Driving in Iceland: 6 beautiful days and 1 rainy day

My trusty car for the travel around the country.  I went clockwise from Reykjavik along Highway 1 which circles the island near the coast. I made a few deviations--this is me after all.  If I had planned ahead, there was a ferry I could have taken in the western fjords. Drat. I love a driving trip and many friends enjoy driving too.  I think a little info on how it is here would be of interest.

My first couple days in Reykjavik were afoot or on buses.  Then I went to the Budget/Avis office to get my car arranged through Auto Europe.  Very good company--I recommend them.  They scan all providers and get you good rates.  The Budget guy said they are good to deal with on their end too.  I will be using them in UK as well, probably Spain. I had specified the smallest, cheapest car.  I got this cute little thing--a Hyundai i10.

This car uses 95 octane gasoline but I might have gotten diesel.  That is common here too.  All stations have both.  Fuel stations are all along the main highway but far apart in the east.  Off Highway 1--plan ahead.

It was a pleasure to drive.  A nice, tight little car.  Manual transmission, 5 speed.  Automatic is rare here or in Europe at all.  Many renters were getting 4-wheel drive cars as they intended to travel to the interior.  To go across the high altitude center of the country requires 4WD but my focus was in areas where that was not needed.  It did make the decision for me that I could not make that trek across the central mountains so I went all around the outside of the country.

Iceland has beautiful roads.  Photos below are all over the country.  Most of the ring road is paved but some areas of the east are not.  Even where not paved, the roads are really good.  How do they do that?  I am thinking of Alaska, where it is really hard to keep the roads in good shape and where summer is road construction season.  I guess there is less traffic here--look at the pictures. Also, maybe the ground here is better--all basalt and no boggy tundra.

Sheep wander on roads in many areas.  Cows and horses were always fenced. Reindeer were on the road in one place--yay!

Kinds of cars
Locals seem to drive small cars like mine or small 4WD like Toyota or Mitsubishi.  I did not see many American cars of any size--a very few small Chevys.  Even farmers did not seem to use pick-ups or vans.  For European cars, some French, quite a few VW and Skoda.  By far the most are Asian cars, both Korean and Japanese. Since Iceland is not part of the EU, I guess this represents a fairly free market decision on the part of buyers.  I thought our cars would be competitive now but I sure did not see any.  Maybe it is a marketing thing on the part of our auto makers. Iceland is a small market (300,000 people in the whole country) so maybe only Chevy makes the effort.

Cost:
This is kind of hard for me because fuel is measured in liters and money is paid in Iceland Krona.
It causes brain freeze to figure it out.

I averaged about 37 miles per gallon.
A liter of gas cost about 205 krona; diesel is about 190.
I calculated that I paid about 5.44 per gallon.

Total spent on auto fuel: $108.39 during the 7 days of driving.

A bus trip in Reykjavik is 4 krona = 30 cents US.

I will be driving in UK so will try to figure it out there too.  I forgot to keep track while in Shetland and Ireland.  It is the brain freeze thing--miles to kilometers; dollars to something else.  But I will have the car for a month in UK so maybe I will be diligent. I am always curious and people always ask.  I will try.

Rock cairns were the way markers during the horse and walking era.
Now highways run along the old routes.

My car next to an electric car.  Not many electric cars here but there are a few in the Reykjavik area.