CAR HIRE in New Zealand
 

We are travelling around NEW ZEALAND in Feb 06 & would like to know of reliable car hire firms we have used Avis before but are more expensive than other company can others be trusted

i've used budget in the north island. Almost new car quite good. no problems. but didn't give us a map at all.

In the past we've always booked through Nova.com, a site that works with several major car rental companies, offering the lowest rate available on a given day. Each time our car came from National. The cars were always nice, low mileage newer vehicles and we had no problems.

This year we booked through Budget (we did get a map). We paid a wee bit more than the quote from Nova (National again) but we opted for Budget as the excess was so much lower than Nova - $1,500 vs $2,800. We waived all additional insurance, therefore wanted the lowest excess we could find.

I did alot of research this time - comparing the rates of the car rental companies with the rates offered through Nova and other booking agencies. Each time I found that Nova offered the lowest rate, but not the lowest excess.

If you don't mind an older car, there are several agencies that offer really good rates on older vehicles. The excess is always alot less on older vehicles as well.

APEX has been mentioned on this board several times, but I have never used them personally. I did check their rates this year, but opted for Budget instead as we wanted a newer vehicle.

FYI - Budget also let us park our car in their lot for three days while we were in the Marlborough Sounds, saving us $60 in parking fees.

Punctuation would make it easier for readers. ((F))

I’ve used Apex every year for at least the last six years and have never had a problem with them; we have had a problem with a car but they promptly fixed it.

They supply second hand Japanese cars imported from Japan. Generally they are six or seven years old with a lot of miles on them, but this year we had two cars and they were much newer than usual.

We used Maui Rentals and were pleased with the car and their service.

Lee Ann