Cheap and alright

Summary first: The service capability and attitude of Hitch Rental are quite poor. I strongly advise everyone not to risk your trip by choosing them just to save a little money. In mid-November 2018, I went on a self-driving tour in New Zealand and booked a Nissan X-Trail from Hitch via the Zuzuche website, where it showed a specified model. However, when I arrived, they claimed there’s no such thing as a specified model in their system. Instead, they follow car groups and gave me a Mahindra diesel SUV from an Indian brand. The interior of the car was extremely rough, just slightly better than a domestic cargo van with no class or comfort. I looked around and didn't see any other X-Trails. I asked the receptionist if any X-Trails would be returned later today, and she said no. I went back to the car to communicate with Zuzuche. After a while, the rental manager returned with an X-Trail and parked it nearby. I asked the receptionist again, and she said it was for the manager’s use, not for rental. At this moment, a young Chinese couple arrived to pick up a car. I had doubts and continued to communicate with Zuzuche. Soon after, I surprisingly saw the couple drive away in the so-called manager's car! I was furious and confronted the receptionist, who responded indifferently that it wasn’t her responsibility.

Car was severely damaged from previous rentals (cosmetic only) and was in a poor condition. Windscreen chips /cracks should have resulted in a new windscreen being fitted. Oil warning light was on and we were advised the firm didn't have the equipment to take it off. No clear policy on what constitutes damage or not (even when the car is quite damaged already). No deposit taken for car.

I asked for an intermediate sized car, as I just moved to the country and had a lot of luggage with me. I asked for a larger car because of my luggage, and was promised a Toyota Corolla or similar. Hitch gave me a Mazda Demio, which BARELY fit my luggage. The keyless entry didn't work, and they were not very accommodating at pick up. I feel like I was downgraded on my rental, the car had no trunk space, and was SMALLER than I paid for. I feel like I paid much more than I should have for that car.

It was good. The only thing that happened was that the car didn't have the tank full.

Our Mazda6 was a wonderful car to have, and we appreciated it wasn’t a base model. Very friendly staff and no issues. Only complaint is that they initially told us via email the airport shuttle was $10 a person, so instead we took an Uber to the location. When we got there we found out they recently moved so we had to walk down the street to the new location where they also informed us that the shuttle was actually free.