Yes, another car rental question. Have searched this forum and found APEX mentioned several times, but not much on ACE.

Thinking about using ACE on our upcoming 3 week SI Island trip. We've never rented an older car in NZ, opting instead to pay more for newer vehicles, but we're beginning to see the error of our ways....

Can anyone make a comparison between these two companies or share their experiences with either?

Melnq8
I just returned from 17 days and rented a car for 12 days from Apex. Camry at $NZ69/day. Had absolutely no problems. They arranged my ferry tickets, and accomodated my change in plans (I delayed the crossing by one day about a day before the scheduled crossing) with no problems.

doug

I have not rented from Ace, but on my last trip I did a little research and discovered there are two, so be careful.

Apex I have used for a one day rental and they were fine.

Personally, I don't like to use a company that requires an upfront deposit. I was able to find as good a rate for National using the United Airlines link.

mlgb -

That explains why I've gotten two
entirely different quotes from ACE - one requiring no deposit and the other requiring a 5% deposit.

And here I thought I'd requested two quotes on two different cars from the same company.

Thanks for the heads up.

I don't like the upfront deposit either. I've run across one company that charges 50% of the entire hire if you cancel one day prior. That's ridiculous.

Okay, now I'm really confused. The ACE rental places I contacted have different e-mail addresses, different Internet sites, quote different rates for the same class of car on the same dates BUT share the same physical address in Christchurch.

Hmmmm...

I found the "sharing" addresses with other companies, I think the smaller operations will contract out to a local vendor.

I'm not sure about ACE havng the same address. but wanted to mention that when I rented a car in Auckland, two different companies shared an office even thought they were totally separate companies. Even the same girl looked after both companies. She said she did it as a favour to to the other company and they helped each other out, since a one man operation could not be in two places at the same time. COuld it be something like this?

Hello Melnq8:

I have rented from a number of smaller companies in the past. Last one was Apex [not a small company] and they were good.

Picked up in Christchurch, changed cars in Picton/Wellington and dropped at the Auckland airport.

The north island car had a transmission howl that was uncomfortable, but the cars were not new, did not cost like new and never failed. So did I get my money's worth? YES. Would I go that route gaine? Yes. Would I rent again from Apex? Yes.

Did I have any problems with the other companies? One outfit was not around when I had to turn in the car. Waiting was uncomfortable as we had an aircraft to catch. Some outfits are not on the ball.

Hope that helps.

Woodie