Reviews for

Lava Car Rental in Iceland

Hi, the car smelled a lot of gasoline when we picked it up, it took 4 days for the smell to go away. The first two days it was pretty unpleasant. Otherwise everything was fine.

Great overall experience for us. I would use Lava again. The Dacia was exactly what we needed to tour Iceland. We opted for the portable WiFi and we’re able to use it to navigate and stay connected. That combination made our trip so easy. Your staff was friendly and prompt. The airport transfer was easy. Constructive advice ; the airport shuttle driver needs a larger more visible sign. That was our only point of uncertainty using your service.

Everything was perfect. Very friendly people.

hi i ordered a fou rwheel drive car with winter tires and the car had slick summer tires i asked to get a car with winter or almost all weather tires and i got an old duster with 160 000 km , a door who had wind dammage and not repared, rear brakes who should have been changed (very noisy on braking) and cardans who made great noise and no refund as the car was priced cheaper than the one i initially choose in summary very bad experience with this company.... i will never rent again with them and am disappointed that you propose this rental company i had always good rentals with you regards yves

The car was great and performed as expected.

Good car but high fuel consumption

Unfortunately bad experience - poor logistics at airport pick-up - unprepared car (we waited from 01:00 to 02:30 at night for it to be cleaned and released) - the issuer convinced us that Platinum insurance was beneficial, otherwise he would charge us for all the scratches on return, we ended up with a car that would be difficult to find out which scratch was already on it and which was "new" - Normally we probably wouldn't have taken the car (driver's door blown off by a strong wind, windshield cracked by a rock), but what to do when you're falling asleep, you have big plans for a trip in the morning and there's no other car available at the moment... - the car was fine motor-wise and worked well for the entire rental period (a week)

They forced us to upgrade our insurance booking because, apparently, the basic insurance and no-insurance were exactly the same. That increased our booking in around 300 euros.

It wasn't the car listed above, it was a Ford Fiesta. I was told it had blue tooth, it didn't or it just didn't work. No mention of blue tooth in the Ford Fiesta audio menu. The car wasn't maintained properly. The back license plate holder had been damaged from a previous user backing into something and never fixed. So after a couple of days of gravel roads and high winds the license plate holder disintegrated and the license plate fell off. Lava were going to charge me for this! But didn't because the GPS device they gave me didn't work very well either. I won't give Lava the lowest rating as the car did get me around but I will never use Lava ever again.

Pick up and return was fine, the car from 2019 had about 70.000 km, which was absolutely okay. The interior was not too clever designed, with some hooks or nets there would have been much more usable space in the back. A bigger issue - the diesel heating system was smelly on the outside and really loud (a knocking) on out- and inside. As it was could we also turned the heater at night on, and even our campground neighbours complained about that noise. But all the rest was fine & we absolutely hat no problems with our cars in 10 days.

The car was exactly what we needed and it worked really wel for us, we are definitely going to come back to Iceland.

It was ok, but the space for sleeping is for two person not wide enough. The battery hasen‘t worked for using refrigeration and heating system. Lava offered to change the battery in a mechanic shop, but we don’t had the time.

Great service, great car, just the right size & comfort you,ll need for a short trip !

It was a good priced vehicle they only could put some more thought in the lay-out of it. The pots pans and plates that came with it were dirty and the 12v socket in the back of the car didn't work so we only had a cooler if we put it on the front seat while driving. So good priced but definetly not the best minicamper.

We waited 1.5h to pick up the car because only one person was processing pick-ups and returns. The pair ahead of us had their car changed 2 times because of the car condition (ignition issue / one side of the car crashed and stop light not working) and someone calling for assistance due to technical issue was told to wait until next day for resolution. We took Nissan Xtrail which was advertised as 7 people, 3 bags, but actually with 7 seats occupied you can barely fit 1 suitcase (6th and 7th seat come at the expense of trunk space). Otherwise, no issue with the car or return. On the plus side, you get a discount with a gas station chain with a large footprint across the island

Our experience with northbound and Lava cars has been perfect. The airport pickup was prompt and after a very short drive (less than 5 minutes) to the car rental site, the Lava team were very helpful. The staff were friendly and gave us a very warm welcome to Iceland. The car itself was spacious and well-equipped, with all of the kitchen utensils that we needed to make 3 meals a day easily. Though we brought a small bottle of washing up liquid with us (as previous reviews mentioned that this was not provided by Lava), all campsites have this on site so it wasn't necessary. The Lava team checked in with us during our trip to offer helpful advice about safe travel around Iceland. The return was also very convieniant for us. Since our flight was very early, we returned our car directly to the airport, where staff picked it up from. I would highly recommend this company!

The Camper was not in the best conditions: - heater was not working properly, only went one night - the lock of the camper also went wrong given a failure of the lateral door sensor so we could not lock the Van until we got to know the problem. - we report all problems to the office LAVA, but the only solution was to offer a different places of mechanic which were not close to were we stayed at that moment, were in HELLA (we were going to be there the day after) we had different stories upon how it was going to be solved. Not a good response from you. - camper conditions in general were not the best, we even found a mask from other person when we got in. We had to solve things by ourselves, and adapt to the conditions in order to not stop our route. But not happy, without solutions.

We were received at the airport with smiles and greetings by a representative from Lava rentals. Soon we arrived at Lava office were the staff handed over the keys to our camper and on demand (with extras) gave us wifi device for our 7 day trip. The vehicle was extensively used, yet in good shape and cleaned just before we rented it. Technically we had no issues with the car, person at the desk gave us an overview of the car, sleeping, water tank, cooler and heating system. Vessels and cutlery was sufficient, though I would have liked a bit more equipment like a can opener and a set of paper rolls to start the trip. On the whole, I would recommend renting it through Northbound and in particular Lava car rental. As always, I would like to put forth some constructive remarks. It might be useful to upgrade cars (mileage on this one was inching closer to 100,000 Kms), additionally, since it rains and is mostly windy in Iceland, might be worthwhile to explore an extendable plan on the rear of the car and a retractable roof cover in the back to help cook on a windy and rainy day. To be honest, it would be a luxury to have such a setup, not a must have though. We managed to cook inside the car on the wooden plank provided, works like a charm. Just go ahead and rent a small camper through Northbound for the best rates and also Lava car rental for a great experience.

Perfect

El coche que nos asignaron (Ford Fiesta) estaba bastante golpeado. La correa de distribución sonaba al arrancar el coche y durante los siguientes minutos. También se encendió una advertencia en el salpicadero acerca del motor que afortunadamente se fue al paso de 24 horas por si sola. Todo esto no habría sido un mayor problema si no hubiéramos pagado casi el doble del precio que suele costar dicho alquiler tal y como comprobamos con otros viajeros.

The car was ok, the service so so The car was ok and we got one a bit bigger than the one booked ( a Hyundai i20 instead ofi10). It worked properly but the seats were quite dirty. The arranged pick up time was 12 but they didn’t come until we called them. So we got it 1/2 h later. And the people at Lava car not specially friendly or kind just doing their work.

The 2021 Nissan Qashqai that we rented from Lava Car Rental through Northbound was great. New(ish), clean, and functional.

All ok

Communications was really good. Had to wait an hour for the car to be ready (cleaning) and some issues with getting things to work. It would have helped if there was a manual for the basics like heating and the cooler. Also heads up how difficult it is to get the tank filled unless you have a pin code for your credit card. Heater barely worked, windshield fluid system did not work neither did the USB for the WiFi. I would think a Monoxide detector should be mandatory it was a bit worry some with a questionable heating system. With all that said the car was actually a really good runner.

Northbound was excellent! My interaction with customer service over a communication problem was resolved quickly and in a friendly way. I love that they aggregate Iceland-owned companies. The Nissan NV200 was fine, but the configuration with the fold-down couch and refrigerator on the side is tight for 2 average people to sleep comfortably. I CANNOT recommend Lava Car Rental. Their customer service is indifferent and their transfer driver surly. The camping equipment is crap (all the lowest-grade IKEA) and not maintained between rentals, so I got a broken camp chair, a moldy camp chair, a dirty dish box, the table was super-flimsy, the 6” frying pan was not only too small but falling apart, a dull paring “knife,” and a sleeping bag with a broken zipper. The inside of the camper wasn’t very clean; I found an old sleeping kit bag behind the seat with dead bugs in it and there was dried mud splashed on the inside of the doors. The “curtains” were just scissor-cut strips of fabric with raw edges and no tie-backs. I looked at other campers’ kit from many other rental companies during my 3 weeks out, and nobody had such poorly chosen and maintained kit as Lava. Low price but poor service and product, so not a good value overall.