Having had a disastrous experience in late March when I arrived in Tasmania in short sleeves, only to be met with a sudden, heavy snowfall overnight (half a meter of snow), I didn't hesitate to choose a four-wheel drive vehicle!
For mountain driving, a four-wheel drive is a must, and an SUV is even better. But seeing the price of this car tells you what true value for money is! The rental fee was incredibly cheap!
After landing, I called and waited at the pick-up point for ten minutes. An older model Prado picked us up, and we arrived at the rental location in less than five minutes.
Although the rental company was basic (the office was just a converted shipping container), they had set up a rally starting arch with artificial turf, which was quite impressive!
The car had 60,000 kilometers on it, not brand new, but clean inside and out. It was well-equipped, with features like ACC adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning. The seats were manual. This is understandable, given that in Australia, the average person owns at least one car.
Returning the car was smooth. We picked up a staff member from the rental company, who drove us directly to the airport. Thinking about it, this was quite nice; it was like he inspected the car. The service staff were very friendly. It seems you really shouldn't rent a car from a big company unless you want to be at their mercy.
I drove about 750 kilometers in less than four days, with a fuel consumption of less than 8 liters per 100 kilometers.
I have to complain about the platform's insurance: I bought the highest level, but after picking up the car and carefully reviewing it, I realized it wouldn't be enough in case of a problem, and by a significant margin! So I bought insurance from the rental company instead. This time, the rental company's insurance only cost 20 AUD per day, but the coverage was many times greater than the platform's. If I had known this, I wouldn't have bought from the platform.