Car Rental in Iceland - Vehicle recommendation AND Blue or Lava ?

Do you also recommend GPS add on or will Google Maps on our phone work fine?

I can’t help you with any of the other questions as I’ve not rented a car in Iceland, but I can tell you I’ve rented cars in a number of European countries and I never get the GPS add on. I much prefer Google maps. Most rental cars will have CarPlay, or the equivalent, which makes it easy to see the directions as you’re driving.

My 2 cents worth from our earlier trip, which might or might not be worth 2 cents to you now, is that we got an all-wheel-drive (AWD) Chevy SUV from Hertz. Having AWD cars at home, that was important for us in Iceland, but that trip was in April, and it was 11 years ago. Like Mardee, I’ve relied on Google Maps, and I have been the navigator, while my husband drives.

Hertz had the best AWD price in Reykjavik in 2014, but I have no idea what the local competition is charging now. We’ve used the insurance protection our VISA credit card offers, which saves paying for the rental company’s coverage. I also don’t recall if we had an automatic or manual transmission. Four wheel drive doesn’t equal four wheel stop, but when we hit a patch of black ice (again, this was in early April), my husband was able to slow down, steer to the side of the road, and get stopped, while a small VW sedan ahead of us flipped off the road, killing a passenger (really bad day for many people). A somewhat bigger vehicle, with AWD, was essential for us.

We did drive the Golden Circle one day, and onto the Snaefulsness Peninsula on another. Those were great routes.

We always get 4WD or 4x4 in Iceland. We drive that at home too though so are used to it. In September the weather starts to turn and I would not go without those plus I would not get anything less than say a RAV4 or a Duster.

As for Blue vs Lotus this is my take. We have had 5 rentals either blue. Four were great, but the last one was last September and it was an awful experience and I swore I would never use them again. Fast forward to now and in a week we are renting from them again only because we need to pick up in downtown Reykjavik. So they get this one chance to redeem themselves a bit. Plus we have had better luck at their Reykjavik office vs KEF. Blue no longer guarantees the vehicle you choose but Lotus does. The lady rental we had a RAV4 reserved but for a cr***y Kia shortage with very high miles (km), one big dent plus scratches literally everywhere and it was filthy dirty inside dnd out. It would also just randomly stop while driving. When I brought all of this to their attention let’s just say their customer service needs an overhaul.

Oh and we do not opt for the gps. We just use Waze or google maps. We do get the WiFi unit as some lodgings have weak WiFi and this works well. Plus if we are hiking etc.