HI, I'm arriving in Switzerland in about 2 weeks and initially I'm bringing my RHD BMW with me. I'm not sure what to do with it after that but I will not have time to sell it before leaving.
I've read a number of posts about RHD cars basically being worthless in CH and I don't really buy it.
I've done some research on used car sites in Switzerland and the equivalent LHD BMW (age, spec, mileage, etc.) is consistently selling for 35-40% more than in the UK. I put much of this difference down to the devaluing of the GBP over the last few years.
However, about 12 years ago the situation was quite different and the GBP was strong against the Deutschmark. I went over to Germany and bought a LHD Mercedes to use in the UK because the amount of money I saved made up for the inconvenience of LHD. Ok it was worth less than an RHD car in the UK but I paid less so that was ok.
There was and is a market in the UK for LHD cars.
Is the same not true in Switzerland? Surely if swiss people could save CHF15-20K on a used BMW by buying overseas (or even locally) then they would and put up with the inconvenience (Minor IMHO) of RHD?
and have fun going through the drive through, parking garages, etc.and dont forget the import where you have to change lights to make it correct for lhd driving.
you can only get it sold to another person moving to the UK. if it dont bother you that much why dont you just keep it
Brits have basically been less fussed about driving a left-hand-drive car because 1) they accept that they basically drive on the 'wrong' side of the road to everyone else in Europe and 2) many speciality cars are only available in LHD.
This is not, however, a two-way street. There has never been a market for RHD cars in Europe. In Switzerland, in particuarly, the strong franc means there are plenty of good quality LHD cars in neighbouring countries that no one will look twice at a RHD car. Even looking to Euroland is far too ambitious for most Swiss, who prefer to shop close to home and tend not to bargain-hunt.
Switzerland is a land of conformity. You only have to look at the car parks full of identical grey & silver Mercs, Audis and BMWs to see that. Good luck trying to find the one oddball Swiss guy who doesn't mind sitting on the wrong side of the car.
There are some garages in the uk which sell LHD as you say some of these will accept part ex on a RHD, a lot of the cars they stocked as LHD were bmw, audi etc so maybe an option. We still have our UK astra here using it until the 12 mths is up and then taking back to uk and get family to sell it for us. It isnt that much of a hassle to drive just the points noted such as tickets for car park, toll roads (when in france) and overtaking is harder as you cant see round the car infront on the right and edge out to see which is frustrating at times.
If you google LHD in uk then bring up the list of garages.
Big inconvenience!! Inconvenience that you will face everyday! From the moment you get into the car in the morning, try and overtake someone, going into the supermarket parking, getting out of the supermarket parking, going into to any parking garage.
Unless you have a special car don't bother!
The thing about LHD in the UK is different because there are many europeans that wouldn't mind taking it back to europe once their stay in the UK ends, but with RHD over here not many people from the UK are gonna be willing to take any car to the UK because it's very complicated (seems like it anyway) ...
we also have a rhd car here, we imported from the uk, yes its worthless here, you just have to accept it, we wouldn't be able to sell it, and the insurance company has already told us that should it be written off we'll get a hell of a lot less then the swiss version, then again it cost us a hell of a lot less then the swiss version to start with.
I've also tried to sell a uk registered rhd car here to save me taking it back and selling, and it was a totally ball ache, an ex member on here messed us around something chronic, then pretended to disappear (while still logging on here, idiots) anyway in the end a dealer from the uk flew over and bought the car. we lost a small fortune on it, but it was still easier then me driving it back and flying back here.
so in summary,
yes it easy to live with a rhd here, forget all the rubbish about being hard to overtake etc etc, it really makes no difference, ticket machines can be a minor inconvenience, breakdown cover can be difficult if its an older car (tcs won't touch older non swiss cars, you'll need to go with adac) and of course if you don't import it you'll need to keep it uk legal, which makes insurance interesting.
but if you intend to keep it till it dies then go for it.
We brought our Zafira over from the UK last year and I drove it back in July this year to sell it privately. I looked around a lot here in CH to find someone to buy the car off me - the best offer I got was 1000 CHF from a dealer where we bought our new car from. Ended up selling it for 3300 GBP in London.
Considering the cost for getting it converted to be swiss legal, cleaned professionally and prepared for the swiss MOT it was not worth keeping it here as those costs would have easily been more than the value of the car itself.
I fully agree with what others have written earlier - unless it's a unique gem I would keep it for a year to get started in CH then sell it in the UK and enjoy getting a brand new motor
Is there not someone back in the UK who can handle a private sale for you?
We left my sister in charge of our car as we did not have the time to sell it/needed until our new car was delivered in CH. We had it over here for 2 months, then drove it back and parked it at sister's house. In return for commission, she sold it in autotrader for a decent price and within a couple of days.
As a matter of interest, what does the Post Office do with all those RHD delivery vans when they come to the end of their useful lives? If they have no value here, do they get shipped and auctioned in the UK?