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Pete UK
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North Island ▷ Auckland Region ▷ Auckland ▷
Bargain Rental Cars
4.5/5
We were from overseas, and rented with them, both in South (Christchurch) and North (Auckland) Islands.
The emphasis is "bargain", and they were the cheapest we found (based on the type of cars we wanted). So you will get an older car (well we did), with faded paint and loads of dinks in the bodywork. The mileage was high (150k km and 170k km). The cars are secondhand Japanese imports. However, do not be put off. Both cars were very clean (yes the seating was well worn - but clean). The engines had been well serviced and as such did not miss a beat on our 4 weeks of rental with these guys. A well serviced and looked after car will last for ages, and we did a lot of mileage on both islands. We had 2 minor issues. Neither car had a radio with a jack or any other input, so we could not play any music from our phones. The car on South Island had a wizzy Clarion system (with satnav no less), BUT it was all in Japanese, including the voice which no matter what we did, we could not switch off for 7 days! - my Japanese improved no end! Also the drop off point in Auckland was not clear, so we ended up at their depot (the address provided) not the airport drop off. We had loads of time and their staff were super helpful. So if you want a new car, don't use BRC. If you want a keen price, a safe and reliable car with good staff, then go for it, BRC were great. We booked way ahead BTW, so cannot comment on last minute rentals
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North Island ▷ Auckland Region ▷ Auckland ▷
Share a Camper
5.0/5
This is not like renting from a van hire company that has its own fleet with depots.
You are renting from individual owners, with the insurance, hire infrastructure, breakdown help etc being provided by the Shareacamper company. You need to research in detail to see which van/owner would work for you. You can communicate with the owners prior to booking via the webapp - make sure you do that. Our initial potential owner had a tight change over time, from one rental to the date we ideally wanted. After communication with the owner he (sensibly advised, as we were concerned) that he would not have enough time (in case of any damage from the previous rental) to guarantee that we would have the van on time. So we carried on looking.
The owner we went with (Damon) was excellent and his van we superb (even with a TV loaded with films on a hard drive). Our communication worked really well. You need to arrange a suitable pick up and drop off point (and mutual time). Damon came to our carhire drop off place with the van and took us through everything on the van (he had a great manual folder prepared). For drop off we arranged Supermarket car park near the airport (this was Christchurch South Island), did the final hand over and checks, then he drove us to the airport.
Again communication with the owner is key, while touring South Island, we had Whatsapp with Damon. So when I panicked, thinking the nearside wing mirror had been cracked while driving, he reassured me that this hairline crack had been done already (and indeed he had shown me this at the original collection point). So remember, you as the renter have a responsibility in this whole process, these are peoples vans. So pick your owner carefully.
As to the company itself. We had no problems, so did not really test them. But they were helpful with questions.