6 Places To Find Secondhand Campervans For Sale | New Zealand

Last Updated On 11th July 2023 By Lauren | Wild Lovely World

Are you wanting to buy a campervan for travelling in New Zealand? If so, you’re probably wondering where is the best place to look to find secondhand campervans for sale in New Zealand?

My partner Fiachra and I started searching for a campervan to buy as soon as we arrived in New Zealand. It was quite tricky to know where to look for a campervan in the beginning. However, after gaining some tips from other backpackers and searching around, we found some great ways to find secondhand campervans for sale in New Zealand.

After 2 weeks, we bought our first ever campervan! More than two years later, we are still super happy that we decided to buy our van for travelling New Zealand. Having a campervan gives us so much freedom. We love our little home on wheels!

While searching for our campervan, we discovered the best places to look to buy a campervan in New Zealand. There are several places where you can look for secondhand campervans for sale in New Zealand. In this post, I will share with you the best places to search for your dream campervan. Here begins your journey to find your own perfect home on wheels!

The 6 Best Places To Look For Secondhand Campervans For Sale In New Zealand 🚐🇳🇿

More posts to help you to buy a campervan in New Zealand 🚐 🇳🇿:

• 10 Essential Things You Need To Know Before You Buy A Campervan In New Zealand
• Which Campervan Model To Buy For Traveling In New Zealand
• How Much Does A Campervan Cost To Buy In New Zealand?

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7 Top Tips For Finding & Buying A Campervan In New Zealand

Here are seven of my top tips to help you when looking at campervans for sale in New Zealand:

• Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington are hot spots for campervan buying and selling in New Zealand: Basing yourself in one of these cities while you are finding a campervan to buy will give you a lot more options.

• Be open to browsing many different marketplaces: This post will tell you 6 ways you can find secondhand campervans for sale in New Zealand. I suggest you use all of these different methods to give you the best chance of success!

• Keep a record of your viewings and top picks: You may need to view a lot of different campervans for sale before you decide which one you might want to buy. Keep notes and a record of the ones you have seen, and what you liked or didn’t like about them. You can even take photos of campers you have viewed so you can remember them better later on.

• Dedicate your time to the process: Finding a vehicle to buy can be a long and tiresome process. It may take you several weeks to find the right campervan for you. Don’t be disheartened if you don’t find the right campervan right away. Keep going and you will get there eventually. This post will give you more information about the process of choosing the right model campervan for you.

• Before purchasing, do a thorough check of the vehicle: Make sure you properly inspect the vehicle before you buy it. I suggest you also invest in getting a Pre-Purchase Inspection Check done on the campervan before you buy it. Find out more about Pre-Purchase Inspections here.

• Always negotiate on the price: The asking price of the vehicle is a wish list for the seller. Most sellers are open to negotiation, which means you will often be able to get a much fairer price than it is listed for.

• Educate yourself on the process of buying a campervan in New Zealand: There can be a lot to think about when buying a campervan in New Zealand, especially if you are from a different country. There are paperwork and taxes to think about, as well as vehicle checks and maintenance responsibilities. This post will explain everything you need to know about how to buy a campervan in New Zealand.

6 Places To Find Secondhand Campervans For Sale In New Zealand

1. Trade Me

I love eBay and Gumtree but unfortunately, neither of these websites are popular in New Zealand! The next best thing is Trade Me, which is kind of like a marketplace/notice board for buying and selling, job ads, community notices and much more!

Trade Me has a motors section which is a great place to look for secondhand cars and campervans for sale in New Zealand.

Motors advertised here are generally posted by Kiwis and I wouldn’t say it is very popular for backpackers, who tend to use the Facebook Groups and Backpacker Board below.

Problems With Using Trade Me To Find Secondhand Campervans For Sale In New Zealand:

• Not enough campervans for sale: In the beginning, I was using Trade Me a lot to look at campervans to buy in New Zealand. However, after a while, I started using the Facebook groups and notice boards much more. This was because there were so many more backpackers regularly posting new cars and campers for sale on the Facebook groups and Backpacker Board. There were several new ads on those websites every day, so there were always new ones to look at. I found that on Trade Me, there weren’t enough new postings every day so I would end up finding the same listings over and over again.

• Difficult to find what you are looking for: Trade Me’s functionality is also very frustrating! I was using the app on my phone, but also the website. In my opinion, Trade Me’s biggest downfall is its user interface – it is not friendly at all! The filter options are minimal, particularly on the app, which makes it difficult to try to find what you’re looking for.

• More reasonable asking prices elsewhere: Another reason I preferred to look on Facebook and the Backpacker Board is that where more backpackers were buying and selling, the asking prices were a lot more reasonable. Our budget to buy a campervan for travelling in New Zealand was around NZD$5000 (GBP£2500). It was much easier to find campervans within our price range on Facebook and Backpacker Board.

2. Facebook Groups & Marketplace

With so many backpackers buying and selling used cars and campervans in New Zealand, there are so many Facebook groups dedicated to just the sale of secondhand vehicles!

Dedicated Facebook Groups and Pages are an excellent place to look for campervans for sale in New Zealand. In these groups, sellers will post ads and photos of their campervan along with lots of information about the vehicle’s condition and history.

The Best Facebook Groups & Pages To Look For Secondhand Campervans For Sale In New Zealand:

• Campervans For Sale In Auckland
• Vans/Campervans Buy Sell & Swap
• Backpacker Cars Buy & Sell New Zealand
• Backpacker Cars New Zealand
• Campervan Buy & Sell New Zealand Backpackers
• Campervans For Sale In New Zealand

You can also just use the Facebook Marketplace, which has handy location/map and filter options.

As mentioned above, there are new ads posted to Facebook every single day so there are always new sellers looking for buyers for their campervans. I think because of the sheer volume of listings, Facebook is the best place to find a secondhand campervan for sale in New Zealand.

You can message sellers instantly through Facebook Messenger which makes it very easy.

We viewed many campervans we found through Facebook Marketplace including the campervan we eventually bought! So I definitely think it is a good place to look to buy a campervan for travelling in New Zealand.

3. Backpacker Board

Backpacker Board is a great resource for any traveller to New Zealand. It has so much information about how to get a job, how to get around New Zealand, travel guides and a dedicated notice board for the sale of cars and campervans.

I found this website to be pretty good when looking at campervans to buy in New Zealand. Sellers can upload several photos, plus they have to list key details of the vehicle such as WOF, mileage, REGO, transmission and fuel types.

There’s a good variety of different cars and campervans for sale through the Backpacker Board, meeting all budgets and requirements.

Unfortunately, the search filters are very limited. It’s only possible to sort by date added and price. So when looking for campervans and cars to buy on this website, it’s best to check new listings daily and use the ‘sort by date added’ filter option.

The best way to contact sellers is to text or call the number provided on the ads. You could also complete the form which sends an email to them.

I found that there was a good response rate when I was contacting sellers through Backpacker Board.

4. Hostel & Community Notice Boards

If you’ve just arrived to backpack in New Zealand you’re probably going to be staying in a hostel for a couple of days. There will likely be other backpackers staying in the hostel that are planning to leave New Zealand and want to sell their vehicles. This is especially the case if you’re in a city with lots of international flights like Auckland or Christchurch.

Ask around the hostel and see if anyone is looking for someone to buy their campervan. We managed to view a couple of vehicles while staying at the YHA in Auckland. There were flyers put up on the noticeboards and in the common areas. We also got word of a campervan for sale through speaking with other guests at the hostel.

Another great place to look is on the supermarket noticeboards. At every supermarket (primarily PAK’nSAVE, New World and Countdown) there are community noticeboards.

It’s free to write an ad so lots of people use this as a way to advertise. You could also write an ad to say you are looking for a campervan to buy.

It may seem old school but every time we visit the supermarket we do have a look at the noticeboard. We have seen quite a few ads for campervans this way so it’s definitely worth a try!

5. Car Fairs

While we were searching for a campervan to buy, many people suggested checking out car fairs.

We didn’t end up going to any car fairs as we had enough luck with the other options above. However many people we met did end up buying their campervan at a car fair.

There is now only one major car fair in Auckland you could try your luck. It is the Auckland City Car Fair held every Sunday in Parnell.

• Auckland City Car Fair – Every Sunday 8 am – 1 pm in Parnell.
• Ellerslie Car Fair – Every Sunday 9 am – 12 noon at Ellerslie Racecourse. [PERMANENTLY CLOSED]

6. On The Street

We often see campervans for sale while we are out and about just travelling around New Zealand. People will often put a sign in one of the windows with the price and phone number. So it’s good to keep your eyes peeled! You never know, you might see your dream van for sale on the side of the road!

Found a campervan you want to buy in New Zealand? Read this first!: 10 Essential Things To Know Before You Buy A Campervan In New Zealand

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Thanks so much for reading! I hope this helps you when you are looking to buy a campervan in New Zealand. Happy shopping! 😊

Planning to buy a campervan in New Zealand and have any questions? Let me know in the comments!

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