Buying a Camper in New Zealand: Tips & Tricks for Backpackers

Overview

• Intro
• Step 1 - Buy or Rent
• Step 2 - Finding Offers
• Step 3 - Contacting Sellers
• Step 4 - Inspecting the Camper
• Step 5 - Buying the Camper
• Miscellaneous - Beware of Scams
• Miscellaneous - Vehicle Check by Phone
• Miscellaneous - Selling Your Camper Again
• Miscellaneous - Finding Campsites
• Frequently Asked Questions

Nils (Team KiwiQuest)

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Work and Travel Starter Kit

The bad news:
Scams and fraud are widespread when buying a camper in New Zealand. For many backpackers, buying a campervan on their own quickly turns into a nightmare.

The good news:
We’ve been through all of that (including the scams), and we’re sharing all our experiences here so you don’t become a victim of such tricks.

That aside:
Buying your own camper is, for good reason, one of the most popular ways to explore New Zealand during a work and travel adventure. With your own campervan, you can travel flexibly, often have better job opportunities, and save a lot of money on accommodations.

So let’s go! Here’s everything you need to know if you want to buy a camper in New Zealand!

Intro

Step 1 - Buy or Rent

Basically, there are two options for backpackers to get their own home on wheels: buying a camper or renting a camper. Both are good options depending on what suits your trip more.

Advantages of Buying a Camper in New Zealand

There are a lot of benefits to having your own camper in New Zealand. Here are the most important listed briefly:

• More flexibility and independence when traveling
• Easy way to explore remote places
• Significantly cheaper compared to renting a camper
• Much better job opportunities as you’re mobile
• Have breakfast right by the beach in the morning 😁

How to Make the Right Decision?

In general, buying a car is always the cheaper alternative for backpackers if you stay in the country for more than two months. Plus, you can sell the car again at the end of your trip.

The risk with buying a car is always that you buy a “pig in a poke.” Or rather, the “wreck in a poke.” (We unfortunately speak from experience.)

That’s why this article exists to prevent that from happening to you.

The Right Size

To avoid all the pitfalls and obstacles of buying a car on your own, we have set up an offer for buying cars in collaboration with the backpacker community. We are super proud of it, and it generally always pays off to secure a spot here before arriving in NZ.

Step 2 - Finding Offers

Okay, sweet! First, you need to find some good offers. You can do this both on location and before arriving in New Zealand. Here’s everything you need to know.

What makes a good offer?

Here's a quick overview of what makes a good deal for buying a car in New Zealand. Take these as guidelines, as there aren't always offers that fulfill all these.

• Good price (Duh!)
• Valid WOF and REGO
• Self-contained certification (see below)
• Popular brand (e.g., Toyota)
• Mileage under 250,000 km
• Age under 15 years
• No unpaid tickets or RUC (Road User Charge)

Where to find good deals?

Definitely keep an eye out for postings in the major hostels while searching for deals. If you’ve already made some contacts with locals (e.g., while Wwoofing), you should also ask around there. Kiwis like to help you out. Apart from that, there are the following options:

Option 1 - Pre-order purchase

A popular (and very practical) option is to pre-order a camper in New Zealand before you arrive. It's practical because you can be sure that at least one good camper will be available when you arrive.

• Advantage 1 - No purchase obligation
• Advantage 2 - With Buyback Option
• Advantage 3 - With self-contained certificate
• [Video] - Watch overview video (YouTube)

Option 2 - Purchase on-site

As an alternative, there's naturally the option to buy a car once you're on-site. You should allow about a week for this. Very important: Please have another look at everything related to scams a bit further below.

Reward

Alright! Here's something about car searching. Never hurts:

open me

Step 3 - Contacting Sellers

If you’ve found a good offer, contact the seller. Especially during peak season, you need to be quick as many good offers get snapped up immediately. It’s best to call directly.

Conversation Guide

To come away from the first conversation with some important information, here's a quick guide. It's optional, but we would at least ask the following questions:

• Step 1 "Is the offer still available?" To quickly find out if the car is still available.
• Step 2 "What is the asking price? Can it be cheaper?" To get an impression right away if you can negotiate.
• Step 3 "Can I have a pre-purchase inspection done?" To exclude scam offers directly by phone.
• Step 4 "When and where can I view and test drive the car?" To plan the time and place as well as the next steps.

If the conversation went well and you have a good impression of the seller, it’s off to the viewing and test drive. Yikes, exciting times ahead!

Step 4 - Inspecting the Camper

If you don’t know much about campers or cars, it’s recommended to take an experienced local friend with you who knows about cars. Stay confident and honest. You’re not obligated to buy the van, so no worries.

The Vehicle Registration: How Does It Look?

The Vehicle Registration can easily be checked on the windshield. Quickly verify that the date matches the date given by the seller. If the REGO is valid, that's a good sign, as the car is legally allowed to drive on New Zealand roads.

The Self-contained Certification: How Does It Look?

With the self-contained certification, you have access to many free or much cheaper camping and parking spots in New Zealand. Especially on longer trips, the certification is worth it quickly. More on that in the tutorial.

With our self-contained calculator, you can find out whether it's worth it for you.

Step 5 - Buying the Camper

Private car purchases are usually paid in cash or by transfer. After the payment, the car just needs to be re-registered in your name (Change of ownership). This can be done at most PostShops, where you can also pay the registration if the car is not registered.

You should have the following items ready for purchase and registration in your name.

• Passport - You need this for the registration of the vehicle in your name
• Address - For registration in your name, you need an address, for example, the one from your first hostel/hotel.
• Payment method - Payment via cash or transfer are common methods.

Important: You're Not Forced to Purchase

Take your time to make a decision. Don’t let the seller pressure you. You’re not obligated to buy and you don’t need to justify your decision.

Important: Don't forget car insurance

Car insurance isn’t mandatory in New Zealand. However, it absolutely makes sense to have your car insured. As a little support, we’ve compiled all tips for car insurance for you.

Miscellaneous - Beware of Scams

Scams in car or camper purchases are unfortunately widespread in New Zealand. We’ve heard the worst horror stories by now. If you don’t know much about cars, we highly recommend always having a pre-purchase inspection done before buying. Otherwise, it can backfire.

In general, there are (especially on the open market) unfortunately loads of offers that are entirely bad. Overpriced, poor condition, far too old. Unfortunately, there’s no solution to this. We just want to prepare you for what to expect if you want to buy a car on your own.

Miscellaneous - Vehicle Check by Phone

In New Zealand, you can relatively quickly and easily get a so-called ‘Vehicle Information Report’. This will give you information about any debts on the car (e.g., unpaid tickets) as well as information about the owner and previous inspections.

The online check via Carjam

A more detailed report can be accessed online for free. The best place to start is Carjam. Super practical, and the amount of information you get there is definitely worth its weight in gold.

Things you can check via Carjam before buying:

• Vehicle history - Previous owners, accident damage, repair history, mileage
• Financial information - Outstanding loan rates, open fines or penalties, liens or security interests
• Technical information - Vehicle specifications, latest inspections, service history
• Owner information - Name of the current owner, owner contact details
• Registration information - Registration number, first registration date, vehicle identification number (VIN)
• Safety features - Airbags, anti-lock braking system (ABS), driver assistance systems

Miscellaneous - Selling Your Camper Again

If you own your campervan, of course, you have the option to sell it at the end of your trip. However, you should keep a few things in mind, as many travelers have quite a stumble with it. So here are a few tips:

Also good to know:

• Gather Info - Ensure you write a good ad with all essential information such as mileage, year, etc.
• Be reachable - Offer potential buyers multiple ways to contact you, for example, via phone, email, or social media.

You can find a bit more in our tutorial on selling campers in New Zealand.

Miscellaneous - Finding Campsites

A very comprehensive website with all campsites in New Zealand and independent reviews from travelers is Rankers. Among them are also some free campsites: New Zealand has over 2,000 campsites, and more than 400 of them can be used for free!

We also recommend the free DOC campsite brochures, which are available in every tourist information center in New Zealand. Handy while traveling if you can't always check online.

Good to know about Freedom Camping:
On some sites, you are only allowed to stay with a camper that has a self-contained sticker. Be sure to comply, as otherwise, you could face fines of up to $200. And that can unfortunately get extremely expensive extremely quickly.

Frequently Asked Questions

What other KiwiQuesters wanted to know...