Swiss hire cars can't be driven into the EU

[Amateurish]

Since the beginning of this month apparently you can't drive Swiss hire cars across the border. Beware if you are flying into Geneva and hiring a car to travel into the French Alps. Make sure you hire from the French side of the airport.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/may/28/eu-ci...

[CAPP0]

I saw this elsewhere today. And speaking from having had experience of hiring from both sides, this is a very poor result in more ways than one if you need to hire from the French side!! Standard of vehicle/maintenance/age/presentation has been, IME, much worse on the French side, and FGS make sure you tell your satnav where you are before you leave otherwise you'll spend hours trying to find your way back into the labyrinth!

Edited by CAPP0 on Monday 30th May 14:41

[jamiebae]

I think there's an error in this article. as it states

'The rule bans EU citizens from driving non-EU registered hire cars in the EU. But with Switzerland, a non-member, at the heart of Europe there are problems at car hire offices: a Swiss-registered hire car cannot be driven across the border to France, Germany, Italy or Austria by an EU citizen (such as a Briton). '

I'm a British passport holder and UK citizen, but Swiss resident, hold a Swiss drivers license and drive a Swiss registered car. If I take this statement at face value I am not allowed to drive a rented car across the border to go on holiday or a business trip. On top of that, Swiss law prohibits me from driving a non-Swiss registered vehicle in Switzerland. Maybe I need to take one car to Schaffhausen, then walk across the border and pick up one on German plates from there

I suspect when they say 'citizen' they mean 'license holder' or 'resident' in reality.

[MajorMantra]

Sorry to bump an older thread, but it seems this is a real thing.

I'm on a work trip and I got a Swiss hire car in Zurich on Monday, which I then drove into Germany. My colleagues arriving today were apparently told that Germany would not let them in in Swiss cars! So they had to wait for a while, while German cars were sourced.

This all seems mad.

I'm now driving around in a Swiss-registered car in Germany, wondering if I'm going to get pulled over for being a wrong-un.

[CaptainSlow]

CAPP0 said:

I saw this elsewhere today. And speaking from having had experience of hiring from both sides, this is a very poor result in more ways than one if you need to hire from the French side!! Standard of vehicle/maintenance/age/presentation has been, IME, much worse on the French side, and FGS make sure you tell your satnav where you are before you leave otherwise you'll spend hours trying to find your way back into the labyrinth!

Edited by CAPP0 on Monday 30th May 14:41

We only spent an hour trying to find our way back. However, that hour brought us very close to divorce.

Finding your way back to the French sector of Geneva airport would have been an apt test in the final of the Krypton Factor.