DO NOT TOUCH DRIVE NZ.

Hired a car for 5 days. Picked up car from Auckland at 6pm to drive north for a family event. Got to Whangarei and needed to turn lights on ( it was getting dark ) and only one light worked, the passenger side driving light did not work which is unsafe and deems the car un roadworthy. The working light was only just working leaving us on State Highway 1 basically blind in darkness.

I called the office to seek help, no-one answered as they are not 24/7 like advertised. Was told they do not have after hours and to call back tomorrow morning - this from the shuttle guy.

Called AA which is in the manual in the car, they advised they would come and tow our car as not legal to drive a car without a light ( it is illegal not to mention unsafe ) and that we needed to get off the road and stay in Whangarei for the night. This cost us $118 NZD for the shittest hotel we could find that had vacancy. In the morning we made contact with drive NZ to be told it wasn't their issue and we needed to get the car fixed at a Toyota dealership or change the light ourselves the service was absolutely appalling, basically a no care answer from the girl in reception. Couldn't speak to a manager as was told " not available ".

Had to cut our trip short and book another nights accomodation at Auckland Airport as cannot drive at night time and flight very early in the morning.

To add to the experience we were charged $95 for insurance which we DID NOT want or agree too or sign for. They said it is because we used a debit card and they automatically charge insurance for " just incase " - all of which WAS NOT communicated to us. Very slippery way to charge for insurance.

The Car was also 8000kms overdue for a service and the car had 3/4 of a tank of fuel when we picked it up.

DO NOT HIRE A CAR FROM DRIVE NZ. They are liars, scam artists & should not be able to have a commercial business in NZ. Ruined our trip and dented our bank accounts.

Reviewed almost 5 years ago