Keeping a car in Geneva

[mhh]

I live in Australia but visit Europe often. I’d like to buy a new sportscar in Geneva and store it there for Alpine adventures and trips to Italy etc. Finding a car is easy and I’m sure storage options exist but I’m expecting registration and insurance to be trickier. Any tips or suggestions?

[crypto]

To register a car In Switzerland, you must be a Swiss resident (and that applies probably to all Countries in Europe).
In my opinion, the best would be to rent a car. The other option is, to a have a Swiss friend to be the holder of the Car and you can borrow it whenever you are over here.

[mhh]

crypto said:

To register a car In Switzerland, you must be a Swiss resident (and that applies probably to all Countries in Europe).
In my opinion, the best would be to rent a car. The other option is, to a have a Swiss friend to be the holder of the Car and you can borrow it whenever you are over here.

Thank you. I’ve since spoken to a couple of new car dealers who have offered to help, presumably by holding the registration in their name.

[chandrew]

crypto said:

To register a car In Switzerland, you must be a Swiss resident (and that applies probably to all Countries in Europe).
In my opinion, the best would be to rent a car. The other option is, to a have a Swiss friend to be the holder of the Car and you can borrow it whenever you are over here.

Not sure that this is true. There are a couple of cars in the basement of my flat which are owned by non-residents (most apartments in my block are holiday homes). They have a special registration plate but it's still a GR one.

My neighbour has a Tesla Model X for the couple of weeks here's here (from Asia) a year.

[crypto]

chandrew said:

crypto said:

To register a car In Switzerland, you must be a Swiss resident (and that applies probably to all Countries in Europe).
In my opinion, the best would be to rent a car. The other option is, to a have a Swiss friend to be the holder of the Car and you can borrow it whenever you are over here.

Not sure that this is true. There are a couple of cars in the basement of my flat which are owned by non-residents (most apartments in my block are holiday homes). They have a special registration plate but it's still a GR one.

My neighbour has a Tesla Model X for the couple of weeks here's here (from Asia) a year.

Hmm, do these people own holiday appartments ? So they are Swiss "holiday residents" and have at least a swiss address ? Then it is certainly possible to have the car registered in your name. These cars in your basement, do they have a "Z-plate" like this here (the Z stands for Zoll = Custom):
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kontrollschild_(Schw...
These plates are on cars for temporary imatriculation and the plate expires on that month shown on the plate (but can be extended). These are plates are usually thrown away after they expire.

My understanding of the initial question was more if one is here for holiday, you don't really buy the apartment right away ?
Peter

[chandrew]

crypto said:

Hmm, do these people own holiday appartments ? So they are Swiss "holiday residents" and have at least a swiss address ? Then it is certainly possible to have the car registered in your name. These cars in your basement, do they have a "Z-plate" like this here (the Z stands for Zoll = Custom):
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kontrollschild_(Schw...
These plates are on cars for temporary imatriculation and the plate expires on that month shown on the plate (but can be extended). These are plates are usually thrown away after they expire.

My understanding of the initial question was more if one is here for holiday, you don't really buy the apartment right away ?
Peter

I learn something every day. Yes, it looks like one of those plates but it doesn't have a 'Z', just the coloured rectangle. I didn't realise that you had to own a place to have one of these plates.

Yes, they own their places. We have 'how-the-other-half-live' conversations about how it worked out cheaper than putting their family up in their preferred hotel.