Hi all, just got to say thanks to everyone for all the invaluable information. This is my first post because a lot of the stuff I found answers for already and not needed to post

I have a strange situation. My girlfriend a Swiss national and myself have recently moved from the UK to Switzerland and she brought her UK plated car with her.

She has taken steps to getting her car headlights changed and booked the MOT and paid for Swiss motor insurance. All good so far. However, she phoned the insurance up recently and found that she isn't covered with the company she chose until she has Swiss number plates. This wouldn't be a problem as she still had 3 months green card on the old UK insurance, but that has now expired.

We not cannot get the uninsured car to the MOT/number plate issuer and the insurance company won't cover her until it is on Swiss plates. Getting a refund and going with another insurance company will take time as you need to sign a contract so we are left without motor transport.

Any suggestions? If not I just thought I'd warn you lot about the insurance company - Mobiliar.

Sorry about your story, but we've always had good experiences with Mobiliar. We've used Zurich too, which is very good car-wise.

I think you can drive pratically anything with a garage license plate. So why don't you go to a local garage and ask them, they should be able to MOT it for you.

Cheers, will give the MOT garage a ring tomorrow - but it was talking to them that made us phone the insurer to check in the first place.

Just to clarify. The garage would have to drive the car to the MOT, not you. I'd suggest you meet up there. Assuming there are no problems with the car, you'll be able to get plates immediately. There are insurance companies stationed up there in Albisgütli (which is the MOT authority for Zurich), who will deal with the paperwork immediately, so that theoretically you can drive home, but you'd have to arrange that with your garage. That's how it used to work, anyway - I admit I haven't been up there in a while.

If I read it right, I think what you need is a Tagesausweis:

http://www.stva.zh.ch/internet/ds/st...w_fztages.html

If it does what I think, it gives you insurance cover and Swiss plates for 24/48 hours or more which then enables you to get to the STVA for the MOT which will then enable you to get permanent Swiss plates and your insurance co will be happy. Insurance cos usually send the cover notes directly to the STVA anyway, so with the MOT cert in hand, you should just be able to go to the counter and get the car registered and your plates

This is basically bollocks. The insurance policy gets stamped in the owner registration document so you must possess an in-force policy on registering. If you have the policy and it has a start date then you are most certainly covered for going for the MFK and the registration office. I think you probably just spoke to the wrong person.