After a year of living together and relying solely on Switzerland’s impressive, yet sometimes limiting, public train system, Nicole and I finally made the big decision: it was time to buy a car. We are generally big fans of the trains, but life eventually presented too many logical reasons to get our own set of wheels.
However, the decision to buy was only the beginning. Between our different needs, a tight budget, and a looming deadline, the actual process of buying a used car in Switzerland quickly became a complicated nightmare. Here is why we came to this major decision and why finding the right car was so challenging.
The Reasons: Why We Ditched the Train
The Grocery Battle
For me, one of the biggest reasons we decided to buy a car was the weekly grocery shop. Every single week, we had to carry heavy bags of milk, flour, drinks, rice, and more. This quickly adds up in weight, and since I already have issues with my back, it certainly didn’t help.
The problem wasn’t just the weekly groceries; it was all the other essentials, too. When buying larger items from stores like IKEA, we had to check the products in person, go home, order the products online, pay high delivery fees, and then wait for the delivery. We even experienced delays that turned a Saturday purchase into a two-week wait! And it’s not just buying; it’s getting rid of things. While we can easily recycle cardboard, we still have to carry huge IKEA bags of bottles, glasses, and cans to the nearest collection point. It is simply not comfortable at all.
Visiting Family and Friends
While Switzerland’s train system is well-connected, we don’t live in a very large city. My mom and sister live in even smaller villages with limited public transportation access. I mean, you can still get there, but sometimes it is only one train or bus every hour. If we want to visit them briefly, relying on public transportation makes “shortly” just not possible, as the travel time adds up quickly.
We lose less time going there by car, making the entire process far more convenient. For example, visiting my grandmother takes over an hour by train, but with a car, we cut that travel time by almost 20 to 30 minutes. The same applies to friends who live in villages that are simply difficult to access by train, which means we often meet in a city center instead of at their homes, which leads us to meet each other less in general. This isolation was a huge reason we decided to buy a car.
Activities, Comfort, and Flexibility
We love to do sports and other fun activities together, but we lose so much time relying on the train compared to having a car. We used to love playing squash, but we stopped because it took us almost 40 minutes to reach the sports center. With a car, we would be there within 15 minutes. Also, traveling in the evening meant changing trains one or two times, with a high potential that one would be delayed, leaving us stranded for a long time. Many of these sports centers are just a little too far outside city centers.
Even for Nicole, who goes swimming three times a week and has decent train connections, a car offers more flexibility and reduces her travel time significantly. With that many sessions per week, reducing the total traveling time by a huge amount means we can spend more quality time together, which is crucial for our relationship. (You can read more about balancing busy schedules here: [Why I Have My Whole Life in Notion: Here is why]).
Ultimately, a car isn’t just a comfort; it helps us be more spontaneous. We can do roadtrips, same as the roadtrip i did to sardinia with my friend. With the train, you have to plan everything and be at the station at a specific time. We love to be flexible, and that is what we were not able to be with public transportation alone.
The Difficult Search: Compromise and Pressure
So, we made the decision to buy a car, but where do you even begin? Of course, we downloaded the most famous car app in Switzerland, Autoscout 24, and regularly checked Comparis. But before you can search, you have to agree on what you want. Because it is always difficult to decide. But buying a used car in Switzerland was more challenging than expected.
The Negotiation
With two people, the process is very different than if I were just buying a car for myself. We both had very different views:
- Nicole’s View: She liked the bigger cars, like SUVs. They are safe and spacious, which I agree with.
- My View: For me, SUVs were not an option. Parking in Switzerland is tight compared to Costa Rica, so we have limited space. Also, bigger cars usually mean more expensive insurance due to the larger motor, and since we are on a budget, bigger cars meant higher overall costs.
We had to compromise. I convinced Nicole that we should probably go for a small car, even if it wouldn’t be our dream car.
The Deadline Pressure
Then came the next complicated question: what are we willing to spend? Finding a car that looks nice, is efficient, is reliable, doesn’t cost too much, and can still get us from A to B was a huge challenge. But we also had added pressure: Nicole has her Costa Rican driving license, which, for reasons nobody told us until too late, is only valid for one year after her arrival. After that, she has to take a control drive test.
The year was almost gone when we found this out! Since her test is scheduled for the end of November, it was crucial that she could drive and practice. This whole deadline made the decision-making process far more difficult.
In the end, we went to watch and test-drive a few cars, including Citroen, Volkswagen, and Chevrolet, but we were never sure if the deal was good or not because we simply didn’t have enough technical knowledge.
The Final Decision: A Renault Clio
We finally bought our car, and it turned out to be a black Renault Clio. It is a small car in good condition with around 150,000 kilometers and a motor that is small but still powerful enough. We paid 7,900 Swiss francs and it came fresh from service and the MFK inspection.
It is certainly not our dream car, but our dream cars are well outside our budget and don’t make sense given our plans to eventually live outside of Switzerland.
I have to agree with Nicole; we both like the look of limousines more than a car that looks like you are transporting a coffin to the next funeral. But for the moment, the Renault Clio made the most sense for us. Overall, buying a used car in Switzerland was a difficult journey, primarily because we lack technical knowledge and had the pressure of a deadline. But we managed to find something that works, and that’s what counts! We hope this little car lasts long enough until we leave, or at least that’s what we hope for.
How were you buying your used car in Switzerland? Was it also difficult for you to decide, or did you know exactly what you were looking for from the start? Let us know in the comments!