Reviews for Rental Car In Iceland in Iceland

Very happy with the service. I left some jewelry in the car and one of the guys from lava drove to the airport to drop it with me before my flight. That was above and beyond and I was very appreciative.

The rental served our purposes just fine! It handled the F-roads like an old pro. The service from our car company, Lava Car Rental, was also stellar and would absolutely use them again.

The price was fair, the process to get the car went smoothly and the car was pretty good. I do have a couple of suggestions for improvement:
- it was a little unclear who was providing the rental. we rented from Northbound and the voucher said Rental Car in Iceland. It was not until I contacted the vendor that I realized the rental company was Lava. It would be good to clarify this right up front.
- The car itself was good, except the the tires were very low on tread. We did feel like we were hydroplaning at times.
- The GPS was useful to have, but did send us down dead end roads and seemed to be confused at times - even getting us out of the airport.

We had a great trip and having a 4WD vehicle at a reasonable price really helped us.

Ci siamo trovati benissimo! Abbiamo noleggiato una Dacia Duster 4x4 per 13 giorni a un prezzo piuttosto vantaggioso. La macchina non ha dato alcun tipo di problema. Il ritiro e la consegna dell’auto sono stati molto rapidi e il servizio navetta per l’aeroporto molto efficiente. Consigliatissimo!

Loved it! It was well-maintained, utilitarian but smooth. Got us from point A to B with no problems.

The staff was very nice, especially the shuttle driver! The car was what we expected, and everything was fine!

I did no see any Dacia Duster Manual. But i did not needed it also.

Having driven an automatic for the last year it was a really easy car to drive and get back in the swing of driving a manual car. It did us well on our 10 day trip and was such a lovely car to drive.

Cannot fault anything with the car or the service received.

Rather good

Hello
We had problems picking up the vehicle because we did not know that the company was Lava car and above all because we did not know that Lava Car was outside the airport. I think they should have explained it in an email. Otherwise, all good .A beautiful country !!!
Thanks for everything

Tutto perfetto! Auto ok e la stessa scelta on line. Personale gentile, servizio veloce e preciso. I migliori rental car mai trovati! Grazie

La macchina era ben tenuta, ad eccezione delle gomme che erano completamente lisce, ed i freni che non funzionavano.
Prezzo onesto

The car was great! Definitely well-used, but perfect for our needs. We did worry at how safely/well the roof rack was attached to the roof, but it seemed to hold steady.

Great experience with Lava car rental, competitive prices, reliable vehicles and competent staff. I don’t rate 5 only for the prolonged wait for the shuttle transport upon arrival at the airport.

1st given a car with 190,000 miles on it. It died on the 1st day in the middle of nowhere. They did tow us another car but we had to sit by the road side for 5 hours losing a day of touring. That car (120,000 miles) lasted two days. They did drive another car to us. 3rd car was decent and lasted the rest of the trip.

The Duster was ideal for our purpose & coped with Iceland’s varied terrain very well.

Not only was the process of booking and checking in easy and seamless, we also experienced a car breakdown in the middle of our trip for which they were able to literally bring us a replacement car within several hours. No hiccups, no hours of fighting on the phone - just righteous service for which they even had the problem diagnosed within one day! They were responsive to my queries leading up to my vacation, and I would certainly recommend their services!

Amazingly efficient and good experience.

All good. The car could be in better shape:) but it worked well. All other experience is realy good!

Great experience with renting the car! Super easy pickup and drop off. We had to change our dates and the reply from northbound was super quick and with no charge.

Several confusions:. We got emails before we left from both Lava and Northbound. After a few back and forth emails I confirmed they were both talking about the same car. Added stress to our preparation. We were picked up after maybe 30 minutes of wait at the Iceland airport by a Lava van and taken to a Lava building. We had a low tire pressure warning light come on while in Akureyi. We called and were told not to worry about it. But there was a slow leak so we had to stop several times to top off the tire. Worrying about a flat tire is not a positive vacation experience. Finally, the rental agreement said we would return the car at 12:00. I remember putting in 2:00 for our 5:00 departure when I booked, but we didn't catch the mistake when we signed the paperwork so my bad. The Lava agent said they were scheduled to rent our car to the next person at 12:30. Given we had called about the slow leak I was surprised they were planning to send the car out again in 30 minutes. We arrived at 1:15 and they charged us $175 for an additional day instead of an additional hour rate. Seems excessive. I have rented cars all over the world and have not been penalized in this way for 1 hour and 15 minutes late. So overall a bit of a unsatisfying experience.

Getting a 4 year old car ended up being a great decision. That car had a few scratches and dents, but they weren’t picky that the car had to be perfect on return. The diesel got great fuel mileage and this is important in a place where fuel is expensive. Saved so much money over getting a guided tour. Highly recommend getting the wifi hotspot and if you have American Express, see if that covers your insurance. They were a bit slow pickups up from airport and took an hour to get car ready. Overall a great experience and excellent value for the money.

The Duster performed fine and Lava communicated well. For a 2017 vehicle, it had a surprising amount of km on it (nearly 200K), cosmetic body damage, and tires that needed patching during the trip. None of this proved a serious problem, but it would have been nice to know when renting, and better tires on the vehicle would certainly have alleviated some problems on the trip.

Car tires was in bad condition. During the trip I had to visit the service and change all the tires. Before that, one tire had to be replaced. The money was returned, but I lost on the exchange rate. The staff was polite.

The car I got was a dud!
The 2017 Dacia Duster I got out of the gate had a ridiculous amount of mileage on it, which is understandable as a rental car, but it came with a host of problems.
The car's electronics would randomly act up doing anything, prompting a bunch of random beeps and lights for a few moments. The car would random "stall" or shut off randomly; I'd be on the highway cruising, well within the limits of any car, and it would completely stall and shut down. I'd have to slam the clutch immediately and attempt to restart the car (power steering went out too); this was probably the scariest part. The clutch was completely worn down and shifting felt super odd. There were also other small minor problems not worth getting into, but overall, the whole driving experience felt clunky as heck.

I was kept doubting that this car could really make it through my journey, and to my expectation... It died. I nearly made it to Vik; I had parked it and went on a hike and came back hours later and it just wouldn't start.
I eventually called the rental company (Lava Car) and they sent a mechanic over the next few hours to take a look at it; he didn't understand why it had broken down and let the rental company know. I hitched a ride to Vik and stayed overnight, they towed the car in the morning, and I was sent a 2019 Dacia Duster that afternoon (which drove like a dream).

I heard of some 2017 Dacia Dusters having no problems. I probably should have taken my car back immediately after it shut down on the highway the first time. The point would be if you get an older car model like this 2017, I'd double check everything hard before you get too far around the ring road. A lot of rental companies are based in Keflavík or Reykjavík and don't have other stations; I waited 2.5h for a mechanic in the cold and another 2.5h the next day for my replacement (technically I got the replacement late afternoon, so most of the day was gone). If I was any further than Vik, I'm not sure what would the outcome would have been.

My 2017 Dacia Duster experience: 0\5
My 2019 Dacia Duster replacement experience: 5/5
My experience with Lava Car Rental: 4/5 (They were a bit slow to react/respond and I kept getting different representatives and had to keep explaining my situation during the whole two day ordeal, but the service was very good)

The staff at the Lava reception were friendly & efficient & the car was as expected however after driving only approx twenty miles a warning light appeared, this was reported later that day. I checked the engine water level at the same time & found the reservoir tank empty, this was filled & remained so for the rest of the hire period (1 week) We were advised the warning lights were a common issue would not cause a problem & they didn't but I think we should have been advised of this. I also think basic checks should be carried out on the cars before they are offered for hire i.e fluids. The car did perform well both on & off road & I would recomment this car size for two people

Best price and excellent service through Lava Car Rental.

Lava rentals were very good and the handover was seamless and quick.

The car itself was adequate and did the job for the few days we were there. There was significant damage to the drivers door when we pick up the car and other dents so a little disappointed but overall would probably rent again from Lava.

The only problem was the pickup. The name of the car company was not on the voucher. There were multiple car companies. Finally the information desk called the phone number to find out what the company was. Please send out vouchers with the company names. It would have saved us 2 hours of wasted time.

It worked out great for our trip!! The only thing, I had to go in and ask the rental company how to reverse, I had never seen or driven a manual that I had to pull up and then shift to the top left to reverse. I just wish the rental place would have went over the car and it’s buttons a little more with us. They pretty much just handed us the keys. We figured everything out after a while and it was a great trip!!

The Duster got me all over the country and handled the F-roads (gravel roads) very well. I would definitely use this company again. They pick you up and drop you off right at the airport in Keflavik. Every staff member I was in contact with was friendly and helpful.

Super easy and quick

The service provided complied completely with the expectations I had before the trip. I'me very satisfied with the service from both Northbound and Lava Car, and plus the car was amazing.

Happy with the service, all went well

a old car ! 144000 km ! Impossible to watch windshield because system out of order !
And there was since the departure at the airport a fissure on the windshield ; the man who saw that during the check-in was not worry about that ! 1st time I see that

Great car, GPS didn't work very good but we brought our own. Would rent here again.

Although we couldn't get the diesel car, we had booked, the car turned out to be good and did not consume much more petrol we had been afraid of. It worked well even on tough F-roads, where we definitely kept the rules, where we were allowed to drive. The staff was helpful and with the full insurance did not charge us for a flat tire the roads had caused us. Luckily there was an extra full size tire in the car, what we could use on the second half of the tour.

Everything was fine, as expected.

The car was fine and we enjoyed a unforgettable week with it in Iceland :-)

I can definitely recommend Northbound as a partner for tourism in Iceland. Prices here are great, contact is even better. Car itself was really good, no issues with that - everything was prepared as in itinerary.

Only one comment: that would help a lot if you can make a note somewhere that Rental Car in Iceland is Lava Auto Rental? :) that would make things easier for e.g. while being picked up at the airport :)

All was good, very great car in good condition. Price low compared with other company

Northbound gave me access to car rental - it was a good service

Your service for pick up and bring back to Air port was excellent. Very friendly people and easy doing booking. Quick reply and easy copmmunication. Highly rcommented to book via northbound.

I cannot say much about northbound since it forwarded me to the final company where I rented the car, in this case Lava rental.

My review about Lava rental is a bit mixed, some good things and some other ones not so good:

1- When I arrived at the airport there was no one there to pick me up. I called them and they arrived in something like 10 minutes. I understand this since they are taking customers back and forth all the time.

2- When I arrived to their offices they treat me well and was attended quickly which was good. The whole process took about 15 or 20 minutes. The car had a few bumps but I guess it's more or less normal for a 4x4 car.

3- The Dacia Duster 4x4 was quite good for driving in roads and F roads but inside cities and towns the first and second gears are two short so it makes driving a bit inconvenient. This is just related to the brand and model and not at all about Lava rental cars but next time I will choose a different car.

4- The passenger window was not working properly. I brought it down once and when I wanted to close it the button was not responding properly. I thought I was not going to be able to bring it up again. This was quite inconvenient for me since I was not able to use this window at all for the whole trip. Lava rentals should warn the customer about this before taking the car.

5- The gps available in the car was utterly useless. I was very annoyed by this. The map was quite outdated and they didn't include F roads. Once I asked for a direction to get to a place about 100Km from where I was, on normal roads and not F roads, and it was sending me around the whole Iceland to get to that point. I could not trust it's directions so I had to use my personal phone and phone connection and data to be able to navigate.
You should not advertise this car as having gps since it is useless.

6- The usb sockets available in the car were not powerful enough. I plugged my phone to charge it but since I had to use my phone to navigate the socket was not powerful enough to navigate and charge at the same time. All the battery that was loading was being used to navigate so I was not able to charge my phone when driving. I found this extremely annoying.

7- After a couple of days driving I got a warning sign in the car dashboard. I found out it was related to the pressure of the tires. I got quite worried and went to a petrol station to check the tires. They seemed to be ok. When I called Lava rentals they told me the sensor on the tires doesn't work properly and this problem happens all the time. If this is the case they should warn the customer before taking the car so you don't get worried and had to deviate from your route to solve the problem.

8- Last thing is, the car seems to lock all doors after a few seconds of closing the driver's door. I got worried that if I went outside and the wind closes the door when the key was in the ignition it will lock me out and I won't be able to get in the car. I guess there is some kind of sensor that prevents this but they should also warn about this or how to disable it. I could have also called them to find it out and I didn't so it is partly my fault as well.

regards,
Enrique

Thanks for the good service and help, when I needed it. Everytime again.

A pleasant trip by selected car on all roads including light off road, unforgettable views and surrounding nature :-)

My plane was delayed until well past closing time but nonetheless I was picked up from the airport after only waiting 15 mins. The car drove well in the snow/blizzard/stormy conditions. I’d rather the drop off instructions were emailed to me because we drove to the office first to find that we should have taken to the airport but otherwise a very enjoyable experience that I would use again.