Have you driven an Opel (or a Fiat or a Peugeot or a Renault) before?
I sold my Opel Corsa last year. From 0km to 250000KM I spent 500€ in maintenance . I also drove a Fiat Punto for a while, and yes, I had problems with the steering... 400€ to change it on a 60000KM car. I hadn't any Renault or Peugeot, but my Citroen AX died in my hands with 200000KM (good times when 20€ of Diesel allowed me to drive over 600KM ahah). My Nissan Almera was sold with 270000KM, I had it for a year, zero problems. Finally my Audi A6 2.5TDI (what a machine...) died recently in my hands, with 185000KM (timing belt problem... usual with V6 engines from that time)
Edit: I forget to mention that my Corsa had a Isuzu engine. Opel should kept it because it was very well successful, but they are now using GM/Fiat engines, which is probably good too. Opel Insignia was considered the car of the year and guess what? Fiat engine.
This year I imported a Nissan 350z fro EU. There was no problem and the procedure is quite simple.
On the border with Germany I got 13.20 form from customs, payed about 12% duties and drove in the country.
After few days I went to Service Des Auto in Lausanne and they gave me a list of papers, what I need to register the car. They wanted all the customs papers, copy of id, few forms filled at their office, antipollution test and Certificate Of Conformity for EU.
I had everything except the last two. Antipollution was not a problem, I got it at Nissan dealership quite easy. BUT when it came to Certificate of conformity, I got into troubles.
The car was from EU, so I went to the official dealership in Crissier and asked for such a document. They took all the copies of documents for the car and I started waiting. After two month of not getting any answer from them, I started calling, coming and the only thing they knew was that the document is in process, we have to wait a bit more...I started calling the Head Office of Nissan in Switzerland and they were giving me German head office and etc...Well I got the document only after 3 month, from my first request.
After receiving the COC I went to Service Des Auto, filled the request and got a date for technical test. Failed because of bulb in one of the front lights, will have a new test in few weeks...
The total time for procedure - 5 month...If I knew that it will take this long, I would never even try to do it. But the only problem was a stupid Nissan department, that was responsible for the Certificate of conformity.
Bit of a contradictory tale, isn't it??
Please tell me about the process of buying the car in Germany. Have you payed the total with TVA and received it back on the customs? How did you receive the german plates to go to Switzerland?
They probably use TÜV or Dekra. Those are the 2 largest independent inspection companies in Germany.
If you buy from a dealer, usually they can arrange the plates + insurance.
Otherwise try:
Is there a limit to the number of cars you can import and register within one year?