Iceland Car Hire with Sand and Ash Protection

Shimrod

I'm off to Iceland in October, and one of the insurances available is sand and ash protection. In Iceland, they can have storms that will literally strip the paint off the car and that is what this covers. We're planning on travelling down the south coast to Vik and therefore feel this insurance is worthwhile.

I've only found the Hertz.is website that quotes a price for it, and the base car hire price for the Icelandic website is significantly higher than prepaying on the UK one. Hertz itself is more expensive than some of the other options available. What I don't want to do is think I am saving money by booking in the UK only to stung on insurance when picking up the car.

Has anyone booked car hire in Iceland and who did you go with? Any suggestions?
Thanks.

mikey72

Just came from there this summer.

I used Glacier Car Rental.

http://www.glaciercarrental.is/

Excellent company, meet you at the airport, drop off is the same, and it's a full/full petrol tank.
Prices are good as well.

I only took the basic insurance, no extra theft, gravel, or collision damage waver.
The excess was high though, so check that if you don't take the extra cdw. I still didn't think it worth it.
I thought about the gravel damage, and the ash storms, but decided not to. I figured if it was that bad, the cars would be destroyed already.

It was fine, no problems with any damage, although driving at 50 mph on a gravel road, (think loose chippings here) is odd, until you realise the stones are hitting the underside, and the paint is still perfect.

Any drivers coming the other way slows, and pull right over, if you do the same you're fine.

We drove to Vik, (actually we did about 3000 miles in just over two weeks touring). It's a good road, other motorists are very polite, some speed, but don't tailgate you even if you choose not to. (Limit is 60mph) Not gravel.

I took the cars back (actually we had two, as I swopped for a 4x4 to go into the highlands) absolutely filthy, they just took the keys, and that was it. Their was nowhere to fill at the airport, so it's best to fill it anywhere from about 20km out that you see a petrol station.

(When pushed, they did suggest gravel insurance for the 4x4, as I said I wanted to use it mainly in the highlands, but suggested I didn't bother with anything else. I took it as it was for a few days, and didn't cost much, but with hindsight I probably wouldn't again)

It's a brilliant place, I hope you enjoy it.

martindow

You can buy insurance to cover car hire excess charges separately. It might be worth buying minimum insurance in Iceland and relying on the other insurance to pay out. Here's one as an example

http://www.worldwideinsure.com/car-hire-excess-insurance.php

You might need to check the small print of any policy as it could exclude driving off tarmac roads.

mikey72

martindow wrote: »

You can buy insurance to cover car hire excess charges separately. It might be worth buying minimum insurance in Iceland and relying on the other insurance to pay out. Here's one as an example

http://www.worldwideinsure.com/car-hire-excess-insurance.php

You might need to check the small print of any policy as it could exclude driving off tarmac roads.

Excess insurances won't pay out for much apart from a major accident, or a car park dent.

I can only comment on the company I used, but without theft protection, gravel protection, it was simply down to me to pay for most things.
No excess applied, as I wan't covered. So no one pays out, even the excess insurance wouldn't, as there wasn't an excess.

I was liable for the first 350.000 ISK. (£1800)
of damage that was covered, under the basic CDW.
The SCDW reduces the excess to 150.000 ISK (£790)

If I had taken out the companies extras, then I would have been insured for a bit more.
So with the extra gravel protection, the excess insurance would then cover me, for the excess on either the basic, or the SCDW.
So the best option if you wanted it would be gravel protection + the third party excess insurance to cover the £1800 excess.

Car theft is non existent, but again, the excess insurance wouldn't cover it unless the extra option was taken out with the car hire company as well.

I don't think any underbody is ever covered there, nor are tyres and glass (maybe gravel cover adds glass, but subject to the minimum of at least £790)
The 4x4 was covered for the highland, 2wd weren't, and aren't allowed there, but again, wasn't covered for underbody, and not through driving through the rivers, if I drowned it I was reasonible for all costs, so again zero excess.

But all cars there are fairly new, everyone drive well, and the roads are quiet, so it seems to work well.

Shimrod

Thanks for the details. I've decided to book a car from a UK site - carrentals shows some good prices - and make a decision on insurance options when we collect the car.
I'm only booking a standard saloon so no offroading or gravel roads. The car is to give bit more freedom when going to Gulfoss etc. and in search of the Northern Lights.

mikey72

Shimrod wrote: »

Thanks for the details. I've decided to book a car from a UK site - carrentals shows some good prices - and make a decision on insurance options when we collect the car.
I'm only booking a standard saloon so no offroading or gravel roads. The car is to give bit more freedom when going to Gulfoss etc. and in search of the Northern Lights.

Carrentals own excess insurance is subject to the same as above, so check what happens if you don't take out the other insurances (theft, glass etc) with the car rental company directly.
You will be using gravel roads at some point, a lot of the small roads used by 2wd are gravel, they're hard to avoid, but no problem to drive on.

baapbaap

Hi there,

I have recently had some real trouble with Geysir Car Rental in Iceland.

When booking the car I was offered a SCDW (CDW was already included) and also Gravel Protection. I opted for Gravel Protection as their website advised it and it didn't cost much more.

When I picked up the car I was give only two pieces of advice: Do not smoke in the car, and do not drive off road. I abided by both of these rules.

One day we drove from Fl!ðir (where we were staying) to visit Þj!ðveldisbærinn on route 32. During this drive we were hit with very strong winds which were picking up gravel and hitting the car, however there was no shelter anywhere so we continued to our destination, and then drove back again. We were concerned about the car but we knew we had Gravel Protection so we believed that it would cover any damage that this gravel may have caused.

We were wrong. When we returned our car to Geysir on April 16th we were told that this damage was called "sandblasting" (caused by sand and ash rather than gravel) and that it was uninsurable by any insurance company in Iceland so we would have to pay for it. I pointed out that the damage was clearly caused by gravel as the surface of the paint remained glossy, but with chips in it, whereas from sandblasting you would expect a completely matted surface.

The employee told us that we would have to pay the maximum possible price for the repairs which turned out to be an astonishing €4500! Of course I contested this and asked what would happen if I refused to pay - I was told that the police would be called. I had a plane to catch and could not afford to incur any further costs. The employee said that my travel insurance should cover it, so I called my travel insurance company. They told me that it is very rare for a travel insurance policy to cover a rental vehicle as usually the car is covered by the insurance purchased with the rental car through the rental company...

I could not afford this on my own (I am a recent graduate), so I handed over all of my cards to the employee, he took everything he could from my bank accounts (one card bounced, two completely maxed out by him - a total of €1400), that was everything I had, my brother had nothing to offer except ISK to the sum of €200. So I called my girlfriend and my other brother and his girlfriend, between us we only just managed it. All left completely broke.
The employee said that he would get an estimate from the paint shop the following day and that we would almost certainly receive a partial refund as the cost of repair would not be that much...
...Two days later, back in England, I received an email from Geysir telling me that the paint shop estimate was in fact €6402!!! Of course I refused to pay any more than the initial €4500 that we were promised would be the maximum cost.

Since then I have been researching and have discovered that in fact most car rental companies in Iceland DO have cover for Sand and Ash damage, available as an optional damage waiver, or even included in the Gravel Protection... And since then I have also discovered (on Geysir's Facebook page) an album of photographs of a car damaged by sand and ash - the damage in Geysir's photos clearly show that the car's paint is no longer glossy and is completely matt. COMPLETELY different from the damage my car sustained! So it appears I have been lied to twice and that the damage to my car was in fact Gravel damage, which I was protected for! I've told this to Geysir and they won't respond to me.

I've contacted the European Consumer Centre, The Icelandic Consumer Association, my credit card company, the Icelandic tourist board, and no one is replying to my emails. I then contacted The Times newspaper, they were interested and are running an article this Saturday (1st June) about the pitfalls of car rental in foreign countries. They have contacted Geysir about this article and to ask some questions about it and they of course instantly replied! Yet not to me!

The Times published an article yesterday (1st June) which was a general story about the pitfalls of hiring a car in other countries, but did a case study on the trouble that I was having. I would post a link but I am a new user and don't yet have that right.
If you would like to see it then google "Don’t let car hire cover drive you mad"
Or if you're not a Times subscriber then google: "Avoid Geysir Car Rental Tripadvisor" and click the most recent link.

maleen

Here guys i'm looking for rent a car in iceland. I looking for this service but i have no idea about this . I need your help for this . Anyone have any suggestions?

budgetflyer

maleen wrote: »

Here guys i'm looking for rent a car in iceland. I looking for this service but i have no idea about this . I need your help for this . Anyone have any suggestions?

are you mad? can you not read? dont do it !
I would rather walk over hot volcanic rocks in my bare feet than risk booking car hire in Iceland

Coraline

The only thing constructive I can add is don't try do this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNrrHylIbYQ

No insurance at all will cover damage caused by doing that!

Shimrod

maleen wrote: »

Here guys i'm looking for rent a car in iceland. I looking for this service but i have no idea about this . I need your help for this . Anyone have any suggestions?

Hi Maleen,
I'm just back from my third trip to Iceland. I hired a car again through Hertz, but as I was going north I did not bother with the Sand and Ash protection this time. I did pay for separate annual hire care excess cover through questor insurance as this was much cheaper than the Hertz equivalent. Check the car hire links on this website for more details of this and other companies that offer the same cover.

The car hire companies based at the airport can be found here:
http://www.kefairport.is/English/Transportation/Car-Hire/