All depends; small front wheel drive cars with a good set of snow tires will be absolutely fine for going up the mountains. If you plane to ski then just add a ski rack.  How old is the car you’re looking at and from what kind of dealer. I personally have never had the TCS check; if it’s a reputable dealer and come with a guarantee then I don’t think there is any need for it.

I agree with Arran about the TCS check.

If buying from an official dealer, it usualy comes with a garantee, just make sure that the car never had a major accident and that it is mentionned on the contract.

TCS Check or others is usualy recommended when buying from a private.

hello Victoria do you want buy new one or second hand?

remember, you can always get the garage to sell you a full guarantee which covers everything for your used car. only about 400.- sfr. for a year.

Few things i would like to let you know! don't trust on the most of the private warranty sold by the garages for example (quality1 etc..) they are more a kind of insurance than a warranty and most of the time it covers the major problems which are unlikely to be happened with the car.(also keep in mind "warranty" is bit complicated word and make sure before buying the car, what includes in it and what is not in it. ) It always good to do your work before buying a car rather than regretting and wasting time and money later with the person you bought the car. First of all it is always better to spend some more money while buying car rather than later spending money on repairs.

You always get what you pay for.

1. Search on the Internet the car you are looking for. Grab some idea of the price range. if you get a deal too good to be true. There are chances you are buying a lemon.
2. Normally it is always good to do TCS/private garage car test before buying a car, especially if you are buying from a small garage/private person/car dealer.
3. Normally if you buy from reputed garage/car dealer (AMAG,Emil frey etc). You will get a good warranty. But Normally they have expensive/new cars and price will be bit higher from the others but chances are you will get a good car.

If you are planning go to the famous destinations on mountains then small car should be fine in the winter.

Hi Gloria , I am looking at second hand. 

Thanks for your advice, I was wondering about the warranties that you get, the ones I looked at had 2-3 years left but I was unsure what was covered. I saw some cars at a Renault dealer I liked but I found the guy not so helpful or clear with answers to our questions. Its also difficult because my french isnt great. 

I am looking for a car that is 1-3 years old. We have been around a few dealers, Toyota, Renault, Emil Frey. This weekend we are looking at some private ones, if you buy privately and the car has done minimum K's and is only a couple of year old then should I get TCS or a garage to check it? Does anyone have a garage they recommend. 

Hi,

I would recommend VW.  Bought my Polo GTI second-hand at Atra .. It was on route de Vernier but not sure it is still there.   Avoid ROC on Route de Vernier as their second-hand cars are often former Europcar hire cars.   There is a small VW garage in Eaux Vives - Rue du Lac I think. Good luck!

Also consider going out of the canton. For the price of a train ticket to Aargau, you can save thousands of francs on a car. Look at autoscout24.ch. I bought a Suzuki Swift a couple of years ago from a dealer in Safenwil and saved over 4000 francs by buying from there instead of in Geneva. 

Good luck and enjoy!

Also, investigate car insurances carefully. I saved a lot by going with TCS's offer instead of others. 

Hey Victoria we would love to help you but you have a bit more clear about what you are asking. Are you asking about what brand of car to get or about the warranty or the buying process? Either way it's too generic, at this point you can get 1000 different answers. If you narrow down the options and ask a clear question we can help you better.

Hi Catalin, thanks for your message. I have seen your posts on the car forums and you seem very knowledgeable! This morning a guy came to show us his car, it said on the grey card that it was forbidden to be sold. He said that in a week he is allowed to, do you know what this means? How does one tell if money is still owed? It looked like it was registered to his business and it seemed as though he was saying he has finished the business. Is it possible for a car to belong to a business and then if the person sells the business the car goes as well so it isnt actually theirs? Another thing we arent entirely sure about is when in the process of them handing in their plates and you getting yours etc do you actually hand over the cash? Our swiss neighbours say only to buy from a dealer but that seems a bit limiting. 

If you are not sure what you are doing with cars then it will be safer for you to use a dealer since you have some legal protection, whereas you have none at all with a private sale. 

The practical reality of this is that if something on your newly-purchased car breaks, you can go back to a dealer and they will (usually) resolve it as an obligation.  If you have bought from a private seller and something goes wrong you are entirely on your own, and you will then have to start finding a dealer or garage to fix it.

Regardless of where you are buying from, take someone with you who knows something about cars and, unless the car is new or nearly new and still under manufacturers warranty, get a full check done by TCS or equivalent.  The way to do this is to do the deal subject to a clean technical check.  No-one with nothing to hide will object to this.  You can use any faults, or parts that will need replacement in the near future, to further negotiate the price.

The best deals are usually: (1) cars approaching three years old, and (2) cars that have done high mileage / Kms in a short time.  A 3 year old car that has 150,000 Km's on the clock will often have less wear and tear (including on the engine) than a 5 year old car with 50,000 Km's, but people are scared of the big numbers so it will be cheap.

Finally: do your financial calculations based on the total cost of ownership, including servicing, insurance, fuel consumption and resale value.

Good luck.

Andy

If you're not sure what to buy, my recommendations are:

VW Polo (new or used) - economical, sensible and easy to sell for a good price when you are finished with it.

Skoda Yeti (new or used) - very practical, VW quality and much in demand, so easy to re-sell.

Subaru Forester (used) - appears to have fallen out of The Ugly Tree, but hugely spacious, economical, full-time 4 wheel drive and almost bullet-proof.  Older ones are comically cheap but still good.

Sounds like the car might be leased and they are not allowed to sell it until the leasing is paid (chiffre 178). If the last payment is due this month or if they decided to do an anticipated payment then the leasing firm will provide a document saying that they are released from their obligations and that mention will be removed from the gray card. The seller should present the "clean" grey card before you sign the contract and their grey card should be canceled so that you can have yours issued. Make sure you have a sale contract (you can download from the internet) otherwise I see no issue buying from a private owner. There is no rule when to make the payment but make sure you sign the contract first and write in the contract that the payment has been made. Alternatively you and the seller can go together to a "garage" and they can draw the paperwork for you and check the car for a small fee. I can recommend one if you want. It might be worth the peace of mind.

Ok thanks, he says he has cancelled his registration today so I will see if he has a new clean grey card. 

Hi Andy, thanks for your advice! Thats interesting what you say about high mileage. I have been looking at 1-3 year old cars and 5-15000 kms. I am scared of high mileage but can there really be less wear and tear at 150,000 kms? 

Hi Victoria.  The collective fear of high mileages amongst the car-buying public is mostly historical and dates back to the darker days of the car industry (probably pre-1990's) when manufacturing processes were varied and cars were often designed deliberately to wear out quickly.  The threshold in many peoples minds is still somewhere around 60,000 miles / 100,000 Km, after which they get suspicious of a car's condition, even though most modern cars are capable of much higher mileages if they are looked-after properly.

Most wear on engines occurs when they are cold.  If you drive a single trip of 1000 km, the final 990 km of the trip will have pretty much no effect on the condition of your engine, but the first 10 km will cause some wear.

So, if you see a car for sale that is 3 years old and has 200,000 km on the clock, this figure can only have been achieved through mostly long trips and most of those Km's will have been covered with a warm engine.  As long as it has been serviced properly it will be good for at least another 200,000. You should, of course, play innocent about this when viewing cars, and insist on a huge discount because of the high mileage.

Always check for a full, main dealer service history.  If there are gaps or none at all then don't buy the car at any price.

Yeah nothing wrong with well maintained high mileage cars, I currently have a Land Rover Defender with 360,000 km and a Freelander with 260,000 km granted the Freelander got a new engine about 100,000 km ago.

And if you want VW quality for less, go for a SEAT or Skoda model and you get essentially the same vehicle for a lower price (though a lower resale value as well, just depends on how big of a factor that is for you).

On high-mileage vehicles:

as this is Geneva, an analogy is apt: a car is made to be driven in much the same way as a mechanical watch is meant to be worn. If either have had long periods of inactivity, then buyer beware! ;-)

Thanks for the tip, I didn't realise this! Can someone advice me on horsepower.  Is it correct that driving around town you won't notice 60hp vs 75, its only on the motorway that you'll feel it? Also, I thought you were supposed to get a service every 6 months or 10,000k, is this incorrect? I've seen a quite a few cars that are a couple of years old but low ks and haven't had one yet? Thanks so much for all the advice!

Here's the advice of TCS about buying an used car: http://www.tcs.ch/fr/auto-mobilite/marche-auto/conseils-pour-achat/voiture-occasion.php

You're right: you don't need much power to drive around town and you won't usually notice much difference between a low-powered car and a very low-powered car, but you will usually notice the difference on hills and on motorways. it also depends on overall weight and gearing. 

Most modern cars will cope with towns, motorways and hills but there is a trade-off between performance and economy.  With this in mind, you should be aware that most cars come with a choice of engine sizes and there is usually a "correct" one that gets the balance right. Bigger engines aren't always faster and smaller engines aren't always more economical.  For example: the new Fiat 500 is available with 0.9L and 1.2L engines (plus the Abarth etc) and the 09.L version has better performance than the 1.2L, especially on hills.  It is worth checking this sort of thing on car review sites, such as:

http://www.carbuyer.co.uk/reviews/fiat/500/hatchback/variants