Should I downgrade my luxury car?

Life Hacking
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I made a very non-mustachian decision 3.5 years ago by buying my dream car, a range rover velar. I got a 25% discount due to the company contract with Emil Frey, but still of course it was a major splurge.

Now, I believe the car is still worth about 55k. I’m considering now to sell it, and buy an almost new hybrid Kia Sportage for about 35k with a 7 year warranty.

My rational is

  • My 4 years free service with Emil Frey is about to expire
  • The expensive luxury service costs will then kick in
  • Taxes, insurance, and gas is fairly expensive
  • I could do with a bit of extra cash right now

Should I keep my dream car, or do the right mustachian thing? :slight_smile:

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Only you can answer that question.

For my part, I think it is a ridicilous car which has no practical reason to exist.
EDIT : the only mustachian thing is doing the following :

  • Get a job/residence which allows to walk/commute by bike
  • Get the smallest car possible which covers 90% of the use cases, and get a used one. Towing something once a year is not covered by that.
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Consider using a bicycle instead. No need for a car in Switzerland.

I bought an old mountain bike from Ricardo for 25 CHF in a very good state. Furthermore, I can deduct 700 CHF yearly for a bicycle in my tax return, so the initial investment has already been paid off several times.

In a bad weather, I use public transport.

Ego is the worst enemy for self-improvement.

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Very hard to answer that. There is a wide range from “selling it and only move with public transport” to “if you can afford it, why not? There are more stupid investments” (yes, there are). But I can fully understand all views on this topic.

The most important question for me is: how often do I have to do the services? With a Toyota or other Asian-based companies, these costs are incredibly low. With Range Rover I have absolut zero idea.

I personally decided to lease a Cupra Ateca and - with high probability - I will completely take over the car once the leasing expires. Over 4 years, I will pay CHF 2k in total on top not to invest a bigger amount from the beginning. Taking into account the return I make in these 4y with the invested capital which I did not had to take out the car and without taxes, I even made a small surplus.

Since the leasing interest rates increased heavily thanks due SNB, I will not get another leasing. Instead, I am planning to reduce the insurances and drive it for another 10 years. Let’s see, if everything is working the way I hope for :smiley: Especially with all the electronic components etc.

Are there better alternatives? For sure. But I am staying with 300 PS and 400nm and I love it.

I am not willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of more savings or a bit more return, I want to enjoy life. Doesnt mean, that I have 10 streaming accounts, most expensive mobile and home internet subsription and only eat the most expensive stuff.

Just prioritize, what is most important for you. Maybe there are other components, you can improve (z.B. credit cards and bank subscriptions, energy consumption at home, insurances (health, home, legal protection), holidays, eating/drinking, etc.).

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I can deduct 700 CHF for wearing shoes and walking.
Though they probably wouldn’t care if I walked barefoot.

In fact, when I once deducted my yearly travel card for less than CHF 700 (it actually cost less for a year), someone in the tax office „rounded up“ and corrected me to deduct the 700 for „at least“ a bicycle (even though I didn’t own one).

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You already know the answer, this is just you asking for license what you plan to do already

:wink:

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You bought your “dream car”, as you say. You bought it out of passion. I presume you are a petrolhead.

So for me the questions are: Is it still your dream car? Do you enjoy driving it? Would you be happy sitting in a Kia interior?

Not all decisions in life must be driven by pure logical reasoning.

I am a petrolhead myself. I know my car makes no sense. But it gives me joy. :blush:

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8

This.

That said, dream items are subject to hedonic decline: their owner’s enjoyment wears off after a while.
Even if it’s still the best car he can dream of, it may not seem worth keeping it (or the opportunity cost).

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That’s a good point. I had a dream car at at some point, was able to buy and drive it for a few years.
With that, my urge was fulfilled and did not return, so now I have the mental freedom to make much more practical decisions about cars. (oops, almost wrote ‘cats’).

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Best questions!

If you follow drastically the mustachians life, you should stick to what @Patirou said. If you are passionate by car and used to sit comfortably with your Range Rover, you should ask yourself: will I enjoy sitting in another car or get rid of a car.

Personally, I don’t have a car (I have the CFF SBB FFS 2nd Class) but I rent 1x/2x a month EV BMW car (iX3 or i3s) from my neighbourhood and I really enjoy using them. Should I bought a car, it will definitely be an EV and probably a BMW. But I don’t need it.

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A lot of things already have been said which I agree to, and I fully understand spending more on a car which you are passionate about (I did the same).

Practicly speaking, Range Rover has a very poor reputation for breaking down all the time and are generally expensive to maintain, especially out of warrenty. The logical and rationale decision would be to flip it now and switch to something more reliable, e.g. like a Kia. If you don‘t care about the repair bills and it‘s a passion thing, then I would keep it.

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I bought a car in March with company discount (13%) and my requirements were following:

→ Big trunk at least 620L to travel and easily transport luggage for races and vacations
→ Space inside to travel with family
→ Apple Car Play
→ Comfortable Seats
and a few other options
→ Reasonable price
→ Mechanical attach for bikes at the back
->panoramic roof

I am not a mustachian in the sense that I was not going to buy the cheapest car as possible. I do not mind a little comfort. I just do not want to take stupid financial decisions.

I ended up buying a new Seat Leon FR (Combi) and the NP was around 43-44kCHF. The car was also available immediately instead of having to wait 12 months if you order exactly as you want.

The equivalent in SUV with the options mentioned above and without discount was easily around 50-55k.

Prices of cars have dramatically increased in the last 12-18months (around 10% easily). Consequently, buying something equivalent in terms of options/space with a cheaper car manufacturer (Skoda, Seat, etc) will not come much cheaper than 55k in 07/2023.

The biggest issue seems to be that RR are said to be extremely expensive to repair and unreliable.

It that is the case with your model I would sell it. If not, I would keep it and drive as long as possible and not worry about changing it now.

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Which is more important to you: owning the dream car now or investing the money and having the freedom to retire x years earlier in the future? You can calculate x

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