Car Rental Recommendation (Crossing Borders)

Consult AutoEurope.com
Other country dropoffs are expensive as the cars must be transported back to the country of origin very often. Dropping off the car where it was rented and catching a train to the country you will be flying out of is a good option. City center rentals are often cheaper than airport rentals.
I would expect cars rented in Germany are much cheaper than those rented in Switzerland. The Swiss also have a vignette window sticker to be purchased for autos driven there--as does Austria on controlled access highways.
We prefer to travel the Austrian A!ps (,Tirol) as travel there is efficient, cheaper and just as beautiful. Their roads are just great too.

From what I can tell, EU citizens cannot hire a car in Switzerland and drive it into a different country, but US residents can?

I see this bit of verbiage from:
https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/driving-abroad/car-rental-abroad/index_en.htm

Driving a hired car in another country
If you're planning to drive your rental vehicle in several countries you must inform the rental company when booking the vehicle. If it allows you to take the vehicle to another country than the visited one, it can ensure you have the correct vehicle documentation, insurance and breakdown cover.
If you live in the EU and you rent a car in a non-EU country, such as Switzerland, special rules apply when driving it in EU countries.
If you plan to travel with your rental car both in EU and non-EU countries – for example from Switzerland to France, Germany, Austria or Italy – you need to tell the rental company in advance. They can provide you with an EU-registered car in order to comply with EU customs laws. Most car rental companies in Switzerland provide cars with EU number plates for EU residents in order to comply with EU customs rules, but you should check with your car rental company.
The car rental company must also ensure that the car complies with the customs and traffic rules of the country where you will travel. For example, in many countries winter tyres are compulsory during certain months of the year.

Like you say, it applies to EU citizens only. Sounds kinda technical to me.

As far as dropping a Swiss rental car in another country, ask for a quote.

I know this costs more

You OK with $800+ extra for the one way drop fee? ( In addition to the rental cost itself)

I suspect, due to the one way drop fee, very few folks do it, and your chances of someone here having done it are slim.

You may be stuck 'reading the fine print' , to find what you want.

I agree with David—call Auto Europe. They are a consolidator for European rentals based in the USA. They know the big picture and can help you figure if something works for your plans/budget.

I travel to Europe routinely, renting a vehicle for most trips due to business involved. When I rent from one country and drive to another country, I make sure to read the fine print to make sure that all countries are allowed (sometimes, some companies don't allow French cars to be driven into Italy). When I need to drop off a car to another country, I either change my itinerary so that I don't do that (create a loop or so), or, and this is what I do often, I turn the vehicle in the same country I rented from, then hop a train to next country, and do another rental. The cheapest drop-off fee I have seen for returning in another country is at least $550 (USD), and many go higher. Use the rails to get yourself across the border. Use the money for something more sensible.

We rented a car in Zurich and dropped it in Munich without any issues with Avis. But some of the reservations will charge a pretty exorbitant fee to do a cross-country drop off. I think in this case, the extra fee wasn't too bad compared to the logistics of taking the train to Munich, then renting a car to drive down to the fairy tale castles (and then there's the value of the extra time it would've taken to do that). But when we were in France and needed to get to Barcelona, it wasn't worth taking the car into Spain, so we dropped it at the town closest to the border and then got on the train for the rest of the journey. But the reservation was possible to make.