How I drove a BMW across New Zealand for free

I’m going to let you in on a little secret that can save you a ton of money while giving you great freedom to get off the beaten path. I’m talking about car relocation hires.

In New Zealand and Australia, Point A to Point B travel is incredibly common. In New Zealand, tourists often fly into Auckland in the north then drive down to the south, finishing in Queenstown. Many people hire campervans and some also rent cars. Most rental companies will make much more money renting a car from these northern points as well as any additional tariffs for one way travel. Even with these fees, tourists often find round trip travel is difficult in such a long thin country without backtracking a ton and wasting fuel.

On the rental company side, they make more money overall, charge higher daily rates for the one way but then end up stuck with all their inventory down in the south. So instead of sending their own staff to retrieve the vehicle, they post an inventory of vehicles to online search engines that pair willing, flexible drivers to drive the vehicles back for low rates or even sometimes for free. This little known resource is a huge boon for budget travelers who would like the freedom to stop whenever they like, but balk at the high cost of personal car rental.

The three most popular services in New Zealand are TransferCar, DriveNow and Imoova. All three also serve Australia and the U.S., while Imoova and DriveNow support Canada as well.

To get the best deal, it helps if you are traveling the opposite direction most people take, like Wellington to Auckland or Queenstown to Christchurch. You can occasionally get lucky like I did with a southerly hire but they are much more rare.

Each search engine lists inventory by start and end location, how many days of travel are allowed, is petrol or unlimited kilometers included and what type of vehicle. If you are looking to do camping Imoova and DriveNow have much more extensive collections of campers while TransferCar, as the name suggests, has a large selection of cars.

When I first decided which direction I would head, I applied for three different vehicles and within 24 hours found out that all three were reserved before my request could process. The good news is that all three sites update every day between 8 and 10am, so keep trying if you don’t get your first choice. I was especially impressed with Imoova who offered to call me back when I did not get a vehicle and they followed through giving me priority for the next day’s list.

While waiting to hear back from Imoova, I noticed a new listing for a sports car on TransferCar going my direction. Without hesitation I eagerly applied for the car and within hours I had an automated message informing me I had a confirmed BMW Z4 waiting for me to pickup the very next day! This particular car required that I deliver it within 3 days at the Queenstown airport and gave me contact info for the rental company.

All I had to do was register for the car through the TransferCar website, give information with how to contact me and a credit card in case of an accident or other incidentals and then show up at the preselected pickup location. My particular rental did not include the cost of fuel, but several I found did! I would recommend calling the rental company to confirm all details and that the pickup and dropoff locations are clear. Once you pick up the car, you are bound to deliver it by the agreed upon date and the rest is up to you.

I thoroughly enjoyed zipping along the curvy New Zealand roads with the top down. It was a hell of a way to start my affordable trip around the world and I turned quite a few heads pulling into hostel parking lots! I didn’t mind the added expense from the fuel as it gave me much more flexibility to get out and photograph sites that would have been impossible from a coach bus. Have you ever used a car relocation service? If so, how was your experience?