[zoe305]

Once I have PR and move I plan for the absolute first order of business to be to purchase a vehicle. However I'd like to know how this works with auto-insurance. Do I need to purchase an insurance policy before I buy a vehicle, or is there some sort of automatic temporary coverage?
If you buy from a dealer is there a temporary policy that covers just as in the States?
What about if I buy from an private seller instead of a dealer?

thanks

[JandM]

In NZ, you do not HAVE to have insurance on your car, so you can quite legally drive away with whatever you have bought if this happens before you have managed to sort something out. (First stop, fixing up the insurance after that, though!)

[carahafner]

We recently emigrated and bought a car on our second day in NZ. The car dealership set up our insurance for us before we left the lot. The one difference is that instead of paying installments (like we did in the US), we paid the premium for the year all at once.

There are various companies that provide insurance coverage. It may pay to shop around a bit before you buy your car to get an idea of what your premium will be. A few companies that you might see are AA, Vero, State, among others.

HTH

[Bozeman]

Your bank - if you have one at that point - will also offer insurance. This can easily set up over the phone. You can pay monthly but it will be at a bit of a premium.

[norma]

Do shop around for quotes as we found a big difference in them. We are with AMI and they offered one annual payment or payment by installments.

[KerryS]

Ensure that you're comparing like policies though - AA, for example, offer services as part of their standard insurance policy that are additional extras on others, or not offered at all, so price comparisons aren't the only thing to consider.

[Gnomon]

I went for a quote with my bank and they were 50% dearer and the quote I went with which was with ami. The excess was the one that changed with different insurers and I had converted my European driving licence I would have got a cheaper quote. I also went with a cheaper quote as I went with a package as in house hold and car together with the one insurer. Definitely shop around!!!!

Watch out for those uninsured drivers!!

[brumnurse]

We bought our first NZ car 4 days ago after a couple of days of searching the Auckland car lots (our top priority too).

We paid a deposit on the monday evening and arranged to collect it the next day. On the Tuesday morning we popped into our closest AA store and picked up a fully Comprehensive policy (and breakdown cover) for less than we had been quoted by a couple of online companies, so we collected the car an hour later with the insurance for it in place.

[chocolate cake]

Like the previous poster I'd fully recommend AA insurance too, their Comp cover was the most competive quote I rec'd and was still less even with membership and breakdown cover on top.

Seperately it's ridiculous in a developed country that motor insurance is not compulsary.

[bobo]

Note some dealers (possible banks but not sure) will insist on you having comprehensive insurance, if you are financing the car through them.

[Gnomon]

Don't for get to get a vehicle credit/history check when buying the car.

https://www.vir.co.nz/

[IanW99]

Don't for get to get a vehicle credit/history check when buying the car.

https://www.vir.co.nz/

Good point, but I would look for a cheaper source than the one posted which appears to be very expensive IMHO.

For example CarJam (http://www.carjam.co.nz/) appears to only charge $3 for credit check and I know that there is an official website which only charges $1 (don't have the link to hand at the mo).

Ian

[James 1077]

Seperately it's ridiculous in a developed country that motor insurance is not compulsary.

Third Party Personal car insurance is compulsory in New Zealand (the usual minimum everywhere else). It is just that it is included within the annual licence fee and as part of the make up of fuel cost as ACC instead of being a separate annual charge.

This means that no driver can drive uninsured as, even if they haven't paid their licence, they have in the fuel that they have filled up with.

That isn't to say that it wouldn't be good if people had third party property insurance as well as then damage to property as well as person would be insured!

[denalipop]

So, is getting car insurance one of the first things we need to do when we get to NZ?

Like zoe, I also plan to buy a car ASAP...

[chocolate cake]

So, is getting car insurance one of the first things we need to do when we get to NZ?

Like zoe, I also plan to buy a car ASAP...

Yes, very defintely.

Third Party Personal car insurance is compulsory in New Zealand (the usual minimum everywhere else). It is just that it is included within the annual licence fee and as part of the make up of fuel cost as ACC instead of being a separate annual charge.

This means that no driver can drive uninsured as, even if they haven't paid their licence, they have in the fuel that they have filled up with
True to extent but the third party personal insurance in the ACC cover is not to the same standard as would be covered in say a UK third party motor insurance cover. To say that they are insured by virtue having paid a few cents on a litre of petrol if they have no road fund tax (or what the NZ equivalent is called) is stretching it, though always be idiots with illegally operated cars whatever system you use.

In any case it doesn't cover non personal accident damage (e.g. car) and trying to recover that from non insured driver can become a nightmare. I can't see any reasonable argument why third party car insurance is not compulsary.

[James 1077]

True to extent but the third party personal insurance in the ACC cover is not to the same standard as would be covered in say a UK third party motor insurance cover. To say that they are insured by virtue having paid a few cents on a litre of petrol if they have no road fund tax (or what the NZ equivalent is called) is stretching it, though always be idiots with illegally operated cars whatever system you use.

In any case it doesn't cover non personal accident damage (e.g. car) and trying to recover that from non insured driver can become a nightmare. I can't see any reasonable argument why third party car insurance is not compulsary.

The UK only moved to full third party insurance in 1991 and many other countries have third party personal insurance as the minimum level (Australia for example). They aren't often sold or advertised though as the profits aren't large on them (although in Australia you generally pay for it in your road tax).

The main argument against complusory full third party insurance is that it will increase the premiums for everybody as the insurance companies will no longer have to compete against simply not being insured. Your premiums will therefore go up and people will be priced off the road / criminalised for having no insurance as happens in the UK.

If you have fully comp insurance then it doesn't matter if the other driver is uninsured as your insurer will pick up the tab anyway. So you can "protect" yourself against uninsured drivers if you wish.

[mylesdw]

James is right, the current system actually works rather well. Insurance premiums are not high so you simply insure yourself and don't worry about what other drivers do. Whatever the law there is always a chance that you will be hit by someone uninsured and be unable to recoup losses so better to insure yourself for a low premium than a high one.

[Parsley]

James is right, the current system actually works rather well. Insurance premiums are not high so you simply insure yourself and don't worry about what other drivers do. Whatever the law there is always a chance that you will be hit by someone uninsured and be unable to recoup losses so better to insure yourself for a low premium than a high one.

From a more uninformed point of view (in that I am not in NZ), this makes sense. In the UK every year my insurance premiums go up and up, but in the four accidents I've been involved in, only one driver had insurance. So three people got points, fines (a crappily low amount) and that was it. I got all the hassle of trying to get my car repaired twice on my insurance, and get the front of my house repaired. That's why I'm insured - but my high premiums pay for all the numpties that can't be bothered to get their own insurance. I'd prefer to have lower premiums and have some level of compulsory cover paid via another mechanism. I know that's a bit of a simplistic way of looking at it, but there you go.

P:)