I posted a thread on Family Cars a while back and this is (sort of) a continuation on my path to ownership.

Having spoken to a few friends and colleagues at work, some suggest that buying in Germany and importing will (typically) put me on the "garagiste" black list, i.e. will always be last on the waiting list for repairs, will always have to wait for spare parts, etc, etc. As this will be my first (own) car in Switzerland, I started researching the warranty aspects/implications. After all, what good is it to save 5k now importing when the whole ownership experience will (perhaps) be unpleasant?

I see there are various options, like pre-owned brand occasion vehicles which are certified and with warranty. Speaking of new cars, on the other hand,
Volvo seems to stand tall ahead of all others I came across with a special Swiss package of 10 years + 150k of free sevice.
Toyota have some extension packages (unknown price tag) which go as far as 7yrs/160k on select models.
Mazda offer the 3yrs/100k

The key question which bugs me and I am unable to find answer to - if I purchase a brand new car from EU with 3yrs/100k factory warranty - will this be respected in Switzerland, or is that only valid in EU (meaning I would be expected to drive to wherever I bought it from for the regular/planned service)?

Next, I would be grateful to hear back from you on the various brands - duration of their warranty, service experience (great/avg/poor) and whether or not you would consider buying another car from the same brand/garage again. Naming and shaming is also useful, any prior experience will help me decide.

As Volvo and Toyota are high on the candidates list, I would be very thankful to hear feedback on their respective dealers: Autobritt (Volvo) and Emil Frey (Toyota)

Thanks!

I bought a German registered VW Caravelle from a garage in Aargau who arranged all the import stuff. I have had no problems whatsoever with the warranty being honoured by my local VW dealer and I ended up with some work needing doing.

I now have an imported Nissan with a three year warranty but it is still too new to visit the garage
However in the service book there is a page which states any Nissan dealer in Europe (not just EU) must honour the warranty.If there is a problem I can contact Nissan directly.
Hope this helps.

I used to own an Audi imported from Germany and I never encountered that kind of problems. Sure, it could happen but a dealer can take you for a ride just as well if you have an officially imported car.

Besides, it doesn't really make sense. Dealers make much more money on service and spare parts than on new cars. Why should they scare you away by giving you bad service, even more so in a place like Geneva where you could easily have the car serviced at a dealer across the border.

IMHO it's mostly scaremongering.

As far a brands are concerned, I never had less trouble with a car than with my current Volvo.

Thank you guys - all valid points. The other one I heard this weekend was - the money saved is sufficient to service the car well out of the factory warranty which the dealer network cannot but honor. It is often I read posts here about garages that take care of all the formalities... Usually these were on the other side of the border, so a nice surprise that some local (Aargau) garages do it as well.

Am I reading you correctly Elly - the car was with German plates when you bought it?

When we looked a Volvo, it indeed had a wonderful Swiss package that included everything for 10 years. At the same time, the dealer had a repossed EU volvo he was trying to sell, but stated that it did come with the much less warrenty/repair coverage, and for that reason he had a hard time selling it.

The dealer sourced the vehicle in Germany, and then imported it for us so we collected it as a registered Swiss vehicle.
We bought the second vehicle at Auto Discount Uster. There is a seperate thread on this garage, and there are a couple of drawbacks with using them such as test drives, but on the whole we were happy with their service and saved 30% on the main dealer price.

Wait, wait, wait... there is a dealership/garage where you list your criteria and have them take care of sourcing, importing, registering, etc a car of your liking? Off to the forum search I go.

personal experience says thats bollocks... have any of them actually experienced this or is it what they have been told by a dealer or a "friend".. most of it is down to popular rumour ahter than actual incidents

The dealer gets no benefit delaying repairs or ordering spare parts unless they have a small world mindset and if thats the case the dealership standards would be highly suspect and not worth my custom.

i have 2 imported cars here and never experienced problems in several years at numerous dealers.

1 thing to rememebr if you plan on 2nd hand cars is the warranty is a lot longer in germany but obviously doesnt help if you are in geneva for example.

Well, I am somewhat inclined to go second-hand because a) you do not absorb the immediate depreciation and b) whatever is left of factory warranty should be good enough to cover any issues I may overlook at time of purchase.

Reading through threads dedicated to auto-discounters like this one, I see that in some (rare as they may be) cases, dealerships will go the extra mile to either price-match or at least come close to a competing offer.

There are also some as-new vehicles, either test/demo or returned leasing that should fit the bill. At this stage, I think I will exhaust all options buying from a local dealer before I venture into the great German sea of pre-owned cars...

A lot of authorised service garages from the vehicle manufacturers now selling imported cars. They will honour the warranty as you bought the car from them and device no problem. I said this to AMAG sales guy and he shrugged his shoulders and could not justify price difference!

I don't know if anybody else has a similar experience but a friend of mine had problems with Emil Frey when he brought his car for repair (covered by guarantee) - his car was bought from another garage

Well if they refuse to service it then just contact the manufacturer and the deler will be hit with a hefty fine. They will be forced to do the necessary repairs.

In any event if you buy an import from for instance a garage who are official VW service reps then they will honor the warranty and service no problem.
You may pay a lottle more for the car than one of the big car supermarkets but still save a fortune compared to buying off a main dealer.