Christchurch Travel Forum

i intend to start my trip in NZ from Christchurch.
i am going to travel all over the south and north islands, for 2 months (March-May).
is it better to rent a car or to buy one for this period of time?

If you are lucky and get a cheap AND good car buying would save you money. But I know of several people who were not very lucky with their cars and lost time and money by doing so.

Some budget companies sell their cars and buy them back. But this is only an option if you drop it off at the same location.

I think you can be rather relaxed about the issue as you will travel in the off peak season, so you could wait and see what is available in Christchurch. Often backpackers advertise their cars at the hostels and internet cafés, and there are several dealers with really great offers. At the moment it is a buyers market, so you might be lucky.

But I must really say, personally I would not bother buying a car for two months only because you might cut your holiday short by a week just to sell your car at the end of the trip. Or consider to drop the car off in Chch and make a deal with a rental company or dealer who would buy it back. The rental companies do so because it saves them the insurance payments. But dropping it off down here again would mean you have to pay for the ferry twice...

Most cars are from NZ $1,500-$2,500 to buy, so I guess you need to do some number crunching comparing that to hiring. The two (probably) cheapest and biggest companies for hiring cheap cars in NZ are Jucy and Backpackers. If I were you I would get quotes from both and then make the comparison. (Note that there are a lot of other small companies, but these are big companies, so have the backup you need if you have a breakdown).

The biggie to add on then is insurance. You can now buy third party insurance in NZ (covers just the other driver if you hit them) through places like BBH (Budget Backpackers Hostels). If you buy insurance through the hire company it really ups the price.

If you can afford to hire, I'd say go with that because you won't have any breakdown worries. If you decide to buy, go for something like a TOYOTA - reliable and easy to get fixed in NZ. Often in hostels you see advertisments offering lifts to other backpackers, and sharing costs, so you could maybe do that too.

Last month I booked a car rental with Scotties, Rent a Car, 189 Blenheim Rd. in Christchurch.

They treated us very well.

They had cars for hire and for sale on the same lot.

You can contact them at: cars@scotties.co.nz

I dealt with Kate Grant.