I BOUGHT A CAR! A simple, quick and easy process right…? Not exactly!
It may only have taken a week but my naïve brain thought I would have been able to land off the plane in Auckland and be living in my car the following afternoon. That wasn’t quite the case…
Once I decided to travel to New Zealand and knew I’d be there for at least three months, I planned my entire trip around living out of a car or van. I did what every sensible person does and got myself (and my dad) onto Google looking up whether it was even possible let alone how to do it!
Most search results revealed that “Yes! It is possible!” but seldom explained actually how to do it. Many would walk you through the process of looking at a car – what to check for, what to ask the seller, what rules and regulations you had to follow – but no one was explaining how I would be able to find and buy a vehicle I liked. A lot of them explained the process if you have a New Zealand drivers license and several said you could do it without but I still felt fairly lost.
So cut to me arriving in New Zealand on a sunny Tuesday morning, I got myself onto Trade Me – a renowned trading site for anything and everything you can imagine – and I was inundated with car after car, van after van that suited my wants and needs; perfect! Except that was too good to be true. Vehicles would be situated too far away for me to view, sellers would not respond or in one case, the seller was currently in a different continent and therefore timezone trying to arrange a viewing via his sister and emails… let’s just say that didn’t work out. At all.
So then I thought I’d try a different route. Several websites recommended a company who provided “Self-Contained Campervans ready for Backpackers to Live In”. The website looked legitimate and advertised some fantastic cars for reasonable prices so I got in contact and headed over there. To say I was apprehensive when I arrived was an understatement; I’ll put it this way, my Uber driver didn’t want me to get out of the vehicle and made sure I was okay about 5 times. That should have been enough of a sign but I thought I’ve come so far, I may as well go and see what they have to offer. You never know, right?
Wrong.
Out of the five vehicles they had, not one of them was ready to live in by any means. I was polite (too polite) and let her continue to show me around and look inside the cars, all the while I was texting my dad back in the UK going “Gut feeling says no”, “Not at all like the website” and the best one to send as signal cuts out and I can no longer reply, “Bad vibessssss”. Sorry dad for taking years off your life.
So after leaving there, I felt like I was back at square one. It had been five days and I had nothing to show for it. I felt like a failure and that I was destined to travel hostel to hostel – which wouldn’t have been a problem had I not brought three very heavy bags with me in preparation for van life. I had to be reminded by several friends that it hadn’t even been a week and to stop freaking out, which was actually very useful advice at that moment in time.
So what next?
After asking around, in person this time rather than google, I was pointed in the direction of Turners. Hallelujah! My prayers had been answered and the light at the end of the tunnel was getting brighter. I visited the Turners dealership where they have row upon row of new and second hand vehicles of every shape, size, model and age and I quickly stumbled across what was soon to be my new home on wheels. After a quick visual inspection, a bumpy test drive (I don’t recommend wearing big heavy boots to test drive cars) and a successful bartering session with the lovely lady selling the cars, it was mine. My very own 1999 Toyota HiAce, same age as me and in the same perfect condition as me as well… well maybe not quite, she needs A LOT of work doing on her but she’s mine!
I can’t speak highly enough of the staff at Turners; they were able to answer all of my questions and the whole process was in fact very simple, quick and easy! If only I’d known about them before I went through the trouble of searching Trade Me and Facebook Marketplace.
So here’s my advice for how to buy a car when you arrive in New Zealand:
- Head straight to a Turners Car Dealership
- Explore the vehicles they have available
- Enquire at the desk, maybe test drive a few if you’re unsure
- If you find the one for you follow their easy process and
- Boom! The vehicle is yours!
Let me know in the comments if this helps you or if you have any questions I may be able to help with. I’ve attached a link and a photo of google maps and all of the different locations below.
Click here to go straight to the Turners website: https://www.turners.co.nz/?activetab=carsearch