Jump to content

warning car hire Geneva


Recommended Posts

some of you may not be aware that Geneva airport has a Swiss sector and a French sector. If you hire a car from Geneva Swiss side, your car will automatically have a vignette (eg a sticker which allows you to use motorways in Switzerland/about £20 per year) and will be equipped with snow tyres in winter, as per Swiss law. If you hire a car from the French side NO vignette for Swiss motorways and NO snow tyres unless specifically requested and paid for. This is VERY dangerous obviously if you are going to go into any mountains (Swiss or French) - but could also be very dangerous even on motorways or normal roads during winter. I hired cars on the Internet regualry for years- until last year I got a special offer on the Easy.car website, for Geneva airport- so booked through the link. When I arrived at Geneva airport Alamo (where they remember me from time to time as I am a regular + slightly unsusual as I have a UK passport but speak French  like a native (as I m one)- they said they didn't have a car for me. After a few phone calls they told me I had to go to French sector. It was snowing like mad, dark and around 19.00 by the time I got out of airport. Blizzards on motorway but no prob as I kept speed down in very poor visibility- it's only when I started going up to St Croix that I started sliding all over the place. Fortunately I know the road by heart and I am a seasoned snow driver - but going down on the other side I had to keep in 2nd gear, as I couldn't afford to pick up any speed between turns, as I had no control downhill. A total nightmare - the 'average Brit', not used to snow and not knowing the roads could easily have killed themselves and other road users. It took me 3 months of battling, with the support of WHICH in the end, to get them to admit to wrong doing and refund. Not much good if you are dead! So please be careful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

You also need to be careful to book the car at the correct side, I flew into the Swiss side but stupidly booked the car at the French site using this firm Rhino , it was my fault completely or no thinking about it but luckily it was all sorted out in one hour and off we went with everything in place. I guess there could be a better warning to tell people to book at the correct side.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back in the 1980s I had a business meeting one winter in Geneva so I thought the drive would be nice.  I'd spent years driving throughout Europe but in my foolishness I hadn't given enough thought to the mountain passes - one night in the dark and cold I had to put on unfamiliar snow chains which I'd borrowed from our fleet manager - they were chunky steel things, difficult to fit and they were too big!  Got down the hill allright but I stripped out my rear inner wheel arches!  That was a wake-up call and no mistake.....
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...
Hi, I must admit I always use the Swiss side for the convenience and vignette reason, even though I am usually heading straight into France.  I have over time learned also that the Swiss cars have winter tyres and chains provided by law from November to April, which I agree with Odile is essential.  I have however been caught out by hefty charges levied for these items on top of the car rental payment by certain companies, so now I read the small print very carefully when comparing winter car hire quotes before I book (I always use online price comparison sites).  Generally, I have found that Hertz and Avis tend to include 'winterization' in their quotes but most of the others do not.  Just worth bearing this in mind. 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...