Does anyone have experience/info on shipping a car to Switzerland. If you have any companies that I could follow up with that would be great.
Me and my Swiss wife have decided to move to Switzerland from Canada after our marriage in Switzerland. Our family reunification application was approved. The challenge is now knowing how I can ship my new car that I have had for a little over a 18 months to Switzerland.
Here are a few things you will need to conside based on my research before moving here. Most of the gas available here is 95 or 100 octane. This can damage cars running on 87 octane, standard in Canada. Secondly, unless your car is from a European company, parts and repairs will be very difficult to obtain. Your insurance will be higher as an import. When it comes time to dispose of them car, it will probably have no residual value due to these issues.
Oh, and it needs to pass local inspection... Good luck with that!
No, it cannot.
Also, 95 RON is 90 R+M/2, so not much higher than 87. It's using an LOWER octane that can hurt you engine, not a higher one.
The rest is rubbish as well. I have a pair of identical motorcycles, one is an import from the US, the other a Swiss version. Insurance is the same for both.
And passing inspection is easy unless your vehicle is a rubbish heap.
Tom
We imported my wife's Fiat Punto from Italy. It was no spring chicken and it's passed several MFK inspections. So that's not really a big problem, especially if you get it serviced in Germany and not CH.
Since your car is relatively new, you might want to look into what it may cost in import duty to CH. That could be a few thousand more CHF.
If you like the fuel efficiency and/or the way your new car handles in the mountains or roadtrips, then definitely bring it. Otherwise, you might find some pretty good deals here with cars made specifically for the Swiss market. I really like my Ford S-Max 4x4 diesel for example and you can't get that model in US (and perhaps not Canada either). Diesels are getting cheaper by the year because fewer people are buying them, but they're great if you use them regularly.
So if it's a lot of trouble, consider to sell it in CA and get what you want when you move here. If you will work for a large company and want a brand new car, you'll also find you get a pretty decent discount at the dealer, e.g. 10-15%. So, this could also be a viable option for you...
Happy trails!