Wedding suppliers are often cagey about price, which makes budgeting miserable. This page is the opposite: how the pricing model works, what drives the number up or down, and exactly what we charge.
The short version is that classic wedding car hire in New Zealand is charged by the hour with a minimum booking, and the total usually lands between two and five hours of that rate.
How the pricing model works
Almost all classic and vintage wedding car hire here is chauffeur driven and charged hourly, with a two or three hour minimum. Self drive is rare because insurers are reluctant to cover an irreplaceable car driven by someone who has never driven it before.
The hourly rate normally varies by vehicle rather than by day of the week, so a Saturday in February costs the same per hour as a Tuesday in June. What changes with the season is availability, not price.
Our rates, in full
These are our actual prices. Two hour minimum, and the rate includes the suited chauffeur, ribbons in your colours, a freshly detailed car and photo stops.
- 1966 Jaguar Mark II — $150 per hour
- 1964½ Ford Mustang — $180 per hour
- 1955 Ford Thunderbird — $200 per hour
- Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG — $200 per hour
- School balls and formals — from $150
- No travel surcharge within Hamilton and the wider Waikato
How many hours you actually need
This is the number that determines your total, and it is the one couples most often underestimate. The car is not doing one trip, and the waiting between trips is part of the booking.
Two hours
Ceremony and reception at the same venue with photos on site. Workable but tight, and it leaves no room for the schedule slipping.
Three hours
The standard booking. Bride to the ceremony, a photo session afterwards, then the transfer to the reception. This suits most Waikato weddings.
Four hours or more
A separate photo location, a long gap between ceremony and reception, multiple trips for the wedding party, or a rural venue with real distance in it.
What should be included, and what to check
A quoted hourly rate is only comparable if you know what sits inside it. Ours includes everything below. Not every operator's does, so it is worth asking directly.
- The chauffeur, suited, at no extra charge
- Ribbons and decoration in your colours
- Photo stops as part of the booked time, not billed separately
- Travel to and from the venue within the usual service area
- Fuel, cleaning and detailing before the day
Extras that catch people out
None of those are unreasonable in themselves. They are only a problem when they turn up after you have compared headline rates and picked the cheapest one.
- Travel surcharges for venues outside the operator's normal area
- Waiting time billed on top of the trips themselves
- A separate fee per additional trip rather than a flat hourly rate
- Public holiday or peak season loadings
- Decoration charged as an add on
- Deposits that are non-refundable if your date moves
A realistic budget
For a typical Waikato wedding booking our most popular configuration, three hours in the Jaguar Mark II comes to $450 all in. The same three hours in the Thunderbird is $600.
That is the honest middle of the market for a genuine classic with a chauffeur. If a quote is dramatically below it, check what is not included before you assume you have found a bargain.
