I have a Mercedes-Benz CLK320 which I foolishly brought in from Luxembourg. It is still Lux. registered but I guess I should sell it as it's just costing me money to keep garaged.

Does anyone know how I can best flog it off in Zurich?

it's likely to be less hassle in Luxembourg to be honest. You own, lease, HP the car?

I own the car. I figured that we would probably live part way our of town and drive, but that doesn't look too likely from this angle now. I will keep my car (from which someone stole the alloy wheel centres the first night I parked it in Zurich) but having two gas-guzzlers seems a bit OTT in a country that hates drivers.

By the way, the only other place in the world I have had my car vandalised was Britain, and even then it took two years.

oh you have two cars? How fab - like being royal. Can I be the first to ask what the other gas guzzler is? Porsche Cayenne? Some Porch or Ferrari of some description? Hummer?

You think the country hates drivers? Maybe, but it doesn't stop the Swiss buying what must be close to the highest spec, biggest engined cars they can get their hands on.

hey, I'll swap you my small diesel CH-registered Opel if you like... y'know, save you the hassle...

oi! I have a pushbike I'll swap for it. Plus I already have the wheel thingies from the wheels

Actually the CLK320 is not a gas guzzler I get 9.5l/100Km out of mine...

throw in the bell and you've a deal...

you lot have no shame!

Hey, Bruce - I'll swap my Opel and throw in a bike that has a shopping basket on the front. It's the new black.

gee thanks...

I'll see your shopping basket and raise you a mudguard...

The other car is a gas guzzler but not flash. It's a BMW 740iL from 1996, really old and comfy transport. I love it and will not hear it besmirched. And it's little alloy things were stolen here.

So I guess no-one here knows how to sell a car?

selling a car is easy. Losing money is easy. Selling a personal import immediately probably means losing more money - or having to keep it for a period of time before selling it.

Ergo Luxembourg is a better bet.

I do hope someone owned the 7-series before you

Well let's put it this way. I told a 99 model 728i earlier this year for 9k. The dealer told me it was easier to sell the smaller engine models due to the price of petrol. In the end I went the lazy route and just took it to a few car dealers and got rid of it. You can put an ad in something like autoscout24.ch if you'd prefer to sell it directly to a private person though. Don't expect to get much for it though.

you might be pleased to note that, if you have parking on private land or underground, you can run both cars on the same Swiss plates.

Hardly useful given that you and your wife might need to use both cars at the same time - but it was useful to me, back when I was a single lad and had a ragtop and a 4x4

Thanks guys.

Sadly the option of selling in Lux. wasn't really on, timing-wise. I'll try autoscout24.ch, but if the worst comes to the wurst I can advertise in Germany too. The thing is that it's a great car for my wife, but not really one thing or the other. My big bimmer (it had the 4.4 litre E36 V8) is the comfiest car in the universe. I drove from Luxembourg to Monaco in it and back last summer and didn't even get a sore bum, but the Merc is just a flashy cruiser for girls and old men. It doesn't even corner as well as the Blue Beast, though it is faster.

And yes, someone else had owned the BMW from new. He had loved it and maintained it as though it were his mistress. He had to sell when he got into debt, so I picked up a great bargain.

You're going to have to import the car 'officially' and get it registered here and have it tested and obtain the Swiss equivalent of a log book (pink slip). Otherwise IMO it will be unsellable - unless you find someone moving to the Grand Dutchy...

Just another point about importation. My BMW was "imported" from Germany and so had some sort of an "X" on my Fahrzeugschein (car registration papers). Every time I checked on insurance or took it in for a service there was usually a question about this. I always pointed out that yes, it had been previously owned by someone in Munich. Was this a big deal? After all, isn't that were the BMWs come from in the first place? I failed to the see the difference in the relative Swissness of my vehicle compared to other BMWs without the "X".

When I sold it the dealer told me this would be a bit more difficult for him. I assumed this was just tactics on his part, but there may be a certain amount of truth in this - where buyers may perceive an import to be a bit more hassle or have a slightly lower value.

Thanks mark. That's a useful thing to know.

There's a possibility that I will be buying a place in France and carry on renting here, so maybe I will just take it to France if I go. It certainly sounds easier than selling it here.

The problem with selling in Luxembourg is that the market is tiny. Luxembourg is itself the size of a mini-golf course, so there isn't much room for people.

As I say, Perhaps Germany would be better.

This won't help much....

A few years ago I moved from Luxembourg unexpectedly (I was working on an IT project that was due to run for two years but got terminated after seven months when the company got investigated for tax avoidance). A couple of months previously I had leased a nice Audi (imported from Germany even). I then bought the car from the lease company who didn't charge me tax because I was exporting it from the EU. After a few more months I went along to customs expecting to pay Swiss tax - they weren't very interested and I ended up on Z plates for a year. After the year was up I again went to customs expecting to pay tax. Oh no. Because I had owned the car for more than six months I could import it tax free. I only wish it was a trick that I could repeat....


Bananahead