Driving to lucerne?

I haven't done it from UK. It takes about 12 hours driving from London, incl Le Shuttle.
If you use Booking.com and put in hotels with parking as filters on the left hand panel, a lot of choices come up, some very central and none very cheap!
Satnav is your friends for driving into the centre.

Our first time in Lucerne we took a car and the hotel we stayed in had a lot for us to use……a short walk out from town but not a difficult walk when we needed to get to lunch, etc. The hotel was Cascada Swiss Quality Hotel. The second time we trained in without a car and stayed in town at Hotel Balances on the river with a view of the Chapel Bridge.

I've walked around Luzern and been glad I wasn't driving!

Driving across France quickly will need the payable motorways so learn how and where to pay. Motorways in Switzerland (and some don't look like motorways) need a flat rate toll sticker https://www.ch.ch/en/travel-and-emigrate/holidays-in-switzerland/how-to-behave-in-road-traffic/motorway-vignette/ these roads can be avoided with some planning.

Emmenbrücke is really the commercial/industrial parts of Luzern, the two are seperated by an inconvenient hill and lake which prevented them merging. I take it there is more than just drive to Luzern and back again in your plan, we might be able to find better.

In answer to me.crewe question, we are using Lucerne as a base to visit other places by train like Interlaken etc, my autistic son loves trains and wants to travel but can’t take planes so driving seems to be the way and we have done Disneyland by car, so Switzerland seems doable as part of a 2 week eurotrip, so I was just wondering if there were parts off Lucerne that had hotels with parking and so we could avoid the old town but still have a good base, hope that makes sense to everyone.

Emmenbrücke is convenient, but is not the most attractive place as it has an industrial past and then been heavily redeveloped in recent years. That said, if you like the accommodation, it is well connected to Luzern proper and easy to get to/from the highway. For a less dense/busy suburb: My European relatives drove down this spring and enjoyed staying in Meggen (quieter residential suburb on the other side of Luzern, on the lake) at Hotel Balm -free parking, nice view, and a bus stop with quick and frequent service to central Luzern outside the front door. Also easy train to Mt Rigi and nice lakeside area. Other places to consider would be Horw or even Kriens, which are also growing suburbs, but with a bit more curb appeal than Emmenbrücke. There are a few decent hotels there with free parking and all have good public transport into the city (free with guest card).

Thank you hopper18 for the base suggestions, I will take a look