We present a switching observer for a class of nonuniformly observable systems that are affine in the unmeasured states and nonlinear in the measured output. Using a singular time-rescaling, the dynamics of the estimation error is transformed into that of a bimodal switched linear system. Sufficient conditions that guarantee the observer's uniform asymptotic stability are provided; these are stated in terms of persistency of excitation and dwell-time of the (output-dependent) time-scaling function evaluated along the trajectories of the system. Unlike most results on switching observers, our approach does not rely on the solution of a set of linear matrix inequalities to compute the observer gain. In addition, we compare our scheme against the Kalman observer in a particular, but meaningful, case-study of observer-based control in automotive systems.