Apologies if this has been posted before but I've just discovered it...
If you hire a car from Mulhouse/Basel airport you pay about 1/3 of the price to hire the same car from Basel/Mulhouse airport! Stupid system doesn't seem able to tell that it's the same place. Seems to work with both Europcar and Hertz.
The small print on both says you can drive the car in Switzerland although they don't mention the motorway vignettes so maybe I'll have to pay for one - even so its still masses cheeper than hiring from the Swiss side of the airport.
I've booked using this today with Hertz although haven't actually collected the car yet so will find out on Saturday if there are any catches I'm unaware of...
Oh you're kidding me! Bloody stupid Swiss rules. There's nothing on the car rental sites to say you can't do it. I gave my residence location as Switzerland and my real Swiss address and they still let me hire it, and it says you can drive it in Switzerland. I guess I'll find out on Saturday...
It's true - the French side of the airport is definitely cheaper and we've done it several times when we came here for interviews. I've also paid in dollars with my US bank account at times for even cheaper rates.
So I collected the car last Saturday and asked the chap at Hertz if there was any problem driving into Switzerland as I am a Swiss resident and he said it should be fine. I stopped at the border to buy the motorway vignette and had no problems. Also crossed back and forth a few times at both the German and French borders as we went shopping, visited Freiburg and went to KFC in Mulhouse and didn't have any problems.
I'll definitely do this again. The chap at Hertz says there's no law against it but most people don't realise the airport has a French side as well as a Swiss side so don't work it out...
It cost less to hire the car for four days (including petrol and buying the vignette) than it would have cost to take a mobility car to the alps for one day.
However if you live in Ch with a Ch driving license you could be in trouble for 2 reasons.
1) Your importing a car as a resident NOT a tourist so the exemptions on importing a car don't apply. You have a daily allowance of 300chf, a car is worth more than 300chf. You can get permission to drive for a couple of days, however the car needs to be declared at customs.
2) Your driving license does not allow you to drive foreign registered cars in CH.
It's actually the same for everybody else in the EU, you can only drive a locally registered car in your home country,
Which one are you talking about? Are you saying its legal or do people just get away with it?
I know Brit's in Malta have had cars seized by customs after they did not declare. They could have legally imported when they arrived, they thought they would not bother.
If someone, not Swiss, with a car also not Swiss, lent me their car and I was insured to drive it here, I would drive it. Doesn't matter whether it has Swiss plates or not as it's NOT MY CAR.
Are you saying no Swiss person can step into a car without Swiss plates and drive it?
How are you making this connection? Nobody is important anything. It's a rental.
And where are you getting #2 from? So you're saying that if my Aunt from Holland drives to CH then I can't drive her NL registered car while she's visiting me in my own country????
It also applies to a Company car registered to German office of a Swiss Company.
A UK resident can only drive a UK registered car in the UK, it's not a 'Swiss' thing.
EDIT, Remember about the Thief who stole the Bugatti & towed it to Germany, because it was not driven by a 'tourist', just transported VAT became payable by the thief.
Romania. Lots and lots of people actually drive Bulgarian registered cars as there's quite a big tax for the first registration of a 2nd hand car in RO (sometimes could be more than the car is worth ), while in Bulgaria there is none. The government is currently thinking about limiting this, but as yet it's allowed.
Deleted original post. Sorry fatmanfilms, but what you say simply sounds so wrong I will ignore it. If I get arrested and/or fined you can do a Nelson "ha ha" at me
It is true, many people flaunt the rules. Out of interest how often did you get pulled over by the police driving a foreign registered car with a UK license when in the UK?
'UK residents are not allowed to use non-UK registered vehicles on UK roads. The only exception is if you work in another EU member state and use an EU-registered company car temporarily in the UK for business purposes.'
My recommendation since I am not a legal person is that someone who has real proof post the evidence that a person with a CH license is not allowed to drive a rental car from EU in CH. Have done this a number of times and shown my CH pass to police and customs and never ever had even a question asked.
This sounds silly and the reasons given don't make sense.
To import something you need to have ownership and the right to import it - rental cars are owned by the rental company and you are required to return them to the rental company so how could someone driving a rental car even think they are allowed to export the car. I would expect customs would look at you and think and ask for proof that you are even allowed to import the car which you will not be able to prove.
Maybe the people suggesting this is a problem demonstrate how one imports a rental car that one doesn't have a legal right to import before posting lots of information that suggests heaps of people are breaking the law.