SUV rental in Dubai - 5th Page

Most of the SUVs listed above can't go where an SUV brochure says it can, and it's better you hear that from us than from a recovery truck at Al Qudra. SUV rental in Dubai with Bintali runs from compact crossovers like the Geely Coolray, Haval Jolion, and Volkswagen T-Roc up to the seven-seat Exeed VX and the Chevrolet Tahoe, and only the Tahoe is a body-on-frame truck with a real four-wheel-drive system. A weekly booking includes 2,100 km, which is the number that matters here because SUVs are the cars people take to Hatta, Al Ain, and Abu Dhabi.

Whether you need a 4x4 rental in Dubai or a tall hatchback comes down to two questions: how many seats, and whether the tarmac ends.

Soft-roaders and the one real truck

The Coolray, JAC JS4, Exeed LX, Jolion, T-Roc, GAC Emkoo, and Geely Tugella are tall front-wheel-drive hatchbacks with a bit more ground clearance, and that's the right car for nine out of ten SUV renters. You get a high seat, a big tailgate, and enough clearance for the speed bumps in JVC and the sand car park at Kite Beach. What you don't get is a dune car, and none of them should be pointed at one.

The Tahoe is a different machine. It's 5.35 metres long, has a 5.3-litre V8, a four-wheel-drive system with low range, and seven seats. It's the only car in this class built for the terrain the category is named after.

The Exeed VX sits between the two groups: seven seats, a large and quiet cabin, and all-wheel drive on some versions, but it's a road car in the way it's built and should be treated as one. Between the VX and the Tahoe for a week of family driving on tarmac, the VX is the more comfortable and easier to park. For sand or seven people with luggage, the Tahoe.

Seven seats and what's left for luggage

With all seven seats up, the Tahoe leaves 722 litres behind the third row, which is four large cases and a pushchair. Fold the third row and it's over 2,000 litres. The Exeed VX with seven aboard leaves room for a couple of soft bags and not much else, so for a family of six flying in with checked luggage it works with the third row folded and one child in the middle row, but not with every seat and every case.

That's the honest limit of most seven-seaters, and the reason a group of eight with luggage should be looking at the vans instead.

Which SUV for the Hatta road, and which for the sand

For the Hatta road, any car listed here. For the sand, only the Tahoe, and only if off-road use has been agreed at booking. The road to Hatta is tarmac the whole way, about 130 km from Downtown, and a T-Roc or Tugella does it in comfort.

The Jebel Jais climb is tarmac too. What isn't tarmac is the dune track off the Hatta road, the Fossil Rock loop, and anything past the end of the Al Qudra car park, and the front-wheel-drive crossovers get stuck in the first soft patch. Off-road use under our rental terms is confirmed at booking, car by car, so ask before you plan the day rather than after.

A weekly booking's 2,100 km covers a Hatta day and an Abu Dhabi round trip with a normal week of city driving on top.

SUV rental Dubai: which one to book

The Coolray is the cheapest way into the class and a perfectly good one for two people. Between the Jolion and the T-Roc, take the T-Roc for its 445-litre boot and its calm at 120 km/h. Take the Tugella if you want the nicest cabin and don't need the boot, because its sloping roof costs it space.

Take the Exeed VX for five people and the occasional seven, and the Tahoe for seven every day or for anything with sand in it.

If the car will only ever see Downtown, the school run, and a mall car park, a sedan does the same job for less and cools faster, and a standard saloon like the Mazda 6 has more boot than most of these crossovers. If what you're after is grip on a wet January morning rather than ground clearance, the dual-motor cars in the all-wheel drive class are the better answer. And book the Tahoe early for long weekends.

It's the one car here with no substitute, and it goes first.