Christchurch to Kaikoura

To be honest, I'm very dissatisfied with this company. I booked a new Toyota Yaris, but upon pickup, I received an old Nissan Tiida from 10 years ago. The car was dirty and hadn't been cleaned, and there were numerous scratches. When I pointed these out and took photos, they said it didn't matter. I requested this be noted on the pickup form, but they told me not to rent if I didn't like it and questioned why I was inspecting the car so carefully. They said all their cars were in this condition. When I returned the car, they charged me almost 4000 RMB for a small two-centimeter paint chip on the rear of the car. I rented the car for 11 days for less than 2000 RMB. Charging nearly 4000 RMB for a scratch smaller than a fingernail? Are they crazy?

In early March, we rented a car from a Chinese company in Christchurch through Zuzuche. The car we rented was a 2005 Toyota hatchback. When we picked up the car, we noticed it was very old and the engine didn't sound right, but considering it was only a little over 100 RMB per day, we decided to rent it. From March 2nd evening when we picked up the car until March 10th, we drove it without major issues until we were heading to Lake Tekapo from Queenstown. Around 11 PM, while driving through a mountain, a high temperature warning suddenly appeared. We immediately stopped the car by the roadside. Since there was no mobile signal, we had to add water to the radiator. We added about 2-3 liters and the warning disappeared. However, after driving for 5 kilometers, the high temperature warning appeared again, and there was a persistent burning smell. We stopped by the roadside and flagged down passing vehicles for help. It was past 11 PM, and luckily a couple from Israel in an RV picked us up.

They gave us a damaged car, probably around eight years old, with 80,000 kilometers already on it. Luckily, we didn't encounter any high temperatures; otherwise, breaking down on the highway would have been a real possibility. The rental company kept giving us the runaround. Be cautious when choosing this company; I definitely won't pick an overseas Chinese rental company next time.

When the tire was leaking and I was in a hurry, they had no spare tire and didn't provide any solution. Instead, they referred to the contract saying rescue would arrive within 24 hours. I don't understand why I bought the super insurance! Also, they directly threatened to hang up on me.

I was disappointed with the professionalism of the company and the unusual requests to do car hand over and return at a supermarket.