Hiya fellow expats,

I just moved to Basel and 'm trying to bring my car to Basel from Surrey driving through France, but I want to know how long I have before I need to change the UK number plate to Basel number plate. What if I take the car back to UK and come back again to Basel does the time to change the number plate start again from the moment I bring my car.

Any advice on the following would be greatly appreciated:-

1. Parking in Basel
2. Converting UK driving license to a Swiss one
3. Car insurance, will my British insurance cover driving in Basel
3. Any tips on travelling from UK, Basel then UK

Cheers, Kash

Check out the driving section or use the search function. Everything you need is on this forum.

As kevlegs said, a lot is covered in the Driving/Transport section, but just to underscore the parking situation - parking in Basel city is ridiculously difficult. Do not bring your car over with the expectation of parking it in the city, but rather with the expectation of using it to get out and about to outlying areas (to sightsee etc) or for the Ikea runs.

If you are working for one of the major companies in Basel in one of their outer plants/campuses, you may find your car more useful to get out there, or if you are living in France (or Germany)/working in Basel, but in that case, make sure your company is going to provide you with parking. Some places have so little parking, they have a lotto for parking spaces, so for a year you might find you can't even drive to work cos there is nowhere to park.

There are quite a few roads and routes in Basel that cars aren't allowed to take, but are tramways only. Please check out your parking before hand, don't rely on finding public parking! It will make things so much easier for you.

Welcome to Basel Kashim; I reckon I can answer your questions concisely:

You can run your car on british plates for up to 1 year before having to go throught the conversion to Swiss plates (and all the hassle this involves... just search the forum!)

1. Parking in Basel- difficult, almost impossible. In all probability, you'll have to rent a space somewhere- on-street parking is difficult to find. Wherabouts are you living?
2. Same as you car, you can convert to a Swiss license within 1 year, before you'd have to do a full Swiss driving test. You need to get an eye test from the opticians (specifically for the driving license, should cost 10-15 CHF) and fill in the relevant forms at the Gemeinde. If you have a lot of driving categories on your license and wish to keep them, you'll probably also have to have a medical (I did).
3. You'll probably find in the small print that your british insurance does not cover you unless you are resident in the UK. So you'd have to get swiss car insurance (more expensive than the UK), which will be more difficult and expensive as you have a foreign registered car (and presumably RHD too)
4. Driving is pretty straightforward, but I've only done it once. Eurotunnel can save a lot of time; from Surrey, it should take you about 8-10 hours, door to door. Plenty of carriers and cheap flights from Basel to London City, Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester... which usually works out a lot cheaper, quicker and convenient, unless you have a car full of stuff/passengers etc.

Hope this helps.

I've already replied to someone about parking Basel before. Anyway, you can park in the blue zones within your postcode of residence even with British plates. Costs about 100 and something francs per year I think. Try searching this forum for more details.

Whitean3, Mepriana and other,

Thank you very much for taking the time to write back, much appreciated.

1. I'll just park in the blue zone, as I live near Stucki in Kleinhunningan
2. 1 year's time will give me a lot of time to organis that, and hopefully by that time I should be fluent in German too
3. I checked with my current insurer Direct Line and they cover up to 3 months 3rd party and theft. Maybe, I'll take the car back to UK every 3 months to get another 3 months European cover.
4. This is going to be tricky, as I think I'll have to drive through France (expensive toll roads) or Germany, via Luxembourg and Belgium complying various driving regulations such as carrying a triangle, bright yellow jacket and speed camera search turned off on my satnav. Anyone interested in travelling with me to UK? We'll split the fuel and I can assure you that I'm not a British psycho in Basel.

Cheers, Kashim

Kashim - you can shop around for different insurance options. I took a policy out with Staurt Collins - a UK broker, who arranaged an extended European policy - i can drive in CH for up to a year, fully comp for a sensible annual premium! I did MOT the car the day before I left, as it had to be valid for the insurance to work. Easy!

Did you tell DL you are no longer UK resident, as the 3 months 'normally' is only in any 12 month period, and you have to be UK resident. You are aware that the car has to be fully UK legal to stay here, that means valid MOT and tax as well as insurance?

Having driven from the UK to Lausanne about a month ago, I'd recommend using the French toll roads - it's not that expensive (and just think, the money you'd save on tolls by going the longer route is soon used up in petrol). Re: triangle, yellow jacket etc - you need those in the car going through France too. Remember - they can't go in your boot, they need to be in the front or back seat (ie accessible without leaving the car).

Obvious question -- do you really want a RHD car (and all the hassle of ensuring it complies with Swiss regulations) in Switzerland? Mind you, I guess there's no-one left in the UK with any money to buy your car.

Thank you everyone for your advise,

I'll give Stuart Collins a try, and see how competitive they are. Although, Your Move was pretty good and they throw in 180 days' fully comp European cover and 5 trips o 4 days outside the Eurozone, not bad, and there's an option to extend the 180 days if required. I also checked road cover and RAC seems to be the current front runner.

I still have a UK address and go back and forth, so I guess I'm resident in both countries.

The car (BMW Z4) was a wedding gift from my wife and didn't want to sell for reasons you would understand.

Trust me, if I could sell it, I would.

Kash

If you go with Stuart Collins, apparently there is no UK residency requirement (you just need to have a UK address). You can check with them.

I think legally you can only be "ordinarily resident" in one country and it is determined by the number of days per year you spend or plan to spend in the respective two countries. I point this out only because your UK insurance company will have great pleasure hiding behind the technicalities should you need to claim. We changed our insurance for our RHD UK purchased car to Zurich insurance and actually they were very good to deal with. There is an English guy called Jonathan in their Geneva call centre who was a superstar in helping us get the best cover and, for Switzerland anyway, a very good quote.

I drove a UK reg BMW for a full year (insured by Stuart Collins). Driving an RH here is not that big of a deal (but then I drive an American-import LH in the UK). After vacillating for a while, I am in the processes of getting CH plates. You can only use your UK plates for a year from the time on your permit - CH authorities at the toll borders will take the view that you are now resident here (I know it from experience!). However, you are allowed two years to import the car. If you want to hold on to the car here for more than a year of course you need to get CH plates, it is becoming less of a hassle. In any case, you might want to contact BMW in the UK (http://www.bmw.co.uk/bmwuk/about/contact/faq) to get a "Certificate of Conformity" that eases the process of importing down the road - they are pretty quick with sending you a copy in the post.