Walk away. Seriously. That is not normal.

It's usual for a car sold by a dealer to have passed the 'visite'. Basically this is a reasonable guarantee that it's safe and shouldn't need any work for a while. They are in my experience pretty strict with safety items like brakes.

Don't really understand why the dealer refuses to do the work up-front. It's reasonable of you to want to drive it fixed. A battery is cheap specially for a dealer.

Be careful before signing any sale contract. Also I would prefer to buy a car 'non accidentée' which means that it has not had major accident repair work.

To cover yourself, you could ask to take it to the TCS for an inspection; this will cost a few bucks but you'd have a good assessment of its condition.

Like Ilkka says, you could just find another car, there are many for sale all over the place in your price range, but they will be quite old.

Thanks for your feedback, guys! It did seem fishy to me at the time, and now that I have looked at cars at other dealerships, I seems even fishier.

Thanks also for the other tips, Nicolas. I definitely wouldn't buy a car which has been involved in an accident. Bringing a car to the TCS is also worthwhile thinking about, even though I'm currently thinking about chipping in a bit more and get a car with some kind of comprehensive 12 - month guarantee. This should also give you some safety that the dealer doesn't sell you a total lemon.

Well if you can stretch to 10k you might be able to import a new car, there are intermediaries advertising Dacias for less than 8k Euro.

most used cars (under 100'000kms) can be insured ( parts and labour) by you against breakdown. cost is only about 300sfr. per year. you can do this directly

or ask the garage to give you the paper work.

so, as you see, you don't need to spend that much more unless you see a car you really want.

I'm thinking about buying a car as well with an eye on the ski season. Do you need four wheel drive if you want to make the best of the ski season? Or are the roads cleared enough that a front-wheel drive with winter tyres can get you to the slopes ok?

Four wheel drive is not necessary. Roads are well maintained and heavily salted. Snow chains are sometimes required, so it is good to keep a pair in the car through winter. 

Hi, I have found that 4WD is really useful, as although the roads themselves to the resort are normally fine, it is the smaller roads either heading up the mountain or just getting into car parks that can be challenging. Putting chains on for the last 50metres looks so depressing. I have a VW Sharan 4-Motion, and with winter tyres I haven't had to use chains yet even though front wheel drive cars have been really struggling in the same conditions. Rear wheel drive seems even more of a problem in snow.

Good luck with your search. BTW my car is for sale :-) However at 182k km it may be a bit much for your taste.