Women’s Worldwide Car of the Year’s special rental offer

Sixt at LAX offered a variety of cars to rent, including European models. Photo: Liz Dobson

The Women’s Worldwide Car of the Year is offering a discount of up to 15% on all car rental transactions with operator Sixt. 

The discount will be automatically applied to all drivers booking through wwcoty.net and will be valid at all Sixt international branches except franchises.

The Women’s Worldwide Car of the Year (WWCOTY) is the world's only jury composed solely of female motoring journalists (including myself).

Thanks to this WWCOTY initiative, car lovers will receive a 15% discount on car rentals driven in Spain and 10% in the rest of the world, except franchises, says the organisation’s Executive President, Marta García.

Sixt has about 2000 locations in more than 105 countries. In New Zealand, Sixt is part of the Giltrap Group and launched here in late 2020. It now has five branches in New Zealand, located at the major airports.

I rented a car from Sixt when I was in Los Angeles two weeks ago, and was impressed with the range of vehicles, especially the European cars.

But, here’s a warning for Kiwis, like me, if you are a novice motorbike rider and thus have ‘learner’ on the front of your licence.

Unfortunately, Sixt’s online check-in service was being updated or I could have been alerted to the issue before I took off from Auckland. But when I handed my licence to a Sixt LAX employee, he checked and said as I had Learner on my licence (for motorbike), he couldn’t rent me a car.

I showed him the endorsement diagram on the rear of the licence of when I had my car licence (a few decades ago) and the L was for motorbike. It was still a no-go.

Long story short (and after I helped two customers with their bookings and gave career advice to a Sixt staff member), the branch manager checked with the head office and I was eventually on my way in an upgraded Sixt rental car.

I contacted Sixt NZ general manager, Robert Barlow, for comment about the learner licence issue.

“People with a passenger vehicle learner licence are not permitted to rent a car from us (and most other rental car companies) here in New Zealand,” he told AutoMuse.

“In your particular circumstances, if you were to rent a vehicle here in New Zealand, we would be able to recognise and correctly interpret your NZ Licence and its endorsements, therefore our team would have permitted your vehicle hire.

“Typically rental car providers in different countries will have rental terms and conditions fit for their local market so policies will vary by country. Overseas rental car providers will typically take a risk-averse approach to assessing international driver licenses. Normally I would expect them to check the back of your license and validate the endorsements. However, sometimes this may not occur. 

“The safest option is always to obtain and travel with an international driving permit to remove any ambiguity or doubt around the validity or suitability of your licence.”

I’m now off to get my international driving permit.