NZ rental car Questions

Old Jul 29, 2006, 6:44 am
  #16  
 
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You could also try NZ Car Rental 2000. I've used them in the past and found them very good.
^
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Old Jul 30, 2006, 5:05 am
  #17  
 
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Originally Posted by Vasbyte
Mac, thought I would provide an interim update. Itinerary and car rental so far have worked out well.

........ I will provide an update once the trip is complete.
Update ...

Trip was fantastic - NZ is stunning.

Maui Car Rental was affordable, good service and no problems with the car, ferry crossing etc.
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Old Aug 3, 2006, 9:14 pm
  #18  
 
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Originally Posted by MacKenzieIII
...One current idea would be to fly into Auckland and fly out of Christchurch...
If you are willing to consider doing it the other way around (into CHC out of AKL) you may be able to save some on the car rentalas you'd be going against the common flow, one-way fees are sometimes reduced
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Old Aug 3, 2006, 9:17 pm
  #19  
 
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Originally Posted by ecaarch
Check with your credit card company to see if your rental car insurance covers New Zealand.
I can almost guarantee that it does not.

The reason (as explained to me by Amex) is due to N.Z. regulations. So unless the regulations have changed, I don't expect that coverage is included.

I still recommed that you check, though, as that list is in flux...
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Old Aug 5, 2006, 2:24 am
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Vasabyte...

good stuff so far!! I'm looking forward to reading your final trip report...
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Old Aug 5, 2006, 8:08 am
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[QUOTE=Vasbyte]Also check out Maui Car Rental ...

Included in the rental rate is the Ferry crossing between N-S islands and you keep the same car. More convenient possibly.QUOTE]

Maybe I'm not reading the Maui Rental website correctly, but it seems that the ferry crossing is not included in the car rental rate. I see reference that Maui will help book the ferry if needed, but you still have the NZ$50 per person and the NZ$179 for the car -- or am I reading that incorrectly.

Are there rental companies with offices at both Wellington and Picton that would allow someone to save on the expense of ferring the car?

Although when you factor in the inconvenience of carting your luggage by hand and the additional time to drop-off a car and then get a new car on the other island, the ferry fee might not be a bad deal.
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Old Aug 5, 2006, 1:15 pm
  #22  
 
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[QUOTE=Illini_Fan]
Originally Posted by Vasbyte
Also check out Maui Car Rental ...

Included in the rental rate is the Ferry crossing between N-S islands and you keep the same car. More convenient possibly.QUOTE]

Maybe I'm not reading the Maui Rental website correctly, but it seems that the ferry crossing is not included in the car rental rate. I see reference that Maui will help book the ferry if needed, but you still have the NZ$50 per person and the NZ$179 for the car -- or am I reading that incorrectly.
The free ferry deal is not advertized on their website - not quite sure why.

I had read about the Maui deal in my local (Toronto) newspaper but also had trouble booking it online. However, I found a local travel agent that was able to get it for me. See www.goway.com.

Not sure if the free ferry offer is seasonal or year round.
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Old Aug 5, 2006, 2:26 pm
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Excellent -- that is good information to have. The seasonal nature might be very possible, but since I'm looking at 10 months from now, NZ will be back into winter and hopefully any seasonal deals will be available again.

Again, thx for the help.

From the GoAway.com web site: "...If you rent a vehicle for 10 days or more with Maui Car Rentals, you receive a FREE ferry crossing."

Last edited by Illini_Fan; Aug 5, 2006 at 2:32 pm Reason: Added information from GoAway.com website
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Old Aug 6, 2006, 4:04 pm
  #24  
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Originally Posted by Illini_Fan
Are there rental companies with offices at both Wellington and Picton that would allow someone to save on the expense of ferring the car?
They all do.
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Old Aug 18, 2006, 3:33 pm
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Originally Posted by Itsalongwaydown
You could also try NZ Car Rental 2000. I've used them in the past and found them very good.
^
I did try these guys. I got a old car, that was rusted out, with over 250,000 KM on it. The car was bad, and not worth keeping. I returned the car, which they luckily accepted, and rented from Hertz where I got a 2006 vehicle with 200 KM on it.

Before renting from some of these places, I'd ensure the AGE of the vehicle you are getting. Afterall you don't want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere with an old car that died.
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Old Jan 12, 2007, 12:08 am
  #26  
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Visa said it covers NZ rental car

I wonder why VISA does not exclude NZ, nor Australia, like AMEX does? MC also does not cover NZ nor Australia.

Also read in TripAdvisor posts that more than one posters have rented in NZ and use CC coverage without issue.

In the past when we rented from Maui, there was a compulsory insurance one must buy no matter what. However I notice the insurance is no longer compulsory, instead, if you dont buy one of the 2 options (to reduce the excess), Maui would charge you a refundable bond of NZD1,800, immediately upon rental. You can avoid this refundable bond by purchasing an optional insurance which reduces the excess to a few hundreds, or you can buy the other option which reduces the excess to 0.

On my Hertz reservation, all insurance items are listed as OPTIONs. Using a discount code, it comes out 15% cheaper than Maui's rate. I really dont want to rent from some used car rental companies mainly because there is no guarantee to get late model car (2002 and up) and no way to know about their reputation. Though Apex seems to be the biggest one out there.

I know the rental rate includes the liability (injury to others), just like in Canada, and in most states in U.S.

The CC coverage only requires one to decline CDW/LDW, but nothing to do with liability as CC coverage has nothing to do with liability anyway.

Can Kiwi Flyer or anyone chime in if you have a better understanding of how New Zealand car rental insurance works?
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Old Jan 13, 2007, 3:49 am
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Originally Posted by Happy
I know the rental rate includes the liability (injury to others), just like in Canada, and in most states in U.S.
No, it is very unlike the auto insurance US residents are familiar with because while many of the same terms are used they can have different meanings or implications between the US and NZ usages. For example personal injury to others (and to yourself) in NZ is covered/dealt with by the NZ Accident Compensation Scheme. This is quite different than in most US states wherein if you cause bodily injury to a 3rd party they try to get compensated from the insurance company of the vehicle owner or the insurance company of the driver or both.

Some of the basics of rental ("hire") car insurance in NZ include:

1) The NZ Accident Compensation Scheme provides cover for personal injury

2) The form of most of the items in NZ rental car contracts is dictated by law and you won't see quite as wide a variation in rental contracts as you would across the US. [One area where I have noticed a bunch of variation between companies is in their lists of "prohibited" roads. ]

3) By NZ law, all rental car companies must "offer" the renter insurance for damage to the rental vehicle and damage to 3rd party property. In this case "offer" basically means "include" and all rental rates you get quoted by NZ companies include this base property damage coverage in the price.

4) By law, the renter is technically permitted to decline this included property damage coverage. However why would anyone want to since even if you managed to find some way to decline this coverage, it's unlikely the price would be any different. Furthermore, companies are permitted to decline to rent to you if you decline the base coverage.

5) Now comes the complicated part ... while the original NZ law concerning rental car insurance required companies to offer/include base property damage insurance, a later ammendment allows companies to make the excess/deductible as high as they like and the limits of the coverage as low as they like.

So now NZ rental car companies can vary widely on the deductible/excess amounts i.e. on the amount you as the renter risk paying (+GST on it of course ) Some companies specify and use one "standard" excess amount. Then at other companies (most of the majors) the excess value can and does vary wildly between contracts. Plugging in different affiliation, rate or coupon codes on the majors' sites for NZ rentals can cause not only the rental rate to vary but the value of the excess/deductible exposure to vary as well.

6) Finally, NZ rental car companies are allowed and certainly try to sell you various CDW type products so if you so choose, you can pay through the nose to avoid the exposure to the excess amount they created/raised in the first place. These NZ "CDW" style products differ from many US contracts in that the $NZ XX per day they cost is only "protecting" you from having to possible pay the excess amount if things go wrong. Remember that you have automatic base insurance (of some amount) for property damage already included in the rate you're paying.
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Old Jan 18, 2007, 12:30 am
  #28  
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Quokka, thanks for a detailed explanation

Then in this case, no wonder many visitors opted to rent USED cars than the new cars from the Majors, in order to pay less in the daily CDW or a smaller amount of Excess.

This brings to my other question - how can one know a used car rental company is reliable - i.e. supply a car in the range of the years between 2000 and 2004 - there could be none 2004 but all 2000 model.

And at least 3 or 4 companies claim themselves being the largest independent rental company in NZ. Off the top of my head I can only recall Apex, but there are definitely at least 2 other companies make the similar claims.
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Old Jan 18, 2007, 2:56 am
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Originally Posted by Happy
Then in this case, no wonder many visitors opted to rent USED cars than the new cars from the Majors, in order to pay less in the daily CDW or a smaller amount of Excess.
Don't assume renting an older model used car necessarily means a lower amount of excess -- the last time I looked at a rental from Ace, their "standard" excess amount was $3,000, which is even higher than that the typical excess found at the majors when renting new cars.
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Old Jan 18, 2007, 2:13 pm
  #30  
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The other dynamic is that there is a steady flow of used cars from Japan to NZ. Laws in Japan make it attractive to sell a car with 30K miles rather than keep it, resulting in a glut of cheap used Japanese cars which are exported to the RHD countries that allow it (mostly NZ and Australia, but also to South Africa; UK doesn't let them in). At least this was the case a few years ago when I was last interested in this. Some of these japanese cars are in fantastic shape (like new), some have had a very hard life (mostly idling, and rarely over 20 mph). All are very nice cosmetically.

Rental car cost is very unpredictable in NZ, it goes up and down a lot. I've found that you cannot predict the pricing, even within the same company (a small change in the rental can be a big difference in price -- a rather absurd system). Sometimes the majors are cheaper than the "used car rental" places (which shouldn't be, but is). Sometimes it costs double.
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