If you’re planning on staying in New Zealand for any length of time you’ll probably either buy or rent a vehicle at some point during your travels, whether it’s purely for transport, occasional camping, or a full on self-contained camper vehicle. The rentals here can be quite expensive depending on how long you intend to stay, especially if you are looking for something that you can sleep in, so it can be worth putting some extra money aside to actually buy a vehicle and then sell it again at the end of your trip.
Of course this requires a certain amount of effort, research and to be honest a bit of courage to front the initial outlay, with the long-term aim of ultimately saving money. There are always risks involved with buying a vehicle but if you are willing to put the time in then it can be worth it, as the money saved over renting a vehicle can be put towards getting the most out of your time here. As we are here for a year, and Liam was once a mechanic, buying a car was an absolute no-brainer for us, and so on Saturday, the third day after arriving in Auckland (aka our fourth day in New Zealand) we walked down to the car fair at the bottom of our road.
We had originally planned to find a car on facebook; there’s a few groups for backpackers to advertise their vehicles such as ‘Backpacker Cars New Zealand’ with some really good stuff on there. Toyota Estima’s and Hiace’s are really popular amongst people like us, as well as various Honda minivans such as the Odyssey for those looking to have something fairly compact but big enough to accommodate two people and their things. Almost all the vehicles here are imported from Japan, presumably because of their well known build quality and easy to source spare parts.
Japanese is always best, if you want something that will last because it’s built with good quality materials in a logical way, then the Japanese market won’t let you down... that doesn’t just go for cars either...
We were searching facebook for a car for about 2 weeks prior to arrival but actually couldn’t find anything that met Liam’s unrealistically high expectations. It’s very hard to find a manual transmission car here, but despite originally being adamant that we wouldn’t settle for an auto... in the end we caved in. It’s safe to say Liam wasn’t exactly happy that we had to buy an automatic car.
Anyway when we couldn’t find what we were looking for online, we tried our luck at a local car fair. Car fairs here sort of look like a ‘car boot sale’ with a load of cars parked on some grassy area or car park, the boot’s open and a load of people walking around finding cheap deals.. only they’re buying the actual cars themselves instead of junk from somebody’s garage.
We were greeted at the entrance by a man who we thought was in charge, but turned out just to be very keen on selling his car. He led us to have a look and explained to us how him and his wife were leaving the next day and had not managed to sell their 2004 Honda Odyssey despite the low price. To sum it up briefly, it looked amazing - a well looked-after car, much smaller than a typical campervan yet somehow with heaps of space inside. It was perfect, and so Liam quickly got to work checking all the mechanical bits, getting his hands black in the process.
The engine bay was clean and dry.. I could tell that it had had recent maintenance as the belt was still tight. The levels were all good, and the engine started easily and sounded healthy at all speeds. There was also no signs of leaks anywhere.
Now, it would have been stupid to buy the car without looking around first, to be honest we weren’t actually expecting to hand over any cash that day at all, and instead planned on making a decision after the weekend. With that in mind, we walked around the car park to check out all the other vehicles and spoke to a few keen sellers in the process, nothing however came anywhere near to being as good as this first car, thing is... because it was the first one we had seen, we felt like we couldn’t buy it and had to shop around more first - there must be something better surely?
Turns out there wasn’t, and after a test drive confirmed that everything was in good order, we decided that this was too good a deal to turn down, and so we shook hands with the man and his wife and bought the car... sort of.
We needed to withdraw the cash and wanted to sort out the insurance before going our separate ways, and so the four of us travelled around to various places to get all that sorted. The insurance here isn’t mandatory, but it’s also not expensive... in fact it’s about 5-10 times cheaper than in the UK depending on your age. Yes, really. It’s also done face to face rather than on the phone or online, and it’s much easier. It was late afternoon by the time we finished and we were thrilled to have found such a good deal and at having sorted out buying a car so quickly.
In our experience buying a car was really easy, almost too easy, but given that Liam has a lot of mechanical knowledge we had quite a big advantage. As mentioned, it’s important to research what you are buying prior to handing over the cash; you really don’t want to break down hours from anywhere with no phone signal! To that end, here is a few of the things that we took into consideration to make sure we wouldn’t be making a costly mistake:
Shop around! There are good deals everywhere, especially from people that are leaving soon and need to sell in a hurry.
Consider looking in other areas, you’ll be surprised how much you can save if you travel slightly.
Trademe and Facebook are really good tools for comparing what’s out there. You can get a good idea of how much things are worth and start to plan your budget.
Consider what you really need, we originally planned to buy a large vehicle/4x4, but our little mpv has turned out to be spacious and practical enough.
Don’t be put off by larger engines, everybody has them, and a larger, stronger engine will last longer than a small economic engine that has struggled all it’s life.
READ REVIEWS on anything you intend to buy, the more background knowledge you have, the better.All cars have common problems, make sure you are aware of them before you buy, and then you’ll know what to look out for. This is very important.
Don’t be afraid to ask for the vehicle history, and even if you have no idea what you are looking for, at least make sure a mechanic has seen it recently and passed it as not needing lots of repairs.
Remember to check the tyres have plenty of tread.
The car should start up easily, even when it’s cold.
If the engine rattles loudly, it’s usually on it’s way out.
If the car shifts gear harshly, your transmission may be on it’s way out.
Check the fluid levels under the bonnet, if you don’t know how, ask someone to help.
Look for wet patches in the engine bay or under the car - even somebody with no mechanical ability can spot a wet patch - if you find evidence of any leaks, move on.
Test drive it!!! Turn the radio off, listen for bad noises, make sure the brakes work well and the car doesn’t swerve or shake when braking.
Lastly: remember to service it regularly. And note that some automatic transmissions need the oil flushing more often than even the manufacturer recommends, or they can fail costing you thousands to replace. You can expect to pay around $250NZD to get the transmission oil flushed but it can be a lifesaver. (This is one of the first things we did, and you could literally feel a huge difference instantly) Again, do your research!
Don’t let this long list scare you, most of these points can be done without taking too much time at all, and without any mechanical knowledge and could potentially save you thousands.
So that’s it! The story of how we bought a car. It’s made our life so much easier and we’re looking forward to many camping trips in the future. Hopefully this article will help you when the time comes for you to do the same. Happy shopping!
Up next: Exploring Auckland
More photos in our GALLERY
Comments