Rental excesses, gravel and ash cover, and 6.95 ISK a kilometre
SCDW, gravel and ash cover from two rental sites read 1 November 2026, the excess each leaves, the per-km road charge, and 21 to 27 ISK of insurance per ledger km.
On the 7-day Ring Road ledger, the insurance add-ons that most people buy cost between 21 and 27 ISK for every kilometre driven, about what the petrol costs. That is computed, not quoted: the daily prices on two rental companies' insurance pages, read on 1 November 2026, multiplied by seven days and divided by the ledger's 1,555 km. On top of it, since 1 January 2026 every car in Iceland pays a kílómetragjald of 6.95 ISK a kilometre to the state, whatever its fuel, and rental companies collect it from the renter; one of the two companies below adds its own 1.40 ISK a kilometre for the trouble.
What the two sites say
Go Car Rental (gocarrental.is/insurance, read 1 November 2026) prices each cover separately. SCDW, 1,700 ISK a day, "reduces excess down to 120.000 ISK"; the base liability before it is 350,000 ISK. GP, gravel protection, 1,100 a day, covers windscreen, headlights, mirrors and chipped paint, with zero excess on the lights, mirrors and paint and 20,000 ISK on the windscreen. SAAP, sand and ash protection, 1,850 a day, leaves 90,000 ISK of excess on sand and ash damage and is "recommended for the south coast". TP, theft, 600 a day. The Zero Excess package that bundles all of them is 5,690 a day. Mileage is unlimited (gocarrental.is/faq, same day).
Hertz Iceland (hertz.is/en/insurance, read 1 November 2026) prices tiers instead. Basic, which is CDW and third-party liability only, leaves an excess of 242,000 ISK on a passenger car and 399,000 on a 4x4. Medium adds SCDW, theft, windscreen and gravel and brings the excess to 30,000 or 65,000 (the page does not say which figure belongs to which vehicle class); its daily price is not on the page. MAX adds sand-and-ash and tyres-and-wheels, brings the excess to zero, and costs 4,950 ISK a day for a passenger car and 5,950 for a 4x4 or luxury car. Unlimited mileage is in the FAQ.
A third page, Blue Car Rental's (bluecarrental.is/insurance, same day), is useful for the excess ladder even though it prints no daily prices: Silver (included) 150,000 ISK; Gold, which adds gravel and sand-and-ash, 65,000; Platinum 0; and a 500,000 ISK deposit if every optional cover is declined. Its roadside-protection add-on is 1,400 a day.
The per-kilometre arithmetic
The 7-day loop is 1,555 km in seven rental days.
| Cover, 7 days | Daily, ISK | Week, ISK | Per ledger km, ISK |
|---|---|---|---|
| Go: gravel + sand-and-ash only | 2,950 | 20,650 | 13.3 |
| Go: SCDW + gravel + sand-and-ash | 4,650 | 32,550 | 20.9 |
| Go: Zero Excess package | 5,690 | 39,830 | 25.6 |
| Hertz: MAX, passenger car | 4,950 | 34,650 | 22.3 |
| Hertz: MAX, 4x4 | 5,950 | 41,650 | 26.8 |
| State kílómetragjald (Skatturinn) | — | 10,807 | 6.95 |
| Hertz service fee on it, 1.40 + 24 % VAT | — | 2,700 | 1.74 |
For scale, the fuel post on this site puts the same loop at 117 litres and 33,251 ISK at the 1 November 2026 pump price, which is 21.4 ISK a kilometre. The gravel-and-ash covers that the south coast and the Jökuldalsheiði moor make sensible cost as much per kilometre as the petrol. Whether that is good value depends on the probability of a chipped windscreen in a week on Route 1, for which this site has no first-party figure and will not invent one.
The road charge, and the two ways of collecting it
Skatturinn's kílómetragjald page, read 1 November 2026, is unambiguous: "Frá 1. janúar 2026 skal greiða kílómetragjald af öllum ökutækjum, óháð orkugjafa", 6.95 krónur a kilometre for cars and jeeps up to 3.5 tonnes, higher for heavier vehicles, and for a rental company without enough odometer readings the state assumes 150 km a day. Hertz's guide to the charge says the government's 6.95 and its own 1.40 ISK (plus VAT) appear on the rental agreement at pick-up and on the final invoice after drop-off. Lotus Car Rental's terms, read the same day, do it the other way: a flat "Road Tax" of 1,550 ISK a day. On the 7-day loop that flat figure comes to 10,850 ISK against 10,807 at 6.95 a kilometre, because the ledger averages 222 km a day and 222 × 6.95 is 1,543; on the 5-day South Coast ledger, 1,125 km, the per-km method is 7,819 and the flat one 7,750. The two methods meet almost exactly at this site's ledgers and diverge for anyone who drives less.
The other per-kilometre figures in the small print are penalties, not charges: Lotus lists 400 ISK a kilometre, minimum 35,000, to collect a car after damage, and 300 a kilometre to deliver a spare key.
What the cover does not do
Every page read today excludes the same things in different words: F-roads in a 2WD, river crossings, the underside, and wind damage to doors. The Ring Road ledgers' real exposure is Mýrdalssandur and Skeiðarársandur in a southerly, where sand does what the SAAP acronym says; a 90,000 ISK excess under SAAP at Go, or 65,000 under Gold at Blue, is the number to hold in your head when the gust warning is on umferdin.is.
Sources
- Go Car Rental, insurance prices and excesses, read 1 November 2026: https://www.gocarrental.is/insurance/
- Go Car Rental, FAQ (unlimited mileage, pick-up hours), read 1 November 2026: https://www.gocarrental.is/faq/
- Hertz Iceland, insurance tiers and MAX daily price, read 1 November 2026: https://www.hertz.is/en/insurance
- Hertz Iceland, guide to the 2026 road charge (6.95 + 1.40 ISK/km), read 1 November 2026: https://www.hertz.is/car-rental-tips/guide-to-icelands-new-road-tax-2026/
- Blue Car Rental, insurance tiers and excesses, read 1 November 2026: https://www.bluecarrental.is/insurance/
- Lotus Car Rental, terms (flat road tax, recovery per km), read 1 November 2026: https://www.lotuscarrental.is/insurance/terms-and-agreement
- Skatturinn, kílómetragjald (6.95 ISK/km from 1 January 2026, all vehicles), read 1 November 2026: https://www.skatturinn.is/einstaklingar/skattar-og-gjold/kilometragjald/
The ledgers this post refers to
- Iceland Ring Road in 7 days
Anticlockwise from Keflavík: about 1,555 km and 19.5 hours at the wheel in seven days, with nights in Vík, Höfn, Egilsstaðir, Mývatn, Akureyri and Borgarnes.
7 days · Iceland1,555 km · 19 h 35 drivingChecked 1 Nov 2026 - Iceland Ring Road in 10 days with Snæfellsnes
The 7-day loop plus Snæfellsnes, a second east night and the full Diamond Circle: about 2,160 km and 27.5 hours of driving, with a half-day kept for weather.
10 days · Iceland2,160 km · 27 h 40 drivingChecked 1 Nov 2026 - Iceland South Coast and Golden Circle in 5 days
Reykjavík base, a Golden Circle day, then two south-coast days to Jökulsárlón with nights in Vík and Kirkjubæjarklaustur: about 1,125 km and 14 hours of driving.
5 days · Iceland1,125 km · 14 h 10 drivingChecked 1 Nov 2026 - Iceland Westfjords loop in 6 days
Reykjavík to Stykkishólmur, the Baldur ferry to Brjánslækur, Látrabjarg, Dynjandi, Ísafjörður and home by Hólmavík: about 1,020 km, 14.5 hours and one crossing.
6 days · Iceland1,020 km · 14 h 35 driving · 2 h 10 ferryChecked 1 Nov 2026