Two spring weeks on the road out of Auckland Downtown
Late September into October is when Auckland begins to shake off winter. The harbour glints on clear mornings, showers blow through quickly, and the Waitakere ranges turn green and dripping. Travellers arrive for the National Day Golden Week break and want to be out of the city by lunchtime, bound for the Coromandel, the Bay of Islands or south toward Rotorua. If you're lining up Auckland Downtown car rental for these 14 nights, the data below shows what 13 live listings are asking.
Only two suppliers showed up, Thrifty with 8 listings and Budget with 5, and their averages land within about $28 of each other. The bigger gap is by car class: the cheapest car is a $1,478 Suzuki Swift from Thrifty, while a Fullsize at Thrifty can reach $4,064. The smart move is to pick the size you need, then compare the two suppliers on that class alone, because the cheapest Compact SUV ($1,612), Intermediate SUV ($2,233) and Full-Size SUV ($3,283) all belong to Budget.
Almost everything here has a standard engine, and only one hybrid is listed, so don't plan on a fuel-saving option. Most cars seat five, which suits two couples or a small family with a couple of suitcases, but a group of six or more should book one of the four seven-seaters or the single eight-seater early. Spring roads out of Auckland are mostly dry, though a wet motorway at 5pm crawls, so pick up your car mid-morning and dodge the worst of the downtown traffic.