Market
Changing your car every 2 years and considering rent-to-own? Depreciation versus a purchase on preferential rent terms
In a two-year replacement cycle the most expensive item is not the price of the car but how much value it loses before you find a buyer. After two years a car is worth 60 to 75 percent of its original price, so on a car priced at 89 900 zł you leave between 22 475 and 35 960 zł in depreciation. Buy&Rent — a car purchase on preferential rent terms — turns that unknown into a figure known from day one, because the deposit locks the price for the whole term. The contract runs from 2 to 18 months, we do not cap mileage, and at the end you buy the car or hand it back.
What changing your car every two years actually costs
The asking price is not the cost. The cost is the difference between what you paid and what someone will give you for that car two years later.
Residual value calculators updated in 2026 put the two-year drop at 26 to 27 percent for an average car. carVertical's analysis, based on 72 million records, splits it differently: 15 to 30 percent in the first year and another 10 to 12 percent in the second. Set one source against the other and the realistic range comes out between 25 and 40 percent, depending on the make, the mileage and the drivetrain.
On a car costing 89 900 zł that is between 22 475 and 35 960 zł. Which end of the range applies to you, you only find out once someone makes an offer. Then there is the sale itself: the listing, calls from traders, viewings, weekends. A trade-in goes faster, below market price.
Why 18 months is enough instead of two years
Leasing starts at 24 months, because nothing shorter is on offer. Long-term rental is usually written for 24 to 48 months, and the most commonly chosen variants are 36 and 48. A car loan can run for a decade. Your cycle lasts two years, so you push each of these products into something it was never designed for, and you pay to get out early.
A Buy&Rent contract ends in the 18th month at the latest, six months before the second anniversary. You do not have to break it, because it ends by itself before you even start thinking about the change.
A car for 89 900 zł over 18 months
We take the same car from the offer as in the cost breakdown: a hatchback for 89 900 zł gross. The 10 percent deposit is 8 990 zł, which leaves 80 910 zł of capital to settle.
The rent (czynsz) has two components: a 300 zł net administrative fee and 10 percent a year on the remaining capital. On 80 910 zł the interest works out at 674 zł a month, so the rent starts at 974 zł net, or 1 198 zł gross. It will not go higher, because we charge the interest on an amount that keeps shrinking.
Hence the ceiling. Eighteen months at 974 zł net is 17 532 zł net, or 21 564 zł gross. Every quarterly capital repayment brings that total down: with payments of 10 000 zł per quarter, the same 18 months cost 16 959 zł gross.
Now set the two routes side by side. Buying and reselling after two years means a loss of 22 475 to 35 960 zł, unknown until the day of the transaction, plus 89 900 zł tied up for two years. Renting and returning after eighteen months means at most 21 564 zł, spread across invoices from the first month, with 8 990 zł up front.
The numbers are of the same order and that is the honest version of this comparison. The difference sits elsewhere: you know the cost of renting at the start, you learn the cost of buying at the end. Buy the car and the deposit counts towards the price. Return it and the deposit covers the rent for the months you drove, and whatever is left comes back to you.
High mileage hits you twice
A driver who changes cars every two years usually does so because they drive a lot. When you buy outright, mileage eats the value faster than calculator averages suggest, because it is the first line a buyer looks at.
With classic long-term rental you pay for it directly. Contracts allow 10 000 to 30 000 km a year, and every kilometre over the limit costs 30 to 70 groszy on return. Drive 40 000 km a year on a contract with a 20 000 km limit? After two years you have 40 000 km of excess mileage and a bill of 12 000 to 28 000 zł. We do not count mileage, so that line is not in the settlement.
When buying outright is the better call
A car meant to stay with you for eight or ten years, buy it normally. The drop in value then spreads over enough years to stop hurting, and after the third year the curve flattens out anyway. The same goes for an almost-new car: the steepest stretch is already behind it.
A two-year cycle is a different situation. You keep the car for exactly the period when it loses value fastest, and you repeat that over and over.
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
Does renting with a buyout option work out cheaper if you change cars every 2 years?
Sometimes cheaper, sometimes about the same. The rent for 18 months on a car costing 89 900 zł is at most 21 564 zł gross, while the drop in value of the same car falls between 22 475 and 35 960 zł. At high mileage the advantage of renting grows.
What do I do with the car at the end of the contract?
You buy it, return it, or sell it yourself. The purchase agreement is signed from day one, so the buyout does not require a separate procedure.
Is there a mileage limit?
There is none. You drive as much as you need to, and nobody settles excess mileage when you return the car.
Will I pay a penalty for returning the car?
No. We settle the rental on the standard terms, for the actual time you drove, with no early termination fee.
