I think I have read every thread in this forum regarding car purchases, but my situation is a little out of the ordinary, so bear with me...

I am a U.S. citizen visiting in Switzerland for the holidays, and I need to buy a 4 passenger, 4wd diesel vehicle for a rally in January (preferably a Gelndewagen or a van). I will be purchasing the car wherever, equipping it, and departing Switzerland in about 3 weeks.

I would prefer to buy the car here, since I am currently here, have dual-citizenship, and an address at which I can register it. My dilemma (and actually I think I might have a few...) is that the selection and prices of suitable vehicles seem much better in Germany. I have been on Autoscout CH and the English version, as well as all the other vehicle sites recommended on this forum (you guys are great, thanks).

So, I guess what I'm really asking is (A) if I buy the car in Germany (as it seems to have been recommended from a comment Richard posted a ways back -- sorry, don't have the date), does anyone know how cumbersome a process it would be to get it insured and registered, and (B) can I just drive it back around Switzerland for a few weeks without going through importation paperwork, and then leave the country? Or would it be more sensible to just do it here in the CH?

I then plan on selling the car in Mali, Africa at the end of the rally, so I think I'll have to bring the plate back to whatever country I bought it from -- unless I can't sell it, then...different thread.

Although I can't give advice on the problem, I would gladly come along this "rally"

There are a few grey importers in CH who will source you a car from Germany and help with the insurance and registration here. Savings can be in the range of 15%.

Thanks for replying so quickly, Swissbob.

How "grey" are we talking here? And if it's only a light heather grey, would you post or PM me a link?

Light grey, nothing bad. They import the cars to Switzerland, bypassing the official dealers. Some big auto dealers like auto züri west do that, and there are small agents who operate on customer request, that is you go there, tell them which car you want and they'll find it and import it for you.

With the grey market you loose something in terms of warranty: generally swiss warranties are better than the rest of Europe, that means longer lasting and including free service.

The grey market car has only the standard european warranty. If you plan to keep the vehicle for a few weeks only, this doesn't really matter.

Depending on how many weeks we're talking about, why don't you register on German export plates...

you can look on this website .... wwww.mobile.de