Need car for 48 days in NZ - is it better to buy?

Sounds attractive, and you would think you could resell for not more than a £800 loss, but if it's similar to Australia, the downside is the selling at the end can be high-risk. <BR><BR>It's always a buyer's market, so finding one in a couple of days at the start would be realistic, but you would need to leave some time at the end to advertise, show, and sell it. With just 48 days, how long would you envisage being in your city of departure, aiming to sell it? It might take 14 to sell it, unless you drop the price appreciably. Personally I would normally advise three months as a realistic minimum trip time for buying. The ferry cost would apply whether you rented or bought. Your cost of about $NZ45 per day might be a little high for your long-term rental (but I assume you've shopped around) - but it's certainly reasonable if this is planned for peak time.

You can buy a decent car for $2000 (roughly equivalent to your 800 pound investment in rental car fees). So long as it is something popular, like a Subaru stationwagon or a Toyota, you'll get a fair chunk of that back. You can reduce the risk of not selling at all by starting one of the ever popular $1 reserve auctions on trademe: there will be some risk you won't get every cent you paid back, but so long as you paid a normal sort of price to begin with, you'll get a lot back (unless you hit a troublesome bidder who doesn't turn up to complete).

I have a two week jaunt around Northland coming up, and was seriously considering buying (still may) a vehicle just for that. Of course, my position is a little different, as I have time on my hands. But I've found a $22 a day rental car that suits my needs so, unless something special comes out of my trademe trawl, that's what I'll do.

Trade Me can be okay but have found people often only want to pay rock bottom for some things, me included. To give any auction a chance you need to realistically list for 7 days. That'll cut into his 48days quite a bit.

I would say buying is probably the way to go, although as the previous posters have said, selling it back will likely take up some time. However, if you look at it as a long-term rental, which you would be paying about $2,100 NZ for (according to a quick conversion of your stated price) even if you sell it at a loss you'll be coming out ahead. Last April I bought a 1995 station wagon in good condition for $1300NZ and ended up selling it for $1400. I had a lot more time at the end, but if you go to one of the many backpackers car markets in the major cities a couple days before you fly out, you should be able to get rid of the car. If you buy something for $2,000 and sell it for $1,000 you're still $1,000 ahead of what you would have been with the rental. You might have a bit of a risk of it breaking down, but you should be able to get something in relatively good shape. Also, insurance (thanks to NZ's no-personal-injury-lawsuit rules) is cheap, cheap in NZ. We got basic insurance for $7 a month, and for about $25/month we could have had most things covered.

I suppose it comes down to what type of vehicle you're willing to ride around in, but in my experience the NZ used car market is a buyers' market, as long as you're not looking for something a year or two old.

(All $ refer to NZ dollars).

Thanks! In the end, I decided to buy a car. There are lots of great relocation deals, but you get maybe 5 days max, if you are lucky.
Plus, I could never, ever find any of these magic $12 a day deals. No combination of car, dates, locations, length or anything came out at less than $20 a day PLUS insurance of course. Also, I found that the Blue Bridge car ferry is MUCH cheaper than the InterIslander. So I just need a good place to buy a car in Christchurch now!
And a question for #4 - where did you get the insurance from? I've seen links like this BBH one which says you can get cheap insurance from BBH Hostels

It's been a while so I don't remember exactly where we got the insurance, but I know we got it from one of the main NZ companies. It may have been AMI, or it may have been the AA - my wife had a AAA membership that the New Zealand AA recognized, so we might have gone through them. It might also have been easier for us because we had a NZ bank account - we were in NZ on a work visa, but only bought the car for the last few months of the trip when we were traveling around. Sorry I can't be of more help - I just don't remember the details (except the price, because I was amazed at how cheap it was).

You might have trouble if you tell them you're only in the country for a few weeks, but you also might not have to tell them. As far as I remember, it's not necessary to have insurance in NZ but it's obviously a good idea, and it's also pretty cheap. Good luck, and post your experiences for future travelers.

I was in NZ for 2 months about 2 years ago and I bought a car. I bought it for $500 and sold it for $600 right before I left! My wife and I are going there for 12 days in March and i'm probably still going to buy a car. That way it's ours and we can just give it away when we leave. Email me if you have any questions about anything. Your going to have an amazing trip.

Elliotwest1@yahoo.com

We hired one car on the North Island and one on the South, and flew between the two because it was dirt cheap...

Overall though, sounds like buying could be the way forward for you...

Well, I'm back from the trip, but the car is lounging with a relative in Papakura, near Auckland, unsold as yet. Having checked out lots of similar cars in Auto Trader and on TradeMe, I thought that $1700 was maybe a bit on the high side when I bought it, but it was from a trader (Antony at Chester St Backpackers in Chch) who gave a warranty (which was important to me) and it was a good solid car. Plus I'd seen other cars at around $1000, and they really didn't seem the sort of thing I'd want to be hitting the unsealed roads in!
Trouble is, I've come to selling it time, and I'm only getting offers of $750 max on TradeMe; I didn't even bother with the car fair as I thought that would be even worse. It doesn't help that Papakura is about 30k's out of the AKL city.

Still, even if I only get $700, the it's cost me $1000, which compares favourably with $40.41 x 48 days = $1,939.59 plus insurance for a total of NZ$2,323.59! But I'd like to get at least $1000 - any other ideas?
Is there something I've missed? Mostly what I get is a stream of Asians calling with EXACTLY the same questions, in the same order, all offering $500! $700 is the highest yet.

Edited by: australazier