Iceland (KEF) Car Rental

[sriki]

I am planning to rent a 4x4 automatic tranmission vehicle in Reykjavik, preferably at KEF airport that I am flying into. The dates I am looking at are

FROM : April 4th Sat 4:00 AM TO : April 10th Fri 4:00 PM

I looked at many options and found some that can work. I know it's expensive to rent in Iceland, especially a 4x4 auto. Below are the findings of my search that was done without the use of any coupons or portals.

I have two questions:

1. Are there any companies that I should avoid renting from
2. How can I minimize my base rental costs? (Additional costs like insurance, GPS, others do not need to be factored in)

Hertz
574 USD - Toyota Rav4; auto; but not sure about 4x4

Enterprise
Very expensive

Thrifty
504 Euros - Daihatsu Terios
532 Euros - Ford Kuga

Avis
Very Expensive

Route1.is
422 Euros - Suzuki Swift; I think 2 wheel drive

Lotus car rental
405 Euros - Suzuki Jimmy
440 Euros - Suzuki Vitara
615 Euros - Toyota Land Cryiser

Icerental4x4.is (GPS included)
447 Euros - suzuki Jimmy
420 Euros - Hyundai Tucson or similar

geysir.is
Very Expensive

holdur.is(europcar)
154.740,00 ISK (1175 USD) Toyota RAV4

reykjavikrentacar.is
73440 ISK (558 USD) Hyundai ix35

Sixt
480 Euros - Chevy Captiva;auto; not sure about 4x4

carrenters.is (renting other folks's vehicles)
Nothing inexpensive compared to what's being offered by rental companies with better cars

vikingcars.is (renting other folks's vehicles)
same as carrenters.

Chase Portal
Nothing


Any help is much appreciated.

 

[SanDiego1K]

I would submit whatever you have found to autoslash.com. I have had consistent success with them finding lower cost options. Iceland is tough. I was there a few months ago and found car rental prices depressingly high.

 

[nickelfish1]

We were in Iceland 5 years ago and rented a standard car. The roads are terrific...unless you're going off road. I thought the roads in Costa Rica were 1000 times worse than any road in Iceland....I literally had a dash board fall into my lap in CR. We're going back to Iceland this summer and I was trying to find my trip details because I wanted to rent from the same place at the airport. Which I think was Hertz or Thrifty.
Five years ago there were horror stories of people returning cars and then getting outrageous credit charges from tiny dents to where they'd measure the doors when opened and claim joint damage from the door opening being wider than when rented. I'm not sure any of that is still going on since it was such a huge issue. We didn't have any issues and we actually had a hit and run while there. Thank God it all buffed out.

 

[sriki]

I finally booked with Lotus Car Rental with Gravel protection insurance & a 4g wifi router for inroad connectivity. Overall pricey rental for sure but I knew that going into it.

Thanks for the advice, @SanDiego1K & @nickelfish1

 

[nickelfish1]

If you don't mind me asking...how much for how many days? We're going back in Sept and will rent again. We didn't get gravel protection before and not sure we need it. Although, heading up north time.

 

[sriki]

If you don't mind me asking...how much for how many days? We're going back in Sept and will rent again. We didn't get gravel protection before and not sure we need it. Although, heading up north time.

PMd

 

[heavenlyjane]

We are going to Iceland in August. For some inexplicable reason, we found that car rentals were cheaper if we picked up from Reykjavik rather than from the airport. Sixt has been the cheapest quote thus far and we are saving severl 100 ERO by picking up in town. Maybe airport has some add-on fee?

 

[sriki]

The airport is about 45 mins far from the capital. So, there is always a fee involved for car pickup/drop off from the airport for many rental services that are based off in the capital area & definitely a fee if someone is in fact located in the airport). But, I cannot imagine it being several hundreds of Euros. If you are saving that much, can you post what prices you saw at the airport VS Reykjavik and the type of the vehicle and duration?

I paid close to $600 for a 7 day rental of a Suzuki Grand Vitara automatic with Gravel protection insurance & a 4g wifi router.

 

[heavenlyjane]

We currently hold a two rentals (Sept 1-4 and Sept 6-8) with Sixt. Each rental is costing us approximately €90 from Reykjavik. I don't have the price from KEF anymore because they were just a tentative reservation, but you'd be hard-pressed to get near that price.

Our preference is to have a car for our entire 8-day trip but it appears to be significantly cheaper to return the car everytime we return to Reykjavik. The cost of renting from the airport for the entire 9 days was €397.

These are for regular manual sedans, not 4x4s.

 

[nickelfish1]

For Iceland we rebooked with Autoslash with Thirfty. My concern is..the last time we were in Iceland was five years ago and the big issue was people getting dinged for very small scratches/dings/dents for hundreds of Euro's. The last time we didn't go outside the Golden Circle. This time we are heading to Vik and over to Vestmannaeyjar Island by ferry for the night (RIB Safari, yay!) I'm wondering by using the CSP will I be covered for everything with the rental or should I still take all insurances offered at pickup as well? I know you normally have to refuse the extra insurance with CSP but I don't feel like getting hit with a major bill at return and I feel like they are less likely to hassle you if you've taken out all the insurance through them.

@heavenlyjane...we'll be in Iceland within the same time frame as you will be. We could have our own DO over a drink.

 

[SanDiego1K]

My understanding is that if you take any insurance, you negate the car insurance offered on CSP. If I were you, I'd call and have a chat with the folks at CSP. They will forward you to their benefits people who can give you informed advice.

 

[RWC75]

Was in Reykjavik last year for my wedding / honeymoon, and rented a nice little Audi from Sixt. Took a rock to the windshield on the Golden Circle, and hadn't taken out insurance. The charge was 300 Euros to replace the windshield.

Fortunately, I'd booked it with my CSP, so Chase refunded the repair charges. Love that card.

 

[guybrush3pw00d]

This may be a bit late for those looking for information earlier in this thread, but perhaps it will be of some use for others in the future.

My SO and I spent 16 days in Iceland in May 2015 and drove the entire Ring Road around Iceland. We rented our automatic 4x4 Chevrolet Captiva (FFAR category) from Sixt. The rental prices were not cheap, approx. 1950 euro for 16 days, which works out to be ~120 euro per day. That included all charges though (taxes and additional insurance). The base rental price was 1118 euro, which leaves approx 830 euro for taxes and other charges. We opted for full coverage, mostly for peace of mind, so we tacked on: Loss Damage Waiver (LDW), Gravel Protection, Sand and Ash Protection, Reduced Excess LDW, Additional Driver (so my SO could drive if I was tired) and Premium Location Fee (I think this is because we picked up and dropped off at KEF). We did not have a Chase Sapphire Preferred back then and our US-based credit cards did not cover car rentals in Iceland, hence why we purchased the LDW insurance. If you don't have a CSP, I'd encourage double checking US-based CC benefits to make sure Iceland is covered as part of the CC LDW benefit. Also, since we were driving for such a long distance (2500 miles in total, almost equivalent to driving from West Coast to East Cost in the US) and were going to be in the country for so long, we didn't want to risk having to pay for any potential damages (very expensive to fix things in Iceland).

One additional side comment on Iceland car rentals, while researching Icelandic car rental companies, I read that they can be a bit shady sometimes (e.g., hold you hostage the day you drop off your car for "damages" when you need to rush to the airport to catch your flight or charge your credit card for "damages" after you've returned home). To protect ourselves against that situation, I took 25+ pictures of the entire car at the parking lot before we accepted the rental and another 25+ pictures at the parking lot when we returned the car. It was in pristine condition when we returned it despite driving all that distance and going over bumpy, gravel roads. If they tried to trick us into paying for non-existent damages, I have all the proof I need with all of the before and after pictures.

For anyone interested in driving in Iceland, if you stick with just the Golden Circle (area close to Reykjavik) or the Ring Road (Route 1), all of the roads are paved and in perfect condition (I never encountered any pot holes). However, if you decide to see sights off the beaten path, then more than likely you will encounter gravel roads, some of which are pretty smooth and you can drive 50 mph and some of which are extremely bumpy with large rocks and you can drive only 10 mph. As an example, if you plan on seeing the abandoned DC plane, it is off the Ring Road and requires driving over gravel terrain. It could be done with a normal, non 4x4 car, but again, it was peace of mind for us to have a higher clearance car.

 

[heavenlyjane]

We just got back from Iceland where we rented from Budget. It cost us about $70/day for unlimited miles. That was the absolute cheapest we found without resorting to a rent-a-wreck sort of place. We found our rate but monitoring with AutoSlash.com

We had heard that it was important to inspect the car carefully and photograph any dings before we left. The CSR at the rental office at Keflavik told us not to worry about scratches, that the main area of focus were cracks and chips in the windshield. On the day we got our car, it was drizzling so it was impossible to examine the windshield. We didn't see any issues and took no photos.

When we returned the car, they deemed the windshield to be fine and we didn't have an issue at all.

In terms of driving, it's important to SLOW WAY DOWN when the road becomes gravel. We only encountered gravel roads briefly (probably no more than 10 km in total).

TIPS:

1. Our final bill was in US$ for some reason. We requested that it be redone in ISK and saved ourselves $30 (7% savings).
2. We carefully researched which credit card offered primary rental insurance in Iceland. I cannot remember which card ended up being the best for us. Once we returned the car and knew we had not need for claims, we used my Barclay Arrival Plus CC for its 2X points.
3. In Iceland you will never/hardly ever see a cop. However you will see traffic cameras and can get speeding citations in the mail as a not so pleasant souvenir of your trip. We stayed vigilant for cameras and tried to drive close to the speed limit.

 

[guybrush3pw00d]

We just got back from Iceland where we rented from Budget. It cost us about $70/day for unlimited miles. That was the absolute cheapest we found without resorting to a rent-a-wreck sort of place. We found our rate but monitoring with AutoSlash.com

We had heard that it was important to inspect the car carefully and photograph any dings before we left. The CSR at the rental office at Keflavik told us not to worry about scratches, that the main area of focus were cracks and chips in the windshield. On the day we got our car, it was drizzling so it was impossible to examine the windshield. We didn't see any issues and took no photos.

When we returned the car, they deemed the windshield to be fine and we didn't have an issue at all.

In terms of driving, it's important to SLOW WAY DOWN when the road becomes gravel. We only encountered gravel roads briefly (probably no more than 10 km in total).

TIPS:

1. Our final bill was in US$ for some reason. We requested that it be redone in ISK and saved ourselves $30 (7% savings).
2. We carefully researched which credit card offered primary rental insurance in Iceland. I cannot remember which card ended up being the best for us. Once we returned the car and knew we had not need for claims, we used my Barclay Arrival Plus CC for its 2X points.
3. In Iceland you will never/hardly ever see a cop. However you will see traffic cameras and can get speeding citations in the mail as a not so pleasant souvenir of your trip. We stayed vigilant for cameras and tried to drive close to the speed limit.

You bring up a good point about it raining when inspecting the car. My SO and I just got back from a trip to Washington DC over Labor Day weekend, where we rented a car. When we picked up the car, it was 9 PM (so, it was dark) and it was raining. We did our best to inspect the car and we found no issues. When we returned the car, the CSR discovered a small dent right in the middle of the back bumper. It did not look like another car hit us, the orientation of the dent (vertical) suggested that some sort of post or pole was hit. I know for a fact that I did not back into a pole or post while driving, so it must have been there from before and we just couldn't see it since it was dark and raining when we picked it up. The CSR suggested that we fill out a form stating that it was dark and raining when we picked it up and could not see the damage beforehand, so we did that. We used our CSP for this rental, where we have primary car insurance through it for any damages, so I'm not too worried about it. But, it is a good cautionary tale for car rentals in Iceland, or anywhere for that matter.

Having driven so far in Iceland, I can confirm that there are basically no police in Iceland. They heavily rely on tourists to be honest and to drive carefully and safely. The only places we saw the automatic traffic speed cameras are the areas near Reykjavik (perhaps within a 100 mile radius of the city). Anywhere beyond that radius, we saw no speed cameras. Also, when there is a speed camera, you will see a giant sign indicating that one is approaching. See below for an example of the speed camera icon on the warning sign:

http://cache4.asset-cache.net/xc/480233896.jpg?v=2&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=LjxiGujJK_RIbdivr8nWb6mp9neu2MO8W3I_DYVv1FupYy3izwWAIqIFWi2LOIIR0

The sign will be entirely in Icelandic, so unless you can read and comprehend Icelandic, then there will be no other indicator that a speed camera is ahead aside from the above linked icon.

For driving on a paved road transitioning to a gravel road, absolutely, make sure you slow down. Do not recklessly drive during these transitions as you may lose control of the car, especially if it's along a turn on the road.