Car Rentals in NZ
 

We recently rented a car from Apex for a 10 day trip of the North Island. We found the staff to be very rude and customer- unfriendly. The car was also very dirty and maintained poorly.

On the whole, it was hardly a pleasant experience. I would recommend going with the more established agencies like Hertz/ Avis, even if you have to pay a few dollars extra per day.It is well worth it.

It would be good if others would report. Can I ask where you rented from? I wonder if the location makes a difference. I have a booking for early march and are now wondering about it.
Thanks for the heads up.

I once rented an Apex car for one day in Auckland, and it was a pleasant experience. The car was not very clean, but it certainly seemed well-maintained.

I have rented from Apex many times and have never had a problem with them.

Going to Hertz or Avis will cost more than a "few dollars per day". Hertz rates start at $82 and Avis at $99. Much more that I would expect to pay at Apex.

I am trying to arange a rental for six weeks from early February, but the Apex web site seems to be down. Is anyone else having this problem?

John,
There has been a thread or two here on this topic; you should do a search.
My personal experience with Apex was a good one.

I posted on the other thread going around, but basically I had a horrific experience with them. I had to book for an entire month in advance, and pay the whole amount. I then had to leave early and when I notified Apex at least a week in advance, they gave me an unbelievably hard time about refunding my money. Also, I confirmed 3 times about getting chains in my car and NOT ONCE did they mention they only had chains for cars in teh South Island. Well, imagine my surprise when I got caught in a snowstorm in Tongariro on the NI and there were no chains in my car! I had emailed and emailed and got written confirmation that there would be chains in the car. I assumed that meant for BOTH islands, since no one ever told me about this policy. I was extremely angry. While I finally got my refund, it was a black cloud over my otherwise dream vacation. I would NEVER rent from them again.

Les, I had previously reviewed the comments and chose Apex as it seemed generally favourable for a lower tier company. The latest posting just got my antennas up again!
Thanks.

if you search the word "apex" on this forum, you will read about my bad experience and some other opinions. too.

Hi:

We rented from Hertz & they were fine, with a rate much less than the $82nzd Tangata indicated (we could have gotten an SUV for that rate, if they'd have had any left).

We picked up a Toyota Corolla (automatic with AC, new with ~10k km & in excellant condition) at the Hertz office in downtown Auckland (~5 min walk from out hotel) and dropped it off at the downtown Wellington office (~15 min walk from our hotel).

Since we had it for more than 4 days there was no 'one way' charge & since we pickedup/dropped off at the downtown locations there was no 'airport premium' either.

So when all of the costs of Hertz vs Avis vs Apex vs 'other' were considered it was almost the same cost, plus the 'comfort factor' of dealing with Hertz.

Z