Report on World Radio Switzerland today:

(audio on the following link).
http://worldradio.ch/wrs/news/switze...onsumers.shtml

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In this new common market that is the EU and bilateral agreements(tss tss let's not all forget that Switzerland isn't part of the EU!) I'm still amazed to see companies thinking it's ok to pull some oldschool tactics and think they'll get away with it.

Bmw may get a slap on the hand, have to pay a big fine, but who is to say the practice will stop.
As a dealer you don't have to refuse to sell, it's still pretty easy to dissuade first time over the border shoppers; "oh you can't get serviced in Switzerland, it'll be difficult the papers etc".

Similar text article for those people not on lunch break and still surfing (i.e. can't listen to the audio).

http://www.carloversmagazine.com/ind...ock-car-sales/

I'm a wee bizli surprised at your amazement since this is exactly what all the European car manufacturers/dealers did for a long, long time wrt supplying cars in one country for personal export to another EU country - even though it was against EU rules so to do. Of course, most of the companies involved were state-owned by various governments, so it was hardly a surprise that individual governments were glacially slow to act in regard to the practice.

Old trick practiced by an automiobile industry for quite a while. Mind you buy second hand car from DE, it is comparable with prices of very same car in CH from BMW dealer. It is quite uncommon for EU citizens to get rid of their beloved machines when they clock up less than 50'000 km. But in CH seems to be a case and most of them come pampered with goodies like navi, glass roof, xenon lights and etc...

Last weekend I was at Gottstein BMW over the border in DE and they were very keen to sell me a 'new' car (with all Swiss import formalities taken care of). Truth be told though, the discounts weren't as dramatic as you would expect.

The used car market in Germany is a lot better and many dealers will even give you the VAT back and arrange the export plates + insurance.

Only for "vat refund" cars, ie the one they got from a professional who signed them a "tax declaration".
For the cars they get from people they can't do the "vat back" because it's a commission sale.

So at the end there's not so many "Vat back compatible" cars.


I also agree for the "discount" it seems not so worthy for medium range vehicle. It's worthy for higher price vehicle like BMW- so it's strange you havent seen the difference.

I'm only looking at the BMW 1 Series (e.g. ~118d)

I'm only looking at a ford

Spare change' pal?


The guy here copied the "whole cost" of such operation:

http://translate.google.com/translat...autoexport.php
The only part to pay cheaper at the end is the percent between German tax (19%) and the Swiss taxes (8+4%)... So 7% of 10 000chf is only 700chf, which are easily reduced by the cost of fuel, etc...

But it's 7% of 30 000chf it's already 2100chf...

Well.... no. This depends on the type of car you are looking at. I typically look for German made, young, low km cars. They are typically company cars, so the majority is actually "vat back compatible". If you are on the other hand looking for a ten year old family van or a tuned Fiesta... it will be the opposite.

Agreed-
I looked Cmax ford, get approx 460 results with my search criteria, then it reduce to 57 with Vat reclaimable...

But of course if you look for a type of car that businesses have, then you'll get more percentage of those cars.

I made huge savings buying my BMW in Germany - especially since I only had to pay net price (19%VAT in Germany)

You would have paid the net + about 12% in Swiss VAT + taxes and another few % in fees and charges. As a rough estimate I look at the gross German price as being what I will roughly be paying, anything back is a bonus.

Its mouth watering looking at the prices you can buy cars for in Germany, but you have to eventually take the car to be reviewed by the swiss vehicle inspectors, I have heard that there is an unwritten law that they can be very difficult with people who import from Germany as opposed to buying from Switzerland, adjustments to vehicles can sometimes mean that you would have been better off buying in Switzerland... a sort of hidden import duty.

Actually I had no problem with my car at the inspection. But maybe that was because I was wearing a miniskirt and a lowcut top Playing the stupid woman who knows nothing about cars sometimes helps.

I suppose you also had bucket with a big sponge, lots of foam, and spent considerable time leaning over the bonnet, removing those damn bugs off the window screen

How did you know

Unfortunately some of the foam got on my top, so it was all wet LOL

OK I admit the price was low because somebody had ordered that particular car and couldn't pay for it which is why I paid the "new used" price. The car had only made 200 kilometers. So it wasn't the full price for a brandnew car.

Thought about dressing up like that but the low cut top does not go well with my hairy chest & I don't fancy shaving my legs.

So why don't you pose as a French cross-dresser then?

Not quite true now, if the car is under 3 years old the TUV test is the same and totally compatible with the swiss tests, you now no longer have to modify or retest modern German models..