Minivan 11 day Rental

Transportation, Travel and Trips
1
Hi, Expats.

I'm looking to rent a minivan for six passengers for a span of 11 days.

Also planning to drive into France/Italy so the total estimated distance driven would be about 3000km max.

I have looked into all the car rental companies that I could dig up so far and the cheapest is around 220CHF/day for a total of ~2400CHF. I find this amount outrageous, but maybe that's because my rental history has been in the US where a similar rental could be had for $40USD/day.

Are there any cheaper rental options or more creative ones like, renting from Germany (I'm currently in the Zurich Canton), or maybe purchasing a vehicle and selling after.

Thanks in advance and hope to have more chats in the future with you all.

Cheers,

Daniel

2
Much cheaper to rent in Italy...

3
Yes but getting 6 people there by train and back at (presumably) full price will eat up a lot of those savings.

4
Don't forget that car rental often has a high cost for excess mileage and the limit before this picks in can be as little as 100 miles a day.

Insurance can often add a hefty daily amount on too.

If you are shrewd in in your purchase, buying and selling a van could cost you very little - especially if you already have plates for anther vehicle.

You'd need to do the sums but at least any little scratches or scrapes won't cost you anything compared with if that happened with a rental.

I did it once (not here) and sold the vehicle for more than I paid for it!

5
I guess the 220CHF comes from one of the large rental companies (Sixt, Europcar, Avis).

However, almost in every town there's a local rental. You see them driving around with stickers telling "miete mich ** CHF/day". Find one of these places, reach an agreement and make a detailed video of all the dents and scratches at collection time. Also, ask carefully if you can drive the car outside CH. Usually, there's no problem but there's just another insurance on top of the others.

About renting in Germany, France or Italy, some rental places offer to drive the van to the Swiss border. This is another alternative that may be available considering you're renting for 11 days. Ask about this.

6
Are you looking for camper van like a VW California? There are seperate sites for these sort of rentals - I think we got ours last year for 2-3 weeks at roughly 150/day

7
Be aware that you can’t simply hire a motor vehicle in Switzerland and drive it into the EU since you are not the owner. The rental company will need to provide you with a vehicle that has the appropriate paper work and duties paid. This may impact the rental price.

8
Just a people carrier, a Mazda5, VW Touran, Toyota Verso would fit the bill.

9
6 or 7 seaters often have VERY little to none luggage space, so need to check on that.

10
Have you looked at Mobility?

11
You can find minivans for less than 3000 CHF with a fresh MFK on Autoscout. Might also be an option.

12
This really depends on the model. Ours is a 6 seater and behind the last row there is a lot of space for luggage.

13
There are limitations and obligations, including insurance requirements. And EU non residents are further restricted.

14
What limitations and obligations are you talking about? With a Mobility car you can go anywhere in Europe with some minor restrictions. I am assuming OP is Swiss resident based on location.

15
Should be ok as we'll carry minimal luggage and one of the rear seats will be folded down.

16
Ford Galaxy and SMax (certain models) are also 7 seaters. Won't leave much luggage room but if you are travelleling light it could work.

17
If you live in CH and rent outside, you can only drive for up to 8 days, plus you would need to stop at customs to get a paper and do the same on way back.

18
I did a quick quote in North American and apparently the rental prices there have increased dramatically post COVID. I knew there was a chip shortage but didn't know how much it affected rental prices. My similar $40USD/day rate is now $200USD/day. I'm flabbergasted.

I would think that companies like Turo (AirBNB for cars) should be filling in the gap ($50-200/day) and becoming a more popular alternative. It seems like there's hardly any vehicles on Turo in Zurich. Maybe there's another platform that I'm not aware of?

19
C'mon, search harder.

20
Cars rented outside Switzerland are problematic for Swiss residence...