I was looking at a range of cars to decide from after searching Autoscout and finding a couple Emil Frey dealers. I was wondering if anyone has any personal experience with them? The reviews on google are pretty broad.

In particular I was looking at a few tageszulassung cars that are great deals.....I called the Emil Frey Select Occassionen about one deal for a car with only a 100km. Asked about scratches/damage and on the phone was told "Nothing that WE'D notice, but you'll have to inspect the car for yourself"
I asked for more info and maybe an offer with the full price and got "why would I do that? You can find that all on the pictures online"

Im a bit paranoid now wondering if others have had no problems though or if this is just how Swiss car dealers do business.

I'm a bit confused here. What do you expect from them?


I assume the price and relevant specs are in the online ad. Beyond that I'd want to inspect the car and take a test drive anyway.

TBH, you sound like a time waster. A car from Emil Frey, with 100km, will be 'as new'.


Go in and see them, then they know you are serious, then you'll get some customer service.

Sure, of course I'll test drive it, but the vague answer about damage on a new car, the online price on other Emily Frey's was only when bundled with their "MultiAssurance" insurance policy I thought I was doing my due diligence in asking for the actual price before traveling 2 hours to see the car. Seemed like odd pushback from someone trying to sell a vehicle.

Save yourself some hassle and buy local.

They are an almost self-serve business.

You go in, look at the cars, get the keys to test drive whatever you like, look a bit closer at the car if you liked how the drive went, then you buy it or think it over. It is a great business model. I don't know, but they might have a 3 month "insurance" period. This model is best for those of us who aren't familiar with the European car models.

They will not try to force sell a car to you (like they might in the US or Canada), you are pretty much on your own to decide. What's the paranoia about?

I think your worries come from not being familiar with the system here.

A tageszulassung (or whatever it is called) basically means the car is already registered (to the garage). There can be several reasons for this. Maybe someone wanted a test drive (and did not buy it but ordered one in a different color / spec) ? Another reason can be that the car was standing for some time and the emissions approval was about to run out. I think now most cars are 6d-temp, cars with this emission standard can be sold to, dont know, for arguments sake lets say December 2019. Then all 6d-temp cars at the dealer will be registered at the end of november, and sold cheaper as pre-registered after dec 2019.

A few months ago very nice Skoda Fabias with radio, airco etc could be had brand new for around 11k, reason was they had a huge amount of cars standing around and their emissions approval was about to run out...

All of this does not mean there is damage, but you should have a look because a test drive may have resulted in a minor stone chip here or there.

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Yeah, it's a confusing OP but I have a few experiences with Emile Frey - both in terms of maintenance service and buying a 2nd hand car. No issues but I doubt very much that every Emile Frey center is the same, even en Suisse

Only complaint, if any, on the 2nd hand car purchase was little wiggle room on negotiating price but that's a Suisse thing in general with cars IMHO. Ours came with a 1 year guarantee for service at Emile Frey specifically/only - we did a service in that 1 year period but 4 years later quite happy with the car