The fine for driving on the auto-route without a vignette (CHF 40) will increase from CHF 100 to CHF 200 as of December 1, 2011.

The 2011 vignette is valid until January 31, 2012. You can buy the 2012 vignette as of Thursday, December 1st if you wish.

The fine also applies if you do not have the vignette placed in one of the approved spots on the front windshield.

Also mentioned in the past, police can fine you for having too many vignettes on the windshield. They claim (and have won court cases) that it is obstructing the driver's view. The easy thing is to remove the previous year(s) vignettes with a hair dryer, plastic scraper and alcohol/lighter fluid to get the last glue off the window.

Link FR: http://www.admin.ch/aktuell/00089/in...r&msg-id=42429

Link DE: http://www.admin.ch/aktuell/00089/in...e&msg-id=42429

Fixed that for you. You've obviously not been here long enough to realize how most Swiss change their vignettes.

Maybe I missed it or my French is not good enough, but I viewed the link and cannot see that there is any guidance as to the approved spot on the windshield other than indicating the "edge" of the front windshield. Are you aware of any specific information regarding the placement; i.e. any edge or only side edges, etc.? My 2011 vignette is currently in the center on the front, directly below the rearview mirror but not able to be seen from the driver's vantage point; I didn't bother researching whether that was an acceptable spot prior to sticking it there.

IMO, CHF 200 seems a lot to hand over for only placing your sticker in the wrong place! Isn't the fine for getting caught on the bus or tram with no ticket only CHF 80? I suppose those who flagrantly break the law by putting their vignette sticker on haphazardly must be taught a lesson....

From memory, the only 'approved' places for your vignette are in the upper left-hand corner of the windscreen, lower left-hand corner of the windscreen or at the top of the windscreen in the centre.

The diagram looks good. To be sure, the approved spots are shown on the back of the vignette when you buy it. I put mine behind the mirror as well.

I always put mine behind the mirror, in a spot where I don't see it while driving, so I don't have to look at that annoyance all year long.

Well the fellow that drives the VW camper van in our area, is going to have some serious vignette removing. He's got a colourful collection of the swiss ones in the top centre of his windscreen dating from the late 90's, and also has Austrian ones from various years down the side of the screen as well as other little stickers.

I like the way companies give these as corporate Christmas gifts - we always end up with a few surplus that we can give away to family and friends.

In England it would have been a case of wine or a hamper.

I think if the changeover was in the springtime or summertime, this would be much more conformed to....I'd like to see the person who enjoys fumbling around with scrapers and hair dryers in December/january. I think most people dont want to spend time outside then for something so trivial.....

I agree with the fine increase. When i compare the roads in Switzerland to the pot-hole infested streets of glasgow, the Swiss really do keep their roads safe and smooth to drive on. Although it is almost impossible to fix every little crack on the street, the motorways are superb. They have recently relayed a massive part of the motorway leading from aarau to lenzubrg and are still working on it from lenzburg to zurich.

Its good to see that the small amount of cash we pay for use of the motorways is reinvested unlike in the uk with road tax being so expensive with nothing being returned to the road users.

Well done Switzerland!

I suspect this is a service carried out by main dealers in CH!

Why take the risk honestly. 40 CHuffs is very cheap really. From Besançon to Calais it is 100E return for 1 trip!

Good !
Apart from the UK which is daft enough to let non-UK drivers drive for free.. the CH vignette cost is very reasonable compared to most European countries.

(Can't be bothered to look it up.. but I think the Austrians have a similar system and it costs a lot more)

Road tax? No such thing. Read this article from The Guardian recently
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...rs?INTCMP=SRCH

"there is no such thing as road tax, and hasn't been since 1937. Road building and maintenance is financed from other taxation; that fee you pay for the little paper disc which sits on the windscreen is vehicle excise duty (VED), a charge which varies according to the emissions produced".

How many of us knew this? I certainly didn't. Ok, somewhat pedantic, but interesting never the less.