Thread: Car rental fees. Are we being ripped off?

My niece flew up from down south ( Gee her arms were tired) Naw...came up with Virgin ( The Airline) they had a fly drive package, I think the car cost her $30 a day all up. Worth having a look at.

Renting is daunting.
We booked a trip to NZ and wanted to hire a motorhome.
So off to the travel agent we went and got their package price.
This included the airfares and hire of the motorhome.
After getting up after fall down to the floor fainting, we decided to research it our selves.
The airfares we saved a packet. But with the motor home we saved about a grand. After logging on to hire places in NZ and checking prices, again the well known hire companies were quite dear, but the we got on to one that hired motor homes that were about 4 years old. This was a subsidary of one of the better known abd dearer ones. It must be where the slightly older models go.
Anyway we ended up paying a cheap price for the hire and as a bonus got a weeks hire free as we were hiring over 21 days.
And best of all, the price included a complete excess waiver, were most other companies still want a BIG security deposit to cover the excess.

Originally Posted by Rovernaut

we got on to one that hired motor homes that were about 4 years old. This was a subsidary of one of the better known abd dearer ones. It must be where the slightly older models go.

I've hired cars in NZ 3 times for snowboarding trips. We use one of the companies that have older cars. All the companies are owned by Budget for example but Budget have the 0-1 year old cars. Another company owned by Budget has the 2-3 year old cars and another company also owned by Budget has the 4-5 year old cars.
I thought it funny that they denied the ownership of the companies considering out the front they had a Budget trailer being towed by a whatever bus
We always go with the 4-5 year old cars for price and the fact you tend to damage the cars a bit by cramming in gear and using chains etc and they overlook that on those cars.

We never get the extra insurance cover either as the travel insurance policy we use covers the excess up to quite a few thousand.

Yeah,
A couple of Kiwi friends have told me to ring NZ direct and they are considerablly cheaper than getting through an Aussie travel agent.

Originally Posted by Rovernaut

Renting is daunting.
We booked a trip to NZ and wanted to hire a motorhome.
So off to the travel agent we went and got their package price.
This included the airfares and hire of the motorhome.
After getting up after fall down to the floor fainting, we decided to research it our selves.
The airfares we saved a packet. But with the motor home we saved about a grand. After logging on to hire places in NZ and checking prices, again the well known hire companies were quite dear, but the we got on to one that hired motor homes that were about 4 years old. This was a subsidary of one of the better known abd dearer ones. It must be where the slightly older models go.
Anyway we ended up paying a cheap price for the hire and as a bonus got a weeks hire free as we were hiring over 21 days.
And best of all, the price included a complete excess waiver, were most other companies still want a BIG security deposit to cover the excess.