Car Rental.

[ebianca]

Anyone know any good/cheap car rental companies in Wellington?

OH thinks we won't need a car- i think otherwise. Will be OK for him going into Welli for Job interveiws etc but I imagine it will be very difficult to go veiwing houses with 2 kids and no car and also trips to the supermarket.

We won't be able to buy until job and house have been secured so will be looking at renting for upto 2months maybe.

[catt]

Hiya......try Apex they were the best deal we got when we did our trip to NZ back in November. Half the price of your more traditional Herts, Budget, Avis, etc etc and if you take out th extra excess insurance (daily rate) they dont even bother checking the car when you bring it back cos everything is covered. By the way we didnt even scratch it a little .............best i can offer i am afraid.

[ebianca]

From what I have seen the average price seems to be about $35 per day for an average size car. Will have to persuade OH to fit it into the budget.

[hatter5]

Beth,

A car is a necessity in most places in NZ, Wellington in particular. Exactly for the reasons you have mentioned.

We have used ace rentals (on the master list) 3 times and found them to be very good. Rentals are older cars with scratches and dents so scuffs etc shouldn't be a problem but damaged panels might.

They will happily negotiate for longer rentals particularly as autumn is here.

Unless you can cut a good deal it may work out cheaper to buy as smallish car for $1000 and join the AA.

I had a super little 1.3L Toyota Starlet (1994) for over a year before having to trade it in .... Used to have to put petrol in it every couple of weeks.

The only other tip I can think of is to make sure your mobiles are unlocked prior to departure (Telecom mobiles don't have SIM cards and Vodaphone are the only competition) so you just need to buy a SIM card when you arrive. Being easily contactable when job hunting is very important.

I'll PM you soon

[ebianca]

Thanks Hatter.
Phones already on track for buying a sim card when we arrive.

We can't buy a car when we first arrive as we will have no address to register too- once we have secured a proper rental property we will buy a car but don't think the people who own the holiday rental would be too pleased if we registered a car against their address.

I figured we could manage without a car for Neil job hunting but for house hunting and supermarket trips with 2 kids- can't imagine doing it without 4 wheels to hand.

[Banjo.Jon]

So, you cant buy a car without a NZ address? Thats a bummer.

[ebianca]

I'm presuming so otherwise where would you register it (unless you had a friend who would let you register to their address until you had your own place)

[Burgundy21]

Hi Beth, we bought a car whilst on South Island and registered it at our rental with no problems, in fact the garage did it. When we sold the car we had full refund on the insurance ( Ami, brilliant) for the months that we had paid for in advance. The thing is to be at the rental address when you registration docs come through.

[ebianca]

We will be in a holiday rental for the first 8 weeks so didn't want to be registering stuff until we have a more permanent rental house.

[hatter5]

Speak to your landlord and if ok with him you can register a car using the temporary address as Care Of.

I registered our first car and used the Motel address for the paper work. Picked it up after we had moved into our rental and phoned up Land Transport with the details of our new address.

Easy.

Not like being in the UK