We recently moved here in April and have been doing o.k. with the public transport, but now and again it would be nice to have a car to venture out a bit. We have recently signed up for the mobility scheme that is run by the train stations, but has anybody used this before and does it work out better (cheaper) than a normal hire car ?
Hi All,
Have used this extensively & yes it is much more flexible than traditional hire car, in that you can hire for a couple of hours.
We used it recently for a trip to Ticino, train to Lugano & picked up a car at the rail station ... took a lot of stress out of the journey, as the tunnel is a ball ache in summer.
I also like the fact that the range of vehicles is varied, in fact it has improved immensely in the last year or so.
Thanks for your help. On a personal note, how do you find it without a car with the shopping and eveything ?
for us is a bit of a non-issue as the public transport is so good, we also have all the main stores within a 10 minute walk & a pram that doubles up as a fork lift ...
Bern is a good bit smaller than Zürich & I find the transpiort links much easier here.
Compare the prices for the types of trip you are planning. If you want a car for multiple days, then I think the traditional car renters are better priced.
I mainly use Mobility for the once-a-month big food shop at the nearby Co-op.
Mobility also has a cost-per-kilometer (it recently went up), so factor that into your calculations. Mobility may not be economical for long journeys, but I haven't checked the numbers.
Hi
We also used it extensively for the first few years in Switzerland. The only issue we had was that only the registered party can drive and we both liked to drive;-)
As a whole I think it is an EXCELLENT concept
Nats
True, but if you both become members, you can tell them you want to be a group, and then the second person can also drive the car that was rented with the other peron's card. You are supposed to live in the same household for this, although they have been known to make exceptions . Lastly, it does not work if the second person only has a trial subscription, you have to have the full membership.
We use it all the time; the best use is indeed for a few hours and for short trips, say less than 60km, as the km charge is quite expensive, you would want to avoid driving 100km and pay 60 cts per km as that is already 60 CHF without the hourly rental charge added.
I am saying that for short shopping trips, it is ideal, but for moving either yourself or your belongings >100k, it often pays to rent a normal car for the day, or take the train if there are only 1-2 people.
The good thing is you can rent anything from a cheap Smart to a moving van, and everything in between. The combi by the way is great for Ikea trips (it fits bookcases and the like).
I live in Basel and I'm thinking of signing up for mobility. Based on the input in this thread it seems to be working pretty fine , I have a question though: how spontanous can one be, does one have to book the car weeks or days in advance or is it more or less always cars available?
Must the car always be returned to the same place you got it from or is it possible to leave it at any mobility garage?
Great concept, do it. I live in basel too and use it often for shopping. Yesterday i went online and booked a car to be picked up 10 minutes later. I have never been disappointed yet, there are points in basel where you can pick it up so if one is fully booked out you just try the next (this has never happened to me though). It must always be dropped off at the same point. Its great in the way that you can hire a car for 1 hour and drive a few km, it will cost less than 10 francs. Another good thing is, i have only just received my license, i cant hire a car from hertz or avis because i must have held the license for a year, with mobility it was no problem.
Top marks for mobility, check their website for more details, you can view it in english
You can book it up to half an hour before you want it. Of course it depends on availability - thursday evening for late shopping is usually fully booked.
You must return it to the same place - I think there is a radio docking station built into the bays which links to the computer on the car (I got a phone call when I accidentally left it in the wrong place).
I have been a member for 5 years and have bought a small motor bike to increase my choice of places to pick up cars and for the small journey from my home to brugg bahnhof. Perfect, cheap and environmentally friendly combination.
Exactly what I want!
So next step is to contact mobility and sign up for their services. Thanks again!
Just so you know, if you have a migros cumulus card, you can sign up for a 4 month trial for only 40 chf
Yes, and with a halbtax (half fare discount) card from SBB (rail) you get 100chf off the one year fee.
If you want to reduce your deductable in case of damage to 300 (thanks TonyBhoy), I think it cost 125CHF extra per year.
Last, if you use it a lot and want to save money if you have savings to spare, use mobility bonus with reka checks. For example, if you pay them 2375 CHF in advance, you get an extra credit of 125 CHF I think, and because you can send this money as reka checks, for which you can get a 3% discount at COOP, you can save an additional 3% of 2375 which is 70 CHF. All in all, this is a much better saving than average Swiss savings accounts, and you also do not need to pay Mobility bills anymore. They just send you a detailed invoice as always.
I had to pay 300chf for the year, and it reduced my liability to 500 instead of 2500. If you have been driving for more than 1 year the liability is 300.
Well worth it in any case
Has anyone here tried being a member of the Mobility cooperative? If so, do you really get the 1000 CHf back when you leave, as I cannot find the pdf of conditions about this anywhere.
I have a question about parking mobility cars.
Is it allowed to park a mobility car in another mobility car park area? For example, I pick up a car in Zürich, drive to Winterthur and then park it in the Winterthur Mobility parking at Winterthur Bahnhof while I go shopping. Thereafter, I drive it back to Zürich and end the reserveration.
Each mobility parking space is reserved for a specific car, so whilst you are parked there, the person coming back with the local mobility car could not leave it anywhere, so I presume you can't. (At least where I hire them the nr of the car is linked to the space).
Whenever I've rented cars, they weren't assigned a specific parking place, hence my question.
Anyone else?
There are not specific spaces for specific cars but there are a specific number of spaces for the amount of cars that are stationed there. for example, there is only 1 space at the M-parc in basel. This may be available when you arrive but what if the person who has the mobility car for that space returns while you are there. I would say the answer is no
Well I wasn't thinking for example of parking in a spot where there is only one space. I was thinking for example of Zürich where we have for example mobility car parks with lots of spaces.
But thanks anyway for your answer