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Hi We're coming over to New Zealand (from the UK) for a month in February/March. We'll be doing a loop around both South Island and North Island, more or less a figure of eight so covering a fair mileage. We're trying to work out comparative costs of hiring and running petrol v diesel cars (for a week in North Island in between staying with relatives/friends) and camper vans (for 2 weeks in the South). The petrol vehicles are cheaper to rent but can you give us an idea of how to compare fuel costs?

If you compare like-for-like vehicles and are travelling long distances, then Diesel is the cheaper option as fuel is around 60cents per litre lower than petrol and the economy can be up to around 25% better.

Rental charges may be higher with a Diesel as Road User Charges need to be factored in (these are included in the price of petrol at the pump).

An awful lot depends on the size vehicle you are looking for as I doubt whether there are a lot of mid size diesel cars available as rentals to be honest.

If you are looking at Motorhomes then Diesel would be the better option.

You need to try and work out how many kilometres you intend doing and then select a suitable size vehicle.

If you can obtain an estimate of their respective fuel consumptions (from the rental companies) you should be able to calculate your running costs.