The card on a show car’s windscreen is the most direct price evidence at a regional show, and it rarely matches the importer’s list. At Basel a Mercedes-Benz GLB was CHF 13,580 under its struck-through price. At Salzburg a Suzuki e Vitara wore a figure that Suzuki Austria reaches only with its summer bonus.
That is because each card is a dealer’s own offer on that day. A bonus, a trade-in credit or a lease rate is often already counted in. We read fifteen of them from our photographs and checked each against the importer’s list, the organiser’s page or the manufacturer’s site.
We never convert currencies. Swiss francs appear with Swiss sources, euros with Austrian or German ones, and no country’s prices are compared with another’s.
Switzerland: A Struck-Through GLB And Two Cards Without A Match
At Martigny in March 2025 a black Cupra Terramar on Garage Olympic’s stand wore a card reading “Terramar 2.0 TSI 265CV 4×4” and “prix brut”. The gross price was CHF 68,540 or CHF 68,940, and below it sat “61’300 CHF”.
One digit of the gross price is unclear in our photograph.
At Basel in September 2025 a grey Mercedes-Benz GLB at Kestenholz carried a disc with “82’104 CHF” struck through and “Ihr Vorteilspreis: 68’524 CHF”. That is CHF 13,580 off, or 16.5 per cent.
The disc does not name the version, but the car is the outgoing GLB. Mercedes-Benz unveiled the new electric GLB only in December 2025.
On the same floor a black Leapmotor, with “970 km Reichweite” on its door, read “CHF 37’900” and “ab 2.9% Leasing”. Stellantis Switzerland’s release of 22 April 2025 gave CHF 35,990 for the C10 and the C10 REEV alike, and we could not tie 37,900 to a Leapmotor source.
Austria: Bonuses Built Into The Number
At Salzburg in March 2026 a Suzuki e Vitara at Auto Swoboda read “Jetzt mit Premierenbonus. Der neue e-Vitara € 29.990”. Suzuki Austria’s site now lists the e Vitara from €33,590. Its offer for the 49 kWh clear is €29,990, “bereits reduziert um € 3.600 Sommerbonus”, for contracts until 30 September 2026.
The model page still links a “Premierenbonus”. Whether the March card used the same arithmetic we cannot say.
At Innsbruck in March 2026 a teal BYD Atto 2 DM-i read “ab € 24.990,-*” and “bis zu 1.000 km Reichweite”. In the same week the organiser of MotionExpo Graz listed the same figure for the Atto 2 DM-i at Autozentrum Harb.
BYD Austria’s site now shows “ab € 24.490”, including lease, insurance and trade-in bonuses plus a delivery package. It quotes “bis zu 1.000 km” of combined range, with a 7.8 or an 18.0 kWh battery to choose from.
At Graz in March 2026 a black Kia EV5 read “ab EUR 42.590,-“. MotionExpo’s own page lists that figure for Autohaus Robinson, “inkl. MwSt. alle Aktionen berücksichtigt”.
Autozentrum Harb lists the same EV5 from €45,590, which matches the start of Kia Austria’s list as we read it. The lower card is a dealer price with every promotion applied.
At Graz in March 2025 three KGM cars wore windscreen prices: €37,490 on the Torres EVX, €46,990 on the Actyon and €36,990 on the Musso Grand. KGM Austria’s list for the Torres EVX is €39,890 to €43,190. We could match neither of the other two cards to a list, and we follow the brand in KGM across four shows.
Germany: Monthly Rates With Nothing To Compare
At Erfurt in January 2026 the Kia stand showed monthly rates only: €145 on the XCeed, €209 on the Sportage, €219 on the Ceed Sportswagon, €269 on the EV4 and €469 on the EV5.
This is where the cards stop being useful. None states a term, mileage or deposit, so a buyer cannot compare them with each other or with a list. A Volkswagen ID.3 on another stand carried a sticker for up to €6,000 of federal bonus, the legal maximum, which applies to a narrow group of buyers. The full story is in our Erfurt report.
Photograph The Card, Then Ask
The cards are honest in a narrow sense: each is the price a dealer was prepared to put on glass. What they rarely show is what sits inside it. A bonus, a lease or an old model can account for the gap between a card and a list.
When we can show the arithmetic, we do, and when we cannot, we say so. At the next show, photograph the card and ask the dealer which bonus, lease or version produced the number before you compare it with anything.
Independent editorial. No brand or organiser paid for or reviewed this article.
