting a mustachian option? Just keep yours for another 10 years. Adapt your insurance policy and thats it.
I doubt you will habe financially an advantage with a car with lower costs per km since you dont drive often.
How many km does your octavia have? Any troubles with the car?
That’s a good point Both financially and ecologically, the best course of action would be to keep your car even longer. But if it’s falling to pieces, that may not be possible.
That’s actually not a bad idea. The biggest problem with my car is the crappy and slow air conditioner - otherwise, everything else is ok. What do you mean by adapting my insurance policy - what can I do about it?
My car has 150k km driven and I have no problems with it.
That was my impression as well. Thank for the confirmation. By the way, did he say anything about hybrids?
That’s pretty sad. But frankly, if it wasn’t an astronomical price, I’d be even willing to share the price of installing a new charging station. In my case the problem is, however, the location of the parking lot - it’s just in the middle of the pavement in front of the block.
I dont know how you are insured. With a car getting old, people often forget to cancel Vollkasko or Parkschaden etc.
Did you check if you have enough coolant in the system? Or maybe small leak, which causes bad AC performance (suggesting that it wasnt always an issue)
IMHO when you can charge over night no need to have a 16A plug. I know 3 people charging with 230V, over night, one of them even need to take the cable reel. Might be a solution if you have 230V in your Garage rented by the neighbor.
But for 15k km/year I would enjoy your Octavia. He seems to be well maintained. A new used car always is kind if a pandorra box.
I can confirm 8-10k CHF for 16A charging stations and I think 30k CHF for fastcharger.
AC is a rather complex system, but a weak AC issue often comes from small leaks letting the refrigerant exit (this gas is dilated → produces cold which is blown inside, and then compressed → produces heat which is evacuated through the engine collant radiator). I would go to a local garage to see if they can “recharge” the refrigerant system, to see if it solves the issue.
My advice would also be to keep the old car, as 11 years is not too old and 150 000km not too much, if you do all services and reparations on time. I would advise to delete the voll- or even teilkasko and only keep the mandatory insurance, to save some money, though.
I’m not that old. 
On serious note, I have only mandatory insurance. There’s a reason why I bought a car worth less than 10k - I wanted to save on insurance and not feel regret if I crash it (it’s my first car after getting my driving license).
Good points, I’ll go to my garage and ask them to check up on the AC.
My neighbor is actually pulling his 230V cable through the window and through the pavement to his car. I think it must be a pain in the ass and frankly, it looks ridiculous.
It’s actually less than that. I bought it with 100k km six years ago, so basically I did 55k during that time, so it’s ~9-10k per year.
Maybe it’s not a bad idea. I do the services on time at my local Skoda garage. One annoying thing is that when something breaks or is getting old then the cost of repair/replacement is 2-3k - more than the car is worth probably.
This.
Plus, the charging speed is ca. 10 km/h…
I owned a Prius a couple of years ago. I absolutely loved to drive this car, it’s comfortable and used like 3-4 litres/100 km. As I’m living in a mid-sized Swiss city now, I don’t have a car, but am a Mobility lifetime member.
I was considering a Toyota hybrid. I think plug-in option might be interesting. I think that will be my next car - Toyotas are famous for reliability.
Get a hybrid with 50ish km E-only range.
Should be enough for buzzing around the city logistics on electricity only, and you have the gas range for longer trips.
Would be better if you could get it plugged in around the house / at work, of course.
But this seems a fair mix of “best of both worlds”.
Depends on what types of driving you plan to do… I did the same exercise before buying our family car in March. If you plan to mostly drive in the city or short drives around, then EV or hybrids are great. Gas works well for longer trips, also works very well during winter when the gas engine doesn’t has so many problems like the risk for cold weather to deteriorate the batteries. Again, this only matters if you do long drives, so it really depends on how you plan to use it. I ended up buying a 4x4 diesel SUV where I can also sleep in or throw in lots of stuff, because we do 30k km year across Europe, from beaches to mountains and actually don’t use the car at all during the week.