Not sure whether to buy or rent
a New Zealand camper van?

Every now and again people ask us: What do you think is the best thing to do: buy or rent a camper van for a period of let's say three months? Finding out how much it'll cost you to rent a camper van for such a period of time isn't too difficult, but it's not easy to figure out how much it'll cost you to buy a camper van yourself and estimate how much you'll lose when you sell it again after three months either by selling it back to the dealer or by selling it yourself.

Of course we cannot tell you what the best option would be for you, but what we can tell you is where we've bought our camper vans, what we've paid for them, what we've done to sell them and how much we've actually lost on them (no, we've never succeeded in selling them for more than we bought them for!).

The first time we've been to New Zealand (in 2000), we bought a small 2 berthcamper van (a Ford Econovan of 1995). We bought it from Maui Direct for NZ$ 10,000. They were willing to buy it back from us for 50% six months later, but fortunately we managed to sell it ourselves for NZ$ 8,500. All we did was put an ad in the paper, and drive around with a note sticked to one of our windows.

However, it still took us some three weeks to sell it – it's definitely a buyer's market at the end of the holiday season and it can really be difficult to sell your camper van for a reasonable price. And of course, when you're trying to sell your camper van yourself, you're bound to lose some 'precious' holiday time!

The second time we've been to New Zealand (in 2004 / 2005), we discovered that camper van prices had gone up a lot in the meantime. The Ford Econovan we had previously owned now was worth about NZ$ 14,000, regardless of being four years older! We were afraid that a camper van of nine years old would be difficult to sell again at the end of the season, so we decided to buy a newer camper van, a 2 berth Toyota Hiace of 2001, for NZ$ 35,000.

The advantage of buying a fairly new camper van is that chances are you can get a good buyback guarantee on it. The company we bought it from was RV Motorhome World (conveniently located next to Maui Direct), and they promised us a buyback of 80% – provided we didn't try to sell it ourselves in the meantime! We didn't particularly like that last part of the deal, but in the end we agreed, because the advantages of the deal (no worries at the end of our stay in NZ and being able to use the camper van till the very last minute) outweighed the disadvantages.

Another thing you have to keep in mind when deciding whether you want to buy or rent a New Zealand camper van, is the fact that when you buy your own campervan, it's you who runs the risk in case your van gets wrecked, whether you're at fault or not. If you bump into a lamp post for instance – or worse – if you're involved in an accident, you might not be able to sell the van for the price you had in mind or be entitled to a buyback.

If you decide to rent a camper van, please see our directory of New Zealand camper van rental companies. If you think buying a camper van is the best thing to do, you'll find more info on our page about buying a New Zealand camper van.

Check out independent reviews on campervan rental companies