Best-rated Hire Cars

Compare Hire Car companies in New Zealand at Canstar Blue. GO Rentals, Thrifty, Budget, Ezi Car Rental, Apex, Avis, Hertz, Ace Car Rentals, Jucy and Europcar were compared on Overall Satisfaction, Availability of Vehicle, Booking Process, Customer Service, Transparency of Cost & Fees and Value for Money.

See Our Ratings Methodology

Most Satisfied Customers | GO Rentals

GO Rentals is driving customer satisfaction, rated the country’s No.1 hire car company.

Go Rentals

How we rate hire car companies

Our review compares hire car companies on customer satisfaction, so you can discover what other Kiwis think about our compared companies before you hire your next car. Think of it like asking hundreds of your closest friends which hire car company they think is best!


Canstar Blue surveyed 731 Kiwis who had hired a car in New Zealand in the past 12 months and asked for their feedback on the company they’d used.

  • The outcomes reported in these ratings are measured via accredited research panels managed by Qualtrics.

Respondents rate their satisfaction with their providers from zero to ten, where zero is extremely dissatisfied and ten is extremely satisfied. Brand satisfaction was rated by respondents on the following criteria:

  • Overall Satisfaction: measures consumer satisfaction with a provider as an individual score NOT a combined total of all criteria.
  • Availability of Vehicle: the hire car company offers a range of different vehicles, at different price points, that are readily available at requested dates.
  • Booking Process: the online booking process is user-friendly and intuitive.
  • Customer Service: the customer service provided by the hire car company is helpful, prompt and of a high standard.
  • Transparency of Cost & Fees: the full costs involved with hiring a vehicle, including insurance cover, are clearly communicated.
  • Value for Money: the hire car company offers great value for money when comparing services and extras with price.

The winning brand is the one that receives the highest Overall Satisfaction rating once all the scores from the Overall Satisfaction criteria are combined and averaged.

  • Overall Satisfaction is asked as a specific question and represents an individual measure, not a combined total of all criteria.
  • When we cannot determine a clear winner from the criteria for the Overall Satisfaction rating, we will then look at the other criteria measured in the rating.
    • The brand with the highest number of five-star ratings within the supporting criteria will become the five-star recipient in overall satisfaction, and thus win the award. If a clear leader still cannot be determined from the supporting criteria, joint winners will be declared.

Brands must have received at least 30 responses to be included, so not all brands available in the market have been compared in this survey. The brands rated in this survey are listed below in order of best overall satisfaction.

  • GO Rentals
  • Thrifty
  • Budget
  • Ezi Car Rental
  • Apex
  • Avis
  • Hertz
  • Ace Car Rentals
  • Jucy
  • Europcar


Find more information on our Most Satisfied Customer methodology.

Go RentalsGO Rentals

Ratings Results

This is the second year in a row that GO Rentals has taken home Cantar Blue’s Hire Cars award. And it’s a win achieved in emphatic style: a clean sweep of top 5-Star ratings. It’s even more impressive given that no other car rental company in our ratings manages to achieve a top score in any of our ratings categories.

Editor’s Notes

Established in 1997, GO Rentals now operates eight offices across the country, allowing you to pick-up and drop-off at different locations:

  • Auckland City
  • Auckland Airport
  • Christchurch Airport
  • Dunedin Airport

  • Nelson Airport
  • Queenstown Airport
  • Waiheke Island
  • Wellington Airport

GO Rentals offers a choice of modern vehicles, from small cars and SUVs to 4WDs and vans, plus it has a large fleet of Tesla and BYD Atto 3 EVs. To add to its green credentials, you can also offset the carbon emissions of your trip via CarbonClick.


Thrifty

Ratings Results

Despite three 3-Star ratings, Thrifty’s customers rate the car rental company highly, giving it a 4-Star rating for Overall Satisfaction, securing it second position on our ratings table.

Editor’s Notes

Thrifty has 32 locations across the country, and offers a fleet comprising 17 different vehicles. The cars on offer range from small economy models, including the Toyota Yaris, up to sporty Ford Mustangs, large SUVs, utes, vans and minibuses. Thrifty Car Rental is part of the Hertz group of companies.


Budget

Ratings Results

In this year’s award ratings, Budget’s customers are far from economical with their praise for the company, awarding it great 4-Star ratings across every category, placing it in third position on our awards table.

Editor’s Notes

American car rental provider Budget is guaranteed to have a car for everyone. Whether that’s a small hybrid for your weekend getaway, or a U-haul to help you move.

Its digital check-in option helps speed up the booking process, while its FastBreak membership option includes a range of benefits including faster reservations, check-in, drop-offs and receipts. Budget has 32 offices across the country, including at all major airports. Budget is part of the Avis group.


Ezi Car Rental

Ratings Results

Ezi Car Rental earns a great set of scores: 4-Stars across every award category, except Transparency of Cost & Fees, for which it earns a respectable 3-Star rating.

Editor’s Notes

100% Kiwi-owned and operated, Ezi Car Rental has 24 branches across New Zealand, from Auckland to Invercargill, including many airport terminal locations.

Its wide choice of vehicles includes small hatchbacks and large 4WDs, plus utes and people movers. For the ecologically minded, it also has a choice of two hybrid vehicles.


Apex

Ratings Results

Apex Car Rentals is one of only three car hire firms in our ratings not to earn any 3-Star ratings. Across all categories, it earns consistently high 4-Star ratings.

Editor’s Notes

Apex Car Rentals has 14 offices spread across the North and South Islands. Apex’s airport locations are situated close to airport terminals, and provide free airport shuttle services between the terminals and the Apex branches.

Its car fleet covers vehicles from mid-range hatchbacks to large 4WDs, people-movers and minibuses.


Avis

Ratings Results

In addition to four 3-Star ratings, Avis earns high praise from its customers for its Value for Money, plus for delivering great Overall Satisfaction.

Editor’s Notes

Founded in the US nearly 80 years ago, Avis is now a multinational company. In New Zealand it operates 23 offices, many in airport terminals.

It has 15 different vehicles in its fleet, ranging from small economy cars, such as the Suzuki Swift, through mid-size hatchbacks, up to large 4WDs and utes. Its choice of EVs includes the 3 and Y models from Tesla and the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kona Electric.


Hertz

Ratings Results

Hertz earns a 3-Star rating from its Kiwi customers for Overall Satisfaction. However, it scores an impressive set of 4-Star ratings across all other categories

Editor’s Notes

Hertz is a US car rental company, and one of the biggest car rental companies in the world, operating in 160 countries. In New Zealand, it has 40 car hire locations, including in all major cities and airports.

As well as small and medium-size family hatchbacks, it offers green EVs and hybrid vehicles, Ford Mustangs, premium Lexus models, and vans and utes.


Ace Rental Cars

Ratings Results

Ace Rental Cars scores mainly 3-Star ratings, but earns 4 Stars from its customers for its booking process and its levels of customer service.

Editor’s Notes

Ace Rental Cars operates four offices in the North Island: in Auckland and Wellington, and at those cities’ airports. In the South Island, Ace Rental Cars can be found at Dunedin, Queenstown and Christchurch airports, as well as at the Picton car ferry terminal, Greymouth and downtown Christchurch.


Jucy

Ratings Results

Jucy scores mainly 3-Star ratings. However, it’s no surprise that the budget car hire brand earns a 4-Star rating for Value for Money, in addition to another 4 Stars for Vehicle Availability.

Editor’s Notes

As well as its iconic campervans, Jucy offers two types of rental vehicles: small hatchbacks and compact SUVs. While its small cars are available from all three of its airport locations – Auckland, Christchurch and Queenstown – small SUVs are only available to rent from its Queenstown and Christchurch branches.


Europcar

Ratings Results

Europcar rounds out our awards table, scoring a 3-Star rating in all but one category: 4 Stars for Value for Money.

Editor’s Notes

Europcar is a massive worldwide car rental company that was founded in France. It has 16 locations across the country, stretching from Auckland to Invercargill, including in the terminal buildings at Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown airports.

Europcar’s fleet of vehicles is massive, and includes luxury vehicles from BMW, Audi and Mercedes Benz.


 

Other hire car companies

Not all hire car companies in the market qualify for our ratings (based on minimum survey sample size), but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth considering. Here are more hire car companies to check out before you hire your next vehicle.

  • Omega
  • RaD Car Hire
  • Snap Rentals

Omega Rental Cars

Omega

Editor’s Notes

Omega Rental Cars operates a wide fleet of vehicles, including small hatchbacks, mid-range sedans and family and luxury SUVs.

In New Zealand, it has 10 offices: two each in Auckland and Wellington, including at both cities’ airports, and six in the South Island: Picton, Nelson, Blenheim, Christchurch Airport, Queenstown and Queenstown airport.

Although Omega doesn’t appear in this year’s consumer ratings, it is a former winner of Canstar Blue’s Most Satisfied Customers Award, back in 2021.


RaD Car Hire

Editor’s Notes

RaD has 23 rental offices spread across both islands, in all main centres and near major airports. It offers two levels of car hire: Classic and Premium.

Its Classic fleet includes small economy hatchbacks, and mid-range sedans, SUVs and 4WDs, as well as large people movers, minibuses, utes and trucks.

Its Premium range of late model vehicles includes Subaru Outbacks and Jeep Cherokees, as well as 4WD Nissan X-Trails and Kia Stonics, plus new Hondas and Toyotas.


Snap Rentals

Editor’s Notes

Snap Rentals is a smaller hire car provider, and has just four offices: Auckland city, Auckland Airport, Christchurch Airport and Queenstown. Its range of cars includes models for all budgets, from older, smaller cars to late model luxury vehicles, including Skoda Kamiqs and Kodiaqs. It also has hybrid and fully EV models to choose from.

In addition to regular rental terms, Snap Rental offers long-term monthly EV rentals, for cars including Polestars, BYD Attos, e-Golfs and Teslas.

Choosing the Right Hire Car Company

When hiring a car, it can be frustrating to discover that your choice of vehicle is unavailable, or that a car company has nothing available for the dates you require. Therefore, it’s not surprising that Availability of Vehicle (20%) rates almost as highly as Customer Service (23%) when it comes to what car-hire customers cite as their major considerations when rating their satisfaction levels with the car hire companies they use.

However, both these factors rate much lower than Value for Money. Renting a vehicle isn’t cheap, especially when you factor in extras such as full insurance cover, so getting a good deal on your rental wheels is clearly the No.1 concern for Kiwi hire car customers.

Overall, here’s what the consumers in our survey say are their most important considerations when rating their hire car companies:

  • Value for Money: 37%
  • Customer Service: 23%
  • Availability of Vehicle: 20%
  • Booking Process: 17%
  • Transparency of Cost & Fees: 3%

About the editor of this page

This report was written by Canstar’s Editor, Bruce Pitchers. Bruce has three decades’ experience as a journalist and has worked for major media companies in the UK and Australasia, including ACP, Bauer Media Group, Fairfax, Pacific Magazines, News Corp and TVNZ. Prior to Canstar, he worked as a freelancer, including for The Australian Financial Review, the NZ Financial Markets Authority, and for real estate companies on both sides of the Tasman.

More Information

Key statistics

Ease of online booking is the main consideration when hiring a car: 49%

Always thoroughly read the Ts & Cs before hiring a car: 41%

Always pay for additional insurance offered by rental company: 40%

Consider a vehicle’s safety rating when hiring a car: 38%

Pick-up / drop-off procedures should be made easier: 35%

Would hire a hybrid for environmental reasons: 34%

Should be tougher penalties for at-fault drivers who cause accidents: 32%

Think reckless Kiwi drivers more of a concern than tourist drivers: 31%

Should be tighter rules for overseas drivers to hire cars in NZ: 30%

Would use public transport if it was available, rather than hire a car: 24%

Have used a car-sharing service over a conventional day rental: 11%

Canstar Blue surveyed 5046 New Zealand consumers across a range of categories to measure and track customer satisfaction, via ISO 26362 accredited research panels managed by Qualtrics. The outcomes reported are the results from respondents who had rented a hire car in the past 12 months. In this case, 666 New Zealanders. Brands must have received at least 30 responses to be included. Results are comparative and it should be noted that brands receiving three stars have still achieved a satisfaction measure of at least six out of 10. Not all brands available in the market have been compared in this survey. The ratings table is first sorted by star ratings and then by mean overall satisfaction. A rated brand may receive a ‘N/A’ (Not Applicable) rating if it does not receive the minimum number of responses for that criterion.

The past winners from Canstar Blue’s hire car ratings:

  • 2022: GO rentals
  • 2021: Omega
  • 2020: GO rentals
  • 2019: Apex
  • 2018: GO rentals
  • 2017: Apex
  • 2016: Apex

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