Snow chains from Geneva

We have a hire car booked with Hertz from Geneva airport for a weekend to Val Thorens during mid December.

-Do the rental places at Geneva airport equip their cars with winter tyres?
-If not, does anybody know the least expensive way of hiring/buying snow chains?

I expect that we will not need them at all, but it would be nice to have them just in case.

I seem to recall many a thread covering off the issue of winter tyres, snow chains and various airports.
All I can tell you is that all cars will be fitted with winter tyres, so dont get caught out paying extra for the privelege if they ask you.
Snow chains can normally be hired, but you would probably be better off buying some compared to the cost of renting them!
You do of course need to what vehicle they are going on.
I beleive some people have bought cheap chains from petrol stations and supermarkets, but there is a massive difference of opinion regarding these as to whether they fit, work or are legal!

Its a bit of a minefield, and there is someone out there, such as a car rental company, eagerly looking to exploit you should you dare to ask them.

Best of luck.

Digging around a bit on the internet, I see some comments implying a legal requirement to have winter tyres in Geneva from 1 Nov. This would mean that cars hired from the Swiss side of Geneva airport need to have tyres fitted already.

Since our car looks like it is booked for pickup from the Swiss side, we might be OK.

Can anybody confirm this?

Tony_H

Thanks, our posts crossed in the ether.


PS - we had the same issue last year in Lake Tahoe. We found the best option was to buy chains from one of the big car maintanance places (similar to Halfords). Many of them do a deal where they will allow you to return them for a full refund if you haven't used them. Apparently, many people do this in SF and the stores seem to be fully aware and happy with this arrangement.

There is no legal requirement to have winter tyres on a car in Switzerlan during the winter. However, insurance companies can decide not to cough up for an accident if the car is not fitted with winter tyres and it is deemed that they would have reduced the risk of an accident. (below 7degC).

The car rental companies will all have winter tyres on their cars to satisfy their insurance requirements.

Snowchains are a different issue. In most cases with winter tyres you won't need them, but there are occasions where they might be compulsory going up to some ski resorts if there has been a fresh snowfall, and there are times that they may need to be used just to get you up a steep hill.

Chains are available at any hardware store. Large shopping centres will have a Coop or Obi hardware store where you can get them. The chains I have seen in the petrol stations have been similar to the ones I have seen in the hardware stores and the ones I carry in the car myself during the winter.

Steverandomno,
I wouldn't count on not needing the chains. We were driving back from VT to the station a couple of years ago in a mini-bus, and there had been masses of snow during the night. What should have been a half hour journey took 3 hours, and if our driver hadn't had snow chains with her we'd never have made it.

We had to help her put the chains on, because she hadn't done it before, and it was really awkward, although I'm sure they were the correct chains for the vehicle.

There was a huge traffic jam all the way down, because a lot of the cars coming up hadn't put their chains on before they started, and they'd pulled over to do it later - once they started slipping and sliding on the snow. Apparently the police should have stopped them all at the bottom, but they didn't.

And we missed our direct train, and had to get another indirect train, via Paris.

Ally

Exactly the same thing happened to us coming out of VT Ally, we were on the last bus out of resort that afternoon, it was the worst journey of my life!

Glad to hear someone who is in Switzerland says its ok to use general snow chains and not manufacturer specific ones.

We booked a car from Geneva last year and the chains were included. i think they always are in Switz. Two weeks later we reneted a car from Grenoble and had to pay for the chains - France don't seem to have the same law.