U.S. tourist for 6 weeks: Rent a car vs buy and sell

[wakemantk]

I'll be in NZ for 6 weeks in Jan/Feb 2024 with my family. Renting a van will cost $3500 USD.

1. Could I buy a van, drive it around, and then sell it (in Auckland)? How could I best pay for it (Paypal or other similar?)
2. Or, is there any private rental system like Turo (i.e. pay a private party to "borrow" their car?)
3. Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance for helping me thing through this.

 

[strivingforabetterlife]

@wakemantk Take a look at trademe.co.nz for NZ's most common buy/sell platform.

 

[eznguyenphuong07]

@wakemantk One option to look into if you are trying to save costs is to look into "relocation deals".

Basically most tourists coming to NZ arrive in Auckland, get a rental, drive down the country, and return the rental in Christchurch or Queenstown.

So the rental companies have the problem of too many rentals in the South, and therefore need to get them back up to Auckland again.

As such, they'll offer really good deals for people willing to go the opposite way - often $1 a day rental, plus they'll pay for the ferry crossing (of the vehicle + driver) as well.

The only problem is that they usually have a time limit - usually no more than 1 week....but you never know - worth checking out anyway.

 

[nicole7777]

@eznguyenphuong07 I got a nice rental car from Wellington for free with the condition that I dropped it in Auckland the next day

 

[jellyquest]

@nicole7777 Did you still have to drop off the car with a full tank?

 

[terrenzio46]

@jellyquest Depends.

Some will give you a tank of gas.

Some will refund you the ferry cost for driver and car (and can often book it when it's "full)

Some will even pay you (a very small amount - a "refreshment" payment)

Some will give you a combination of the above.

Most will give you nothing, yes you still need to return it fill, and you will be charged for anything they can charge you for.

 

[everlastingfootprint]

@jellyquest No, but you only have 2 days normally to relocate from Wellington to Auckland, and you will need to pay for insurance separately.

 

[nicole7777]

@jellyquest I did have to cover gas yes. I also had to pay a deposit for insurance which was refunded to me after I dropped it off.

 

[jayblue1]

@wakemantk I did this myself in 2018, bought for 3000 in Auckland and sold for 2400 in Queenstown. I used it for 3 weeks and was happy in the end as that was much cheaper than renting ( the plan ).

I have two tips for you.

1. Most tourist to NZ start in the NI (Auckland) and venture South. Therefore I recommend to find a van in Dunedin/Qtown area and drive North slowly for your 6 weeks so you can end up selling in Auckland.
   Bigger demand = higher price, so easy!
   I did the opposite and that's my big regret, selling was hard in Qtown, even tho it's chockers with tourists.
2. Have a plan for when it won't sell fast. In my case I'm from NZ with friends and family around, but I live overseas. I actually struggled to sell in Qtown the few days before I left as originally planned and it sucked.
   But, I had help from friends to sell the van for me as I went back overseas, so could keep the price highish and wait.

For you 2. may not be an option which makes 1. Even more important. I swear vans go for more in Auckland as the 'stock' of vans more naturally flows from North to South so it seems.

Good luck, it can be done!

Edit notes: the van was a converted Mitsubishi chariot btw, it was a shit van but the principle holds in higher price brackets I think.

 

[stevekolt]

@jayblue1 How did you register it without an address?

 

[jayblue1]

@stevekolt My family's address, so lucky in my case

 

[wakemantk]

@jayblue1 I fly in and out of Auckland, so I was thinking of buying and selling in Auckland.

 

[olympica]

@wakemantk It is relatively cheap to fly Auckland to Christchurch for what it's worth - may still be worth considering.

Edit: sorry just read that there's five people going, yeah maybe less worth it then!

 

[jack28365]

@wakemantk Could also try turners car subscription. Pretty much like renting or leasing but with different options. https://www.turners.co.nz/car-subscription/

 

[markeita]

@jack28365 I also recently looked into this but after completing the whole sign up, selecting dates, a vehicle and providing my payment details I got an email saying that they can't actually guarantee cars or costs and that I couldn't actually book what I'd selected. They asked for my pick up and drop off dates (rather than actually being a monthly subscription) in order to give me a quote. It felt completely misleading in the process and I wouldn't recommend it - and definitely don't actually expect what you see on their site (even if you go through the full process and submit to book) to be real.

 

[pressfrancis]

@jack28365 I was going to suggest this as well

 

[dinomangino]

@wakemantk You won't get a van that will last the trip for 3500.

 

[jackson49]

@dinomangino No but if he can buy one for 10,000 and sell it for 8,000 then it has only cost 2000 (provided he can sell it)

 

[christhepenitent]

@jackson49 It should be very simple if you find the right vehicle, but there's quite a bit of risk involved. Presumably they'd want to wait till the last couple days to sell it as they'd be using it. It will make it pretty hard if they can't get the sale done at the end, unless they have friends or family here that can look after that even if they already left the country.

 

[debranch]

@christhepenitent Best they see Tina from Turners for the selling part.