NZ Discount Car Rentals Reviews 32

Avoid this company at all costs.

Booked a car for a week recently for a staff member. Didn't realise this was a third party as booked through Auckland Airport Rentals. Paid the insurance and deposit. The booking was sent through to them showing the insurance had been paid. NZ discount car rentals charged for extra insurance and charged our visa. They refuse to return the double payment and we are in dispute with them.

Extremely smooth and streamlined operation. Rented 2 cars, one in north island, one in south island. Both were old and a bit run down but worked well. The prices are very good. In both cases our deposit was returned immediately after returning the car.

Car literally had no brakes, we were advised by nz road assist not to drive it as it was dangerous. The customer service is horrible, we were told to get it fixed and they would pay or call roadside assist. When we said we didn't want to spend our holiday fixing their car they hung up on us. We didn't have a car for two days. We were booked into hotels all around the northlands and so were running out of time before we had to move on. Later we discovered the car boot didn't lock so we were unable to do some activities while travelling as our luggage could have been stolen. No sorry from customer service, they didn't seem surprised either.

We booked and fully paid for a Late model Mitsubishi Eclipse...coming up to the time of collecting the car we had an email asking for more money and attached was an invoice with a 10yr old car and saying we had not paid for the rental...after a lot of phone calls we finally managed to get our money refunded and went to a way more reliable company...I am very happy to pay more to a trustworthy company..

After 8 months of the owner’s broken promises I’m still waiting for the return of my $1250 deposit! Despite multiple requests he’s full of excuses and broken promises.

No issues.car was what I expected great price quick efficient service transfers to & from airport no problem.Will use again.

Avoid this company.
The car was terrible. I've hired many cars in travel and this was by far the dirtiest and had marks in many places around the vehicle. The brakes were also in terrible condition and the whole car would shake when braking going down hill.
The worse part was during a random check by police and department of transport, we were told by the officers that there was a repossession order on the vehicle due to unpaid fines by the company. Our family, with young kids, were kept on the side of the road for one and a half hours while the officers had the director on the phone trying to argue his way out of it. Got to the point where the officers said he had 10 mins to pay otherwise they were taking the vehicle before he resolved the situation.

We're still waiting for deposit to be refunded from Jan 14th drop off and no communication. When we do call we get the run around or someone with very little spoken english.

The epitome of dodgy. Do not rent a car through this company. They charged me an extra $470 allegedly for the tiniest chip in the windscreen but it took me 6 weeks before someone would explain that to me. They simply do not respond to emails. The car was missing two hub caps when I picked it up and had very dodgy brakes. A big mistake to rent from them because they were cheaper. It cost me more in the long run to rent from them. Renters beware!

Stay away from this company. Really awful. When I dropped the car, they said they would check it and then release my deposit. Instead, they took the money from my account without any notification. They never responded to an email for 6 weeks, and they then emailed to say they will charge me 720 dollars for a minor chip they found at the rear bumper, while the car they gave me was in a ridiculously poor condition, full of scratches all around, dirty in the inside and in need of a service. On top of that, they tried to blame me for another scratch which was there already, thankfully I had taken a video when I picked the car up.
Truly my worst experience with a car rental company.

The Volkswagon Golf was supposed to be a mid-size car. It was small, requiring us to place a suitcase in the backseat throughout our NZ trip. The car stopped several times with the warning sign "transmission error". We told the company this but it was simply dismissed. No effort to make good on the matter. The car also struggled to change gears during mountain driving (obviously the transmission problem).

Despite the issues, NZ Discount Car rentals were happy to hold our bond for a small windscreen chip from a stone. This is a small cost to fix normally so I'm curious to see what will be changed. In view of our issues, I'd have thought a reasonable company would call it even at best.

I have picked up the car this at Christchurch airport this morning and in 37 years of car rentals I have never seen a worse car than the one that was handed to me.

The car was very dirty, both inside and outside and clearly it hadn't been cleaned in a while since there was a foul smell inside (the glove compartment, just to mention one thing, was full of crumbs or remenances of food!).

The automatic buttons on the key were broken and useless, the only button working was the one that opens the car.

This is clearly a very old car (it almost has 200,000 km in its odometer, I have never seen so many kms on ANY car rented in my entire life) and it probably belongs to an employee or an employee's mother.

Again, I am shocked that these people are allowed to rent cars in such bad state. Stay away from this agency

Failed to return deposit.

I have previously used this company without issue, but my recent experience was extremely disappointing, leaving me feeling frustrated and massively out of pocket for no fault of my own.

In August 2024, I rented a people carrier after returning to New Zealand due to the passing of my father. One of the tyres on the vehicle was barely legal and one of the doors would not open or shut properly, which raised safety concerns, especially as I was travelling with my wife and 3 young daughters. Upon returning the vehicle on 11th September 2024, the staff at the office were unable to refund my $1000 deposit due to an issue with their card machine. I was assured the deposit would be returned to my card within a few days and would be back on my credit card by the time I arrived back in the UK, but this never happened.

Despite sending multiple polite emails and follow-ups, I have been met with nothing but excuses, passing of the buck and no resolution. Even after mentioning legal action, there has been no effort to assist or resolve the issue.

This has been the worst travel experience I have ever had, especially during a difficult time for me and my family. As a frequent traveler to New Zealand, this level of service is unacceptable. I will not be using this company again and strongly advise others to avoid them as well. I’m my current opinion I have been defrauded.

It’s unfortunate that such poor service has tarnished what should have been a straightforward rental experience. Beware.

When we arrived at the airport we were brought to a small 'office' on a parking lot. We signed a contract that looked like a misprinted word document they made up just before we arrived (the company was not even named on the contract). The car was very old and didn't look very good. After our first night the car was stolen with no sign of a break-in (no glass where we parked it), almost like the thieves had a key. Discount cars was extremely unhelpful after we let them know about our stolen car. Luckily they gave us the necessary documents (even though these documents also looked very unprofessional) for our insurance and the police, but they refused to help us any further. They also did not ask to get the key back, which is very uncommon. At best this is a very unprofessional and customer unfriendly company and in the worst case they indeed stole are car and they are scamming travelers. Please hire your car somewhere else

DO NOT RENT FROM THIS COMPANY! My friend and I rented a car from their Queenstown location in November 2023 and 4 months later still haven’t gotten our $1000 bond back…we have called and enquired probably 30 times at this point and the men who work there refuse to help us. They have essentially stolen our money and are refusing to give it back. No one who works there speaks English properly which makes it hard and they are extremely rude and unempathetic. This is the most frustrating customer service experience we have ever had!! Apparently this has happened to other people as well so hopefully this review can stop more people from making the same mistake….😡😡😡

Car was smelly and dirty and old. Blamed a stone chip on the windscreen on us without being able to provide proof. Looks like a trick they use regularly as other customers also reported the same thing. Deposit is held for weeks and weeks. Avoid at all cost.

Great experience from go to whoa. Can't fault them! Late arrival in Auckland, went to the airport info desk where the helpful staff called Discount's after hours line. Prompt pick up from airport stop just a short walk from terminal. Lovely staff arranged SIM card for my phone and directed me to my car and Airbnb. Terrific little car, well presented, no mechanical problems, economical. Return was just as easy with prompt transfer to airport. Definitely recommend their service.

You get what you pay for. We rented a people mover from Queenstown for three weeks. Paid about half what other rental companies were charging. The car was older and had a few dents and a few stains on the seats and carpets, but that was perfect for the hiking and traveling we did. Car went well, no issues at all. We always got a fast response when calling or emailing. The airport pick up and drop off was smooth. We did not have to make any changes or request anything unusual so did not have to test the limits of customer service. Would use them again if I needed a car for a long hire in Queenstown.

Stay away from this company!! Car was absolutely filthy, car seat for my son I requested hadn’t been cleaned for a very long time and was so unhygienic!! GPS didn’t even work and was charged for it and never refunded despite multiple calls and emails!! Took $1000 off my credit card as a purchase instead of a pre authorisation for the bond and took ages to refund it!!
No one cares or replies to calls or emails and zero care factor when anything goes wrong!! Would rather walk or catch public transport than use this company ever again!!