Do hire cars from Basel airport include a vignette

Hello MRay,

Basel airport, called the EuroAirport, is situated a few kilometres north of Basel across the border in Saint-Louis, France. There is a Swiss end and a French end of the terminal, and the place works because of a special agreement between France and Switzerland. If you rent your car on the French side of the airport there is no guarantee that your car will have a vignette; some do and some do not. If the car you rent in France does not, when you arrive at the Swiss border there will be a control where they check the cars coming in for the vignette, and if yours does not have one, you will be directed to the side and you will simply purchase a 2018 vignette for 40 CHF (a great deal, really) which you should affix to the top middle on the inside of your windshield. If you do some checking, I’m pretty sure that you will find much cheaper rental rates on the French side, with savings far greater than any 40 CHF you may have to fork out if the car you get does not have a vignette. I suspect you will get the best deal on the French side with Europcar. When you look, use the search words “Bâle-Mulhouse” or “Mulhouse Basel“.

Wherever you rent, be sure to check your car for all nicks and scratches and if these have not already been noted by the rental agency, show them to one of their agents before leaving with the car so that they can update their documents. A good idea is to go all around your car with a camera and take images from all angles. One more thing; assuming you are paying by credit card, check with your credit-card issuer to see if the CDW collision damage waiver is already included when charging the full amount of the rental to that same card.