Let me preface this by saying that, previous to landing in Iceland, I was completely ignorant in regard to the car culture there. That quickly changed on the drive from the airport in Keflavik to our vacation rental in Reykjavik. If I had known what to expect going in, I would have better prepared to gather content for the blog. As a result, what you see in this post are vehicles I randomly came across while exploring Iceland with my wife and son over our 12-day vacation.

Let’s get things started with an abysmal Kia X-Ceed. This was actually the rental we picked up from Lotus Rental Car near the airport. It was ugly, generally uncomfortable to drive, needed an alignment bad and had a broken rear driver side door. But, it was one of the cheapest cars available and got decent mileage.

During the 40 minute drive from the airport to our vacation rental, I noticed quite a few trail-ready vehicles on the road. By the time we got to Reykjavik it was clear that Iceland had a serious car culture. It seemed to be centered around “arctic trucks”, and I was completely unprepared for it. All I had was my phone, but I made the best of it and shot every interesting car and truck I came across.

This 90 series Land Cruiser Prado was one of the first parked vehicles I could get a shot of. I’ve always found the LC variations confusing to keep up with, but this was a 90 Series Prado, which never made it to the US. It was sitting on what looked like 35” tires, which turned out to be pretty common. The pop-up campers were as well.

Behind Land Cruisers, the Jimny was the second most popular build I saw. They’re also a popular rental vehicle because you’re allowed to take them onto the F-Roads (rough mountain roads). This JB43 was parked on the street outside our place and, like many of the others I came across, was clearly daily driven.

The Hyundai Terracan was a model I’d never heard. It came with a with a turbo diesel 4-cylinder under the hood and looked decent enough from the rear…

But from the front it was horrid and looked like someone grafted on an old Elantra front end. It’s always interesting running into models we don’t get in the US. Sometimes it feels like we’re missing out, but not in this case.

Even if I had done my research about car life in Iceland, I still would not have expected to see a late 60s Mercury Cougar. Especially one in excellent shape that seemed to be daily drive. At least during the summer. I doubt these are great in the snow.

Parked in front of the Cougar was a Ford E350 that looked ready for F-Roads. There were actually quite a few of these around and, as it turned out, this was a more mild example.

I believe this was a D22 Navara with a 3 liter turbo-diesel under the hood. While the US did get a version of this called the Frontier, the diesel motor wasn’t available. One thing I did notice was the fact that most of these builds retained the factory front bumpers (sometimes modified) with added elements, like bull bars. I started wondering if there were regulations preventing owners from installing full plate or tube bumpers.

The LC120 Prado is another model the US never got. It’s built on the same platform as the Lexus GX470, which is also an extremely capable off-roader. However, where the Lexus featured all the luxury bells and whistles, the Prado was more simple and sporty. The Prado also came available with the 3 liter turbo-diesel, while the GX had the V8. You know, because “murica”.

This was a really interesting one. It’s a Swiss Sauer 2DM military truck. It had a big camper conversion on the back. It’s essentially an “earth roamer”. The plates didn’t look Icelandic, but we did see a few other enormous trucks that had clearly been shipped in to explore Iceland. I really would have liked to chat with the owner, but never saw it again.

I came across this 90 Series Prado early in the morning when I was walking to Sundhöllin, one of the public pools near us. It was rough and well-used and definitely looked like it had spent its share of time running f-roads. I assumed it was also running the 4-cylinder diesel based on the the faded “turbo intercooler” sticker on the side. The jack on the back and snorkel up front were pretty common equipment.

Quick side note. Pool culture in Iceland is pretty serious. There are public pools in every town (multiple in Reykjavik) that have numerous heated pools and hot tubs. I spent many mornings at Sundhöllin sitting in a hot tub on an outdoor deck while it was 50 degree out and rainy. Pretty great way to start your day. In addition to the pools, there are also geothermally heated hot springs all over the country. We ended up at a lot of them.

I spotted this Land Rover Defender 110 around the corner from that Sauer truck. It was the only one I saw that looked relatively unmodified, and it was definitely in stark contrast to some of the others I came across.

We came across this 110 while we were walking around the area near the Alþingishúsið parliament house. This was the first heavily modified one I’d seen.

I don’t know much about Land Rovers, but they do look pretty great. This one was clearly trail ready and littered with all sorts of equipment.

There were plenty of Hilux pickups of every generation around as well. This 6th gen look well-used and, unlike the Tacoma equivalent in the US, was available with a 2.5 liter diesel.

After a couple of days in Reykjavik, we hit the road. Our plan was to drive from Reykjavik in the west to Hofn in the east, and explore all the South Coast sites along the way. Driving the entire “ring road” (Route 1) around Iceland is pretty popular, but we wanted to spend less time driving, and more time exploring. In late July the sun doesn’t go down until midnight, so that gave us plenty of daylight.

I’m trying to avoid turning this into an “Iceland is amazing” post, but I have to throw in a few videos and pictures. At one point we stopped off Route 1 to stretch our legs, and I took this quick video. The scenery along the entire South Coast is stunning like this. At one point it looks like the mountains of Nepal, and then you’re driving along black beaches. Then, suddenly, it’s like you’re on another planet with moss covered lava fields for as far as you can see. Then you hit the glaciers and the scenery is completely different. It’s literally unbelievable.

Outside of Selfoss, we made a quick pit stop at an N1 station and this Y61 Patrol was sitting outside. These never made it to the US, which is pretty unfortunate. I’ve always been a big fan and would probably have a hard time choosing between one of these and a Land Cruiser.

This E-350 was also sitting outside, and was in stark contrast to the mild example at the beginning of the post. It was pretty surprising seeing so many of these things built to run up the glaciers.

Apparently there are at least 10,000 waterfalls across Iceland. I can believe it, because eventually you stop even noticing them. I took this video in Skoga at the waterfall Skogafoss, which is a pretty major tourist attraction.

We came across this Monterra 6x6 earth-roamer built by Acela out of Bozeman, Montana back in the parking area at Skogafoss . It was owned by an American/British couple, and I ended up following them on Instagram and Youtube. This thing has been all over Europe, including some remote islands. You can check it out at @endelss_trail_expeditions.

This J80 Land Cruiser was my favorite vehicle of the trip, and was on display in front of the Samgongusafn Technical Museum in Skoga. It took me a while to actually get in to the museum though, because I spent so much time poking around this LC. It had placards in the window detailing it’s history, including all the upgrades and when they were made.

Eventually we made it to Vik, which is one of the bigger towns on the South Coast. We had dinner at a brewery there and this Y61 Patrol was sitting across the street in front of what looked like an auto shop. It was clearly built to run up the glaciers.

I had seen these CTIS (Central Tires Inflation Systems) on a bunch of trucks, but like this one, none of them had been connected. They uses a swivel fitting to allow the driver to inflate and deflate the tires from inside the cabin. When they’re in use they have an air line running up through each fender to an air tank inside.

While we walking around Vik I came across Katlaka, a tour company that hosts ice cave and glacier tours. I ended up chatting with one of the drivers, and he showed me how the CTIS worked and some other interesting details. If I recall correctly, the 7 door F350 was a $200,000 investment.

Just another quick shot of the scenery. I think I took this on the way back to Reykjavik after leaving Hofn. I really regret not bringing a good camera.

Between Vik and Hofn we stayed at a hotel called Smyrlaborg. Glacier Journey had a few of there vehicles out front as they were getting ready to head out with a group of tourists. Fords were definitely the most popular vehicles used by the tour companies.

With that being said, their more serious tours, like the one up through Vatnajökull glacier, are done in this Patrol. I borrowed the last two pictures from their website showing the Nissan in action.

I came across this 90 Series while we were touring the Golden Circle. I’d probably seen at least 2-dozen of these on 35s up to this point.

Of all the Land Cruiser models and variations I always thought these were the best looking. I kept seeing Arctic Trucks stickers, tires and mud flaps on lots of these builds. After we got back home I was kicking myself because I googled it, and they’re a builder and based out of Reykjavik. I would have loved to have visited their shop. Maybe next time.

I’ll wrap this post up with one more 110 Defender with a nice camper on the back. We saw this one parked outside of Hammsvik hot springs.

Iceland was certainly one of the most amazing places I’ve been. The weather was perfect, scenery was amazing, food was great and the car culture was a nice surprise. We definitely intend to go back, and I’ll make sure to bring a good camera with me this time.