Hi there - so we're starting to find our feet, and think it would be great to have a car now and then to explore some of the amazing countryside. We have train tickets, and mobility, but think having a car would be useful. We expect to be in Zurich for 18-24 months.

We've a few options:
1) bring our car over from Ireland
- positives - only cost us price of ferry + petrol
- negatives - take 2-3 days to bring over, need winter tyres, insurance is higher here, no car at home when we go home for weekends, also after 12 months we'd have to export OR re-reg, and wheel on wrong side of road
Total cost to us (exc petrol) would be c. 2-3k (ferry / transport over + insurance + tyres etc)

2) find a long term rent - found companies which will rent for 500 / 550 CHF a month all in, if we take the car for 6+ months. That includes X km and insurance. Our only costs would be petrol. So say over course of the year total cost to us would be c.7k CHF + petrol. Positives -no upkeep, no hassles. If we have a problem, we get a replacement

3) buy something 2nd hand - either on lease or just buy it and sell when we head off. Cost to us is difference between buy and sale price + upkeep + insurance etc. Guess talking 5k in the year, if we buy a car for 8-10k

Reckon the most effort is option 1, but it would probably also work out the cheapest. The least effort is option 2 (basically a serviced car). Option 3 we could get caught out if we buy something bad.

Any thoughts / insights / ideas on what you did in our sort of position?

Cheers
G

option 4:

http://www.mobility.ch

Which they already have!!!!

Get something older - 3,000-5,000chf - run it for 2 years - sell it to a garage for 1,000chf - except the depreciation loss. Get cheap insurance, TCS and TCS ETI (if you are heading out of CH)

+: Relatively cheap, only 3rd party insurance, relatively simple
-: Slim pickings for a good car, relatively big loss of cash in 2 years

Hi - thanks for the thoughts. Yeah I guess the risk for us is buying something for 3k runs the risk of costing us a lot to maintain etc. Have decent idea of 2nd hand car market at home, but few questions (sorry if these are dumb!) about Switzerland:

1) What are best sites for 2nd hand cars in this sort of price range?
2) How does the equivalent to NCT / MOT work in terms of frequency, cost and strictness?
3) At this sort of price range, does it make more sense to buy something in Germany, or are the associated import costs high?\

Thanks for the help!
Graham

Hmmm did some spot checking on car sites. There seems to be a big difference in terms of price for 2nd hand cars between Germany and Switzerland. I know there are exchange rates, and import charges .. but took a few examples and in my budget (say 5k euro) there seems to be a lot mroe choice and offers in Germany. For example a 2005 Ford Focus Diesel (similar milege etc) for 4500 euro in Germany OR 10k CHF in Switzerland.

So think my options are
1) Bring my own car over
2) OR buy one from here / germany.

Head getting clearer! Anymore tips?
G

Neither of those are "easy options" - IMHO

Dont understand. If we want a car, what are easier options than buying one, or bringing our one from home?

HI

I have been in switzerland just over a year, i bought a cheap car from a garage and its been very good to me. I had a service done on it at the beginning of summer and the mechanic said everything was fine and just changed the oil filter for me, he also checked everything from the big service and reported everything to be fine with the car (I know him from work)
I am selling my car for 1500 CHF as im leaving switzerland at the end of the summer, im willing to negotiate if you interested ?

Its a 1995 vw Polo, it has done quite a few km just over 150 000 but runs well and is pretty good on petrol ( i drive to and from work and to the next village and have been to bern twice on one tank and it lasted me 3 weeks).

let me know if you interested, or good luck with your decision making

Thanks