Lava Car Rental
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I can only warn renting a car from Lava…
I can only warn renting a car from Lava Car. The LAVA CAR RENTAL website makes a very professional impression, and the contact in advance was also very good. Shortly before the trip I submitted the necessary documents (driving licenses) online, you then receive 9 pages of small print about what you are not allowed to do. You also get information about your car: as we also wanted to drive F-Roads, I had decided on a Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross 4x4. The first information I received (one day before departure) stated that the car was black and had over 80,000 km on the clock. First important tip: It is essential to clarify in advance how old the vehicle is, because the roads in Iceland are very often really bad, even the normal roads, not just the F-roads. And very often you drive through the mountains on these bad roads with stones and lots of potholes. However, I don't believe that a rental company will agree to a fixed year of construction. One exception is the Duster, where you can choose between the new and the old model. But all rental companies will certainly have “or comparable model” in their terms and conditions. When we went to pick up the car, we were told that we would get a different car because there was something wrong with the license plate on the car we were supposed to pick up. We ended up (as it turned out over time) with a totally worn out Eclipse (with 76,479 Km), with, get this, a missing front license plate. In response to my objection here that we couldn't drive without front license plates, I was simply told that it wasn't unusual. And indeed: 1 out of every 1,000 vehicles we encountered had no front license plate. In any case, this cannot be taken as proof that the vehicle has been well maintained by LAVA CAR RENTAL. Next fault: The dashboard vibrated almost constantly and extremely annoyingly throughout the entire time. LAVA CAR RENTAL must also have been aware of this. During the journey (we drove a total of almost 2,900 km), the vehicle gave a very unsafe impression, especially on the bad roads, and these were not F-roads: The front tires were totally worn, the legally required remaining tread depth of 1.6 mm was probably just barely reached (the gold rim of the 1 euro coin was already clearly visible in places). The roads in Iceland are very often gravel roads with lots of stones, including smaller ones, and I was constantly worried that we would get a flat tire at the front, and that in the middle of nowhere, which I had absolutely no desire to do. There was enough tread on the rear tires. The track was also misaligned and the vehicle rocked back and forth. You had to be extremely careful, especially in strong winds and on uneven ground. Of course, we had always selected the correct driving mode. As I said, anyone who knows Icelandic roads knows what I mean. I generally don't think the Eclipse is suitable for F-Roads, as its ground clearance of 191 mm is lower than that of the Duster at 217 mm. Due to the poor condition of the vehicle and the low ground clearance, we only tested an F-Road once. I had spoken to LAVA CAR RENTAL about F-Roads in advance and was assured that the Eclipse was suitable for F-Roads and that I could definitely use them. However, this also requires the appropriate tires. I preferred not to check whether the car had enough brake pads, oil or brake fluid. However, I always expected that the car would break down with a corresponding error message. And LAVA CAR RENTAL managers: Please no “sorry, etc” blah, blah! You have a responsibility to ensure that your customers' vehicles are fully serviced and safe, and that you do this for every customer. And in our case, you failed to do so. Perhaps to the question of why we had taken over the car in the first place: We had a fixed schedule for our trip and a longer wait for another car or even a contract termination would have destroyed that schedule.