Christchurch - Kaikoura - Lake Tekapo - Queenstown

When picking up the car, the staff gave us a training on local traffic regulations. For drivers who are not very familiar, a road test is required. We initially arrived late, and the preliminary training and test drive took too long. We waited over an hour to get the car. After many years of self-driving rentals abroad, we have never encountered such a strict rental company. The staff had extremely stringent requirements for the drivers. One driver, with decades of driving experience in China, made some minor errors due to unfamiliarity with the surroundings and different traffic rules. As a result, the staff deemed this driver unfit to drive unless we paid an additional 2000 SGD insurance fee. This exorbitant fee led to a dispute, and the staff even threatened not to rent the car to us. Since we were not familiar with the area, we had to compromise and negotiate with the rental platform after getting the car. Rent-a-Car's response was prompt, and after receiving my feedback, they contacted the rental company, and eventually, we only had to pay an additional 15 SGD per day for the insurance. While I do not deny the rental company's safety training processes, I believe their evaluation method is inappropriate. The local laws allow Chinese drivers to drive, and we had comprehensive insurance. We care about safety more than the rental company does. When educating us on local traffic regulations, the rental company should correct any driving mistakes and allow for more practice. After all, it's not that we can't drive; we are just unfamiliar with the local rules. Judging a driver's ability based on a five-minute test drive and attempting to charge exorbitant insurance fees is unacceptable.

Excellent service, they went out of their way to pick us up at a distance. When we got stranded due to flooding, they helped us check road conditions and extended the rental.

Unresponsive on phone and WeChat. What is the point of creating a group? The car model did not match what was promised and there was no inspection sticker.

We needed to install a child seat when picking up the car. The staff told us we had to do it ourselves, and their child seat was extremely difficult to install. I asked why they couldn't help, and they said it was company policy because if anything happened to the child, they would be held responsible. It was frustrating. I asked if they could at least guide me, but they said no as it also involved liability issues. In reality, it was clear they just didn't know how to install it. How can you work in this field and not understand your own product? They just used weak excuses to brush me off. I told them I would take full responsibility if something went wrong and asked them to simply guide me, but they still refused and had a terrible attitude. They acted completely unprofessional and uninterested in their work. Additionally, when returning the car, their location had not been updated on the platform. We went to the old location and couldn't find it. We called and found out they had moved to a new location. The directions to the new location were also incorrect, and it took us over thirty minutes to find it. Our flight was about to take off, and their phones were constantly busy, with no response on WeChat either. Eventually, we asked another Chinese person and luckily found it tucked away in a corner. We were in a huge rush for our flight. We had less than an hour to get to the airport and board, so there was no time for a proper handover check. Whatever they claimed, we just accepted. They said we scratched the car, and we couldn't argue because there was no time. We had started three hours early, but thanks to their mistakes, we ended up running frantically with our child falling over and getting hurt.

The car I picked up was not the same as the one I had booked. This was very disappointing. The person at the pick up location was not able to provide any information about this and the contact from Koocar was available only by phone and did not pick up when I called. they then responded by text and were quite rude. Koocar would also not allow me to take the car without signing onto additional insurance.

Koocar is a questionable choice. although providing very low prices, service was terrible.