We have actually done this with 2 cars and a motorbike all from different garages & Kantons (regions). 3 cars if you include a private sale. Maybe we just have honest faces

I salute the person who started this thread.. as I find among expats in general a rather high degree of swiss-bashing which on the whole is undeserved. What are we doing here after all?!

Now my top 10.

1. The Public transport - coming from UK, its like travelling 50 years into the future.
2. The city of Zurich. Compact, clean, but diverse, not overcrowded,.. another festival or event every other weekend... what more could you ask for.
3. Low crime.
4. High net salary.
5. The fact that I am allowed to live work here at all.
6. The Mountains - for skiing, biking, hiking, enjoying.
7. Good quality food. I mean grocieries - not like the "cheap as possible" philosophy that seems to rule the rest of the world.
8. The different seasons.
9. The organisation. (I know this normally ends up in the "minuses" column for most people - but I like it!! I am a Virgo after all )
10. The People - another one where opinions vary, but I've never had a bad experience. On the whole they are friendly and civilized.

G.

So true! That is very refreshing. Btw I found a ladies purse in the tram (with plenty of cash inside). I handed it to the tram driver with my details. The lady did not even bother thanking me via phone or e-mail!

well,i think that this country is very beautifull,it has good organisation,everything is always clean,the public transports are the best but for me there are bad things:we pay for everything except the air we breed,the people are very cold,the weather its so bad(my dear portugal i miss you so)the kids dont have education,if we dont speak german they treat us diferent and the food its the worst.

World class, competitive & inexpensive education
Friendly & helpful people in general PLUS my Swiss friends are the most sincere I've ever had
Excellent pay
Clean air
Cleanliness in general (although for public places e.g. train station it is just a close 2nd to Singapore)
Cultural diversity
Public transportation system
Nature
Bread & pastries/Not-so-greasy food/Pastas

10. Great cinema from all over the world, not just 15 screens of hollywood shite
9. Really good quality kebabs, you can even eat them sober.
8. The calm that is Kloten after queueing hours in Luton or Gatwick.
7. Twisting roads that are a "once in a lifetime" experience for most bikers.
6. SNOWBOARDING
5. Not having to go round feeling tense and trying to look "vaguely hard" in an unfamiliar pub in case someone starts on you.
4. Swimming in the clear waters of the Limmat, right in the middle of the city.
3. Grumpy, cynical old swiss men's humour (has to be done just right, best served very deep in the country, garnished with a divorce or two and a ridiculous moustache)
2. Seeing the way groups of teens shake hands and kiss cheeks.
1. Having honest, straightforward swiss friends who don't constantly bitch behind each others' backs like many english/americans i have known.

I love shopping around Migros on a Saturday afternoon with a huge smile on my face .......... it completely freaks out the locals.

I love coming home after running or something on a Sunday, when i've set the oven up to cook me a roast. I get back, and the smell hits me as soon as the lift doors open.

The roast is already cooking (timer on the oven - like Swiss clockwork). The entire corridor has that roast smell. Chicken, lamb, beef, it doesn't matter. One quick shower later, it's time to dish up and nosh out. Eat the roast, watch the Sunday footy on Sky, and doze until bedtime. With any luck, it's raining, so i feel no guilt in staying in.

It's a typical English Sunday afternoon, but after living in Aussie, for me it's a little piece of heaven

You can do this anywhere...the mortgage on the roast is the giveaway though...
dave

Maybe the tram driver kept it...

I can confirm the same. I have bought two cars here from new and both times the payment slip - due for payment in 30 days - was included with the documentation when I drove the vehicles away from the showroom.

That represents either great naïveté or massive trust in the basic honesty people and I go for the latter (everyone being registered helps too). Seeing that the dealers concerned had been in business for a number of years, presumably everyone paid them - I did BTW...

Yes, being registered does mean that it's easier to track people down, so there's a good side and bad side to it Since this has been mentioned a few times on this thread, I thought I should point out that the idea of paying by invoice and the general level of trust is decreasing. Anyone who has their own business and collects payment from the general public will tell you stories of not being paid, having to chase debts etc. A browse through the list of shops on toppreise.ch shows that almost none will accept this form of payment, unless you are a regular customer. Trust of strangers in that business is very low. When I had my car serviced they insisted on cash the first time. Once I was a customer they then sent me bills.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that we have still have that level of trust, just wanted to point out that it is slowly eroding, and the level of trust may not be as high as many people believe it is.

Also when I bought my car it was bank transfer before I picked the car up - I didn't ask to pay later though. If it is a local business it may be different, though the car dealership where I have my car serviced is local but they didn't trust me the first time they saw me. I'm sure I have an honest face

1. Davos
2. The dudes at the winter sports regions that unspeculatively INVITES you a drink. (specimens not easy to find somewhere else)
3. The sunny weather at the mountains
4. The art galleries
5. The colors of the scenic panoramas while driving through the country. (sometimes it's almost unreal)
6. The stunning falcons staring at cars beside the mountain roads.

Last night, I was struggling at the bus stop, the machine wouldn't take my 5CHF, no other change, and some youth just walked up and bought me my ticket without saying a word! That's nice.

I still hardly speak any German, and I was having real trouble trying to get the right curtains for my flat, no-one in the shop spoke any english, but one assistant, happened to know a customer in the shop who did, said swiss customer then walked around with me and translated all my questions, why? don't care..

I looked at the thread on swiss rudeness, but I haven't encountered it.

I love the petrol pumps. Flick on the little catch on the pump handle and sit back in your nice warm car until you hear the clunk to tell you its full. Why don't we have this in England? The catches are on the pumps back home but they file them down. I suppose we are all to irresponsible to be trusted with such dangerous technology...

One day travel cards that last for 25 hours (24 officially) rather than just the calendar day on which they were bought.

dave

A Swiss perspective...

1. The political system. However imperfect and despite marked disinterest, it still the dog's gonnads. What I can do, as a simple Swiss schmuck, by simply collecting enough signatures from like minded folk and forcing parliament to debate it and leave the rest of the country to decide simply defies belief for my British friends.

2. Drug policy. Best there is, all options are kept open and the worst problem is tackled head on and without moral prejudices.

3. Cultural openess. Yep, you're not misreading it. The amount of arts from abroad I have been exposed growing up in Geneva is incredible. From movies, there is a number of arthouse cinemas in Gva with constant programming of non-commercial stuff, to art galleries, museum, etc. This is certainly due to the fact that we do not have a strong indigenous culture (too small, too many differences between the linguistic regions, etc), a bit like the UK are more open to exotic foods due its own lack of a strong local food culture. It might not translate entirely in the population attitude but the lefties generally in charge of arts funding certainly compensate for it.

4. Public transport. Well, it sounds like a cliche and the small size of the place and the fact even the bigger city is not that big helps (not sure even a crack team of anal Swiss transport logicians could do much for London...) but it is rather good I have to say. A couple of years ago, I travelled by train to Gruyeres from Geneva, I had to change train at Palezieux and I had 3min to do so and I was not even getting jumpy about it...

5. You. Yes, you foreign lot invading my country, I think it's great to have plenty of those around. Putting aside some dodgy ones and those who never want to leave their little bubble, it makes for a lot of variety when you go out.

6. Cenovis. Better than marmite, end of...

7. Coffee. It breaks my heart to see Starbuck doing a roaring trade. I do undertand the expat anglo-saxons going there, coffee for them, in general, is some bucket of flavoured milk-shake, but why do the locals do indulge in it, they've been raised with good coffee...An espresso in any little boozer in Geneva is miles better than anything those chains have to offer. Not yet Italy but coffee is ace in Switzerland.

Other things often mentionned like cleanliness or nice scenery is common to a fair number of other places to be specific to Switz.

Walking 15 minutes up the hill into the forest, deep in snow, not a soul around. Finding a cleared fireplace, little shelter nearby with neatly arranged logs cut, dried and stacked for my Bratwürst grilling pleasure. Thank you, forestry workers!

i feel it is good for life experience to live for a few years in foreign country. so like that too

It's got to have the perfect system regarding employment, tax, pension, health.

1) High salaries
2) Low tax
3) Efficiency in public sectors (e.g. licencing authorities, Geneva and Zurich)
4) In the middle on Europe...You can be in several countries within hours.
5) Everywhere (generally) is clean.
6) Efficient and on time (down to the second) transportation. Not so expensive compared to other countries and salaries in Switzerland.
7) Efficient health system, (even though health premiums can be a bit expensive).
8) Employment conditions/laws.
9) Greenery
10) The way people drive (in comparison to some countries) is very good.