Hi we recently moved to Basel and need to hire a car for a month before buying one so that we can drive to see properties and garages.

Anyone got any advice about getting the best deal?

Thanks

If you don't have a CH driving yet I would rent in France.

I would have thought you don't need a car to buy a car. If you see something you like advertised ask the seller to come to you, if they are serious about selling they will. If they have miss-described the car, it's tough shit for them when you dont buy.

Check out mobility.ch

They do some long term hire or you can use it whenever you need it.

Depends on where & how much do you plan to drive:

a) driving a lot: look on Hertz, Avis etc. -- it might be a lot cheaper if you have your own insurance rather than taking agency one.
b) small amount of km: mobility.ch
c) driving mostly in CH: mobility + SBB(trains)

Public transport is excellent here, if you can walk a mile you probably don't really need a car, and you will be walking a lot from office to car parking. www.mobility.ch do short trial memberships.

i was also interested in this for schaffhausen. with parents threatening to visit for 3 weeks, it costs quite a bit for them to travel around on swiss trains.

Look for the smaller local companies in the yellow pages. They tend to have better rates for longer term rentals (1, 2 months). In the Lausanne area we have used Patrick Location. It's a small garage type place.

Enzolocations is one of the cheapest, not in Basel but you can pick a car from their Neuchatel branch.