I hope this will save some people the charge of taking the test again...
After five years and then every two your car is due a test. The Swiss are actually quite relaxed about the taking of the test and allow you to choose when you want to do it. If you do not respond to the first letter they send you an appointment which you can change to something more suitable as long as it is three days or more in advance. If you need to change it at more short notice don't! Simply fail to turn up. This costs nothing whereas if you contact them then you have to pay the charge... Assuming you deliberately do not turn up they will then send you a recorded delivery letter and then you must turn up or change the appointment three days in advance. Here they have proof of delivery and can enforce it, whereas upto this point you can play ignorant.
When you go to the test you do NOT need to have winter tyres on and if you have non-original wheels for your winter rubbers then put the originals back on otherwise you are liable to fail as I did.
The test itself is quite thorough but any reasonable condition car will pass and you can also have a garage check it beforehand for around CHF 300 if you are unsure. I do not quite understand the logic here as the test itself costs only CHF 60-120(Yep you guessed it varies by Canton!)
Women drivers have the best chance of having a questionable car passed especially if they take kids along with them (no joking here they do the test quicker!)
Even if you fail generally you get a list of things that need correcting and you only need to sign that you will do them in order to get a pass - getting stopped by the police having not made corrections does cost plenty though!!
This may have changed. My first letter had a date on it 5 weeks after the 'invitation' is dated. Maybe this has something to do with the vehicle never having been inspected in 6 years!
My car is four years old this month & I received a letter to go have it checked beginning July. There was no option for the date. Seems this process must vary by canton as well?
You can pass the test with non-original wheels but you need to have a certificate that proves they are fine for your car. The place that services/fixes my car arranged said certificate for me & my car passed with the non-originals on.
same goes for anything non-standard like exhaust systems - you need the "permission" slip to be with you when you MFK. I've had non-standard wheels and exhaust on my car and it passed.
Just passed the mfk of my car . Thanks for all the information available on this forum.
The inspector dealing with my car was very happy with the cleanliness of the car (engine and exterior). I payed 120CHF to clean the engine/chassis and its worth every penny.
Greenhill put his finger on it when he mentioned cleanliness. I've been here long enough to have run a few vehicles through the MFK, and cleanliness is all-important, especially underneath! I now have the underside and engine cleaned by a garage before any test. My old Rover was a bit oil-weepy, and we (the sympathetic garage and I) steam-cleaned all the oil from the undersides before driving it DIRECTLY to the test. Passed! But any car that's even slightly mucky underneath is likely to fail.
Rust holes are also a no-no. An inspector once informed me "We don't have even small rust holes in Switzerland" and even though he had a twinkle in his eye when he said that, he was serious - it failed!
Mods are out as well, however innocuous. I fitted a replacement gizmo for the reversing light bulb on my small truck that also beeped quietly when reversing. The inspector told me "I find those a really good idea, but I have to tell you to remove it!" Again, that twinkle in his eye and he knew full well I wouldn't, but he passed it with that advice.
Does that mean if we fit reversing sensors on our car it may fail the test? We have had the call up to get our car tested, would you advise fitting the sensors AFTER the test?
I think you'll be OK with those - my beeper was like the ones that are mandatory on big trucks, to warn unwary pedestrians you're about to flatten them! Yours seem to be the park distance variety??
Be warned they complain if the engine bay is not shining... My car had its last MFK 1 year before I bought it. It did NOT move Cantons, yet, I was sent another appointment to which I had to attend. Admittedly I live in a cheaper Canton so I did not pay a fortune when it failed on minor points.
However the real trouble was when I had an accident and was unable to ride my Motorbike for 6 months, and it needed its MFK. The MFK hounded me to bring it for an appointment which I could not physically do, I sent Doctor's letters, copies of patient notes the works. In the end I was fined by the Canton for being Injured and unable to bring the bike to them. I could not do a thing about it ... I now know better!
As with the Car, if you have a motorbike, take it to a Garage and have them do a prüfung (pre MOT check) before going to MFK. If you are unable to take the vehicle yourself, ask them to do it. They will happily do it (and charge handsomely for it), but it does ensure pretty much a pass.
In your situation I would have handed the plates back the second I was unable to use the bike, thus stopping the charges and any requests for tests. Many bikers hand in their plates for the winter months as they have no intention of using the bike.
I have "switch" plates, that can be freely swapped between two cars. I use an old Rover during Winter and switch the plates to my Lotus, which I only drive on dry roads when there's no salt. That saves quite a lot of money each year, both in road taxes and insurance.
Of course, the unplated vehicle has to be kept off the road but most places have underground garages. But don't forget to put the plates back on the car you're about to drive, as both I and my wife have done on a few occasions. Luckily we haven't been caught (yet!)
Mods are out as well, however innocuous. I fitted a replacement gizmo for the reversing light bulb on my small truck that also beeped quietly when reversing. The inspector told me "I find those a really good idea, but I have to tell you to remove it!" Again, that twinkle in his eye and he knew full well I wouldn't, but he passed it with that advice.
I managed to get a Land rover 110 with a non standard engine through the MFK in Aargau but it cost 11000 chf and took 3 months. The biggest annoyance was the tow-bar as it was not suitably stamped for Switzerland (I took it to a company that manufactures tow-bars for trucks and they tested and stamped it for me. The second time around they highlighted exactly the same fault list as the previous MFK so I reluctantly sent the car back to the UK. For the record before the first test the car had passed an English MOT 1 week before with no faults at all. ash
Before I proceed with any questions.... am I located in the correct thread?
Today we received a letter headed with "Einladung zur Fahrzeugprüfung" (Invitation to car test). Is this the "MFK" that all above refer to, but nobody seems to have explained?