CAR RENTAL REVIEWS ON EUROPCAR AT QUEENSTOWN AIRPORT, ZQN

The car rental company's service was excellent, and the pick-up and drop-off process was very convenient.

The car was smaller than the one I booked - which was disappointing

The car was in great condition, it was brand new.

Average

The process was smooth, and the car was in good condition.

Had to upgrade as the booked car wasn't available. But there were no issues and we were happy with the upgrade.

Helped me access booking confirmation as my email account was locked. Very helpful

Satisfied

Booked a large 4x4 SUV but got a small 2wd instead. Couldn't give us a good reason why we couldn't get the vehicle we booked. Their vacuum cleaner didn't work. And had no staff. Very shambolic. A bad experience.

Good. But wondering if we missed a message from Europcar to earn that they couldn't fulfil their vehicle obligation.

Great experience

The price drop works!!

The car rental service was quite good. I booked a Mitsubishi but got a Haval H6 instead. It's a bit large, but I got used to it and found it quite fuel-efficient.

Great

Satisfied

This car rental experience deserves a poor review for Europcar: We rented a Jimny specifically because it was winter in New Zealand, and we were concerned about rain and snow. The goal was to ensure driving safety with a 4WD vehicle, and also to take the opportunity to enjoy driving a Jimny during the trip. When we got to the rental counter, the staff saw that we had booked a Jimny and immediately whispered to someone nearby. Then, she came back and told us: "You booked a Jimny or an equivalent vehicle. There’s currently no Jimny available; instead, you’ll get a car of the same category." Hearing this, we were already halfway disappointed. However, we thought as long as the replacement was a 4WD, safety would still be guaranteed. So we explicitly told the staff that our itinerary included snowy mountain roads and that we needed a vehicle with 4WD for proper control and safety. To our surprise, she gave us a Yaris Cross (renting this car costs significantly less than a Jimny, by the way). I asked her three times to confirm whether the car was four-wheel drive (All-Wheel Drive) and if there were any other 4WD vehicles in the same category available. She insisted that the Yaris Cross was a 4WD, said there were no other options unless we paid for an upgrade, and started pitching various insurance options to us. In the end, we reluctantly agreed to take the Yaris Cross, added snow insurance as she suggested, and proceeded to pick up the vehicle. So far, everything seemed fine. Once we left the airport and headed to the parking lot, there it was—a shiny Jimny parked right next to our car. And as for the Yaris given to us, its door and body were covered with scratches and scrapes. At that point, we were feeling pretty unhappy, but we decided to overlook it since the damages didn’t affect functionality. Moreover, we wanted to make it to the lodge before dark, so we didn’t go back to argue. Little did we know, the drama was far from over. Driving from Queenstown to Wanaka went relatively smoothly, but upon reaching Mount Cook, we encountered lower temperatures and roads with a light mix of ice and gravel. Every time I stopped at a stop sign and tried to accelerate, the front wheels felt like they were slipping, as if losing traction completely. This alarmed us, so we looked it up online and discovered that the Yaris Cross isn’t even a 4WD! For the remainder of the trip, we had to drive extremely cautiously. We were fortunate not to encounter heavy snow; otherwise, the potential risk would have been unthinkable. Throughout this trip, we couldn’t understand why the rental staff falsely claimed the Yaris was a 4WD, why the available Jimny wasn’t rented to us, and why multiple insurance options were heavily promoted.

When picking up the car at Queenstown Airport a closer to 9pm, we waited for 20+ minutes before being served. The counter lady is a trainee and told us that we have to find the car ourselves as she does not know which bay# the car resides. Also she could not answer some of the questions on card authorisation and insurance which leaves us quite unhappy. We finally found the car we noted that the petrol was not entirely full and it is not upon drop-off that we got told that we have to take a photo to validate such. Without any further info from the trainee, we simply infer that we need to return the car at the same petrol level to when we pick it up. So we filled up the petrol to full tank before we drive out from our final destination to Christchurch airport which took one hour and return the car as it is. During the rental we also notified Europcar that the electric uplift back door malfunction at times. Later we received an invoice from Europcar and got charged additional 86NZD on petrol which left us extremely unsatisfactory about the entire rental experience.

Pretty good, quick check-in process, but the car model was changed.

The reserved car was provided without any changes, and the procedures were handled quickly.

Generally quite good.

Mediocre

The car rental process was very quick and efficient.

Very satisfied, the explanation was clear.