Rent Bestune T77 2024 in Dubai

In the weeks when Dubai runs out of cheap SUVs, over Eid and through the winter tourist crush, the Bestune T77 2024 is usually still sitting on our lot. Almost nobody books it by name, because almost nobody knows the badge, so we can normally rent you one and have it at your door inside an hour or two while every Jolion and MG ZS in the city is spoken for. That availability is the honest reason this page exists. What you have to decide is what you actually give up by taking an unfamiliar Chinese SUV instead of one you have heard of, and it is less than you would guess.

Size, bays and the manoeuvres you actually make

The T77 is 4525 mm long and 1845 mm wide, which puts it right in the middle of the compact SUV bracket. Nothing about those numbers causes trouble in Dubai. It drops into a standard tower bay in the Marina or a mall multi-storey without you shuffling back and forth, and it is narrow enough that the painted lines still leave you room to open a door properly.

The 2700 mm wheelbase is the part worth knowing. That is generous for the length, which is why the back seat is comfortable for adults, and it is also why tight mall ramp U-turns sometimes need two bites where a hatchback would swing round in one. You feel it more in older car parks than in new ones. Speed bumps and steep ramp lips are a non-issue at this ride height, and the raised seating gives you the placement and forward view that people rent a small SUV for in the first place.

Two rules that sit on you rather than us. Salik tolls run on the rental for every gantry you cross, and any RTA fine picked up during the hire follows the renter.

How it behaves on the road

The engine is the good news. A 1.5 turbo making 169 hp with 258 Nm arriving from 1500 rpm is more muscle than most of what it is parked next to at this rate, and it shows in the way the car gets up to speed on a slip road. Merging onto Sheikh Zayed Road is unhurried. Sitting at 120 with four people and the AC working, it still has something left when you want to change lanes past a slow lorry, which is more than a lot of budget crossovers can say.

The gearbox is where you have to be honest. It is a seven-speed dual-clutch, and dual-clutches do not love Dubai traffic. Pulling away from a standstill in a crawling queue, there is a beat of hesitation before it takes up drive, and occasionally a small lurch as the clutch bites. It is not a fault and it does not get worse over a week. It is just how this type of transmission behaves at walking pace in heat. Once you are rolling above about 30 km/h it shifts cleanly and you stop noticing. If a completely smooth low-speed crawl is your top priority, a torque converter car will suit you better and you should ask us for one.

On fuel, 7.1 L/100 km is the official combined figure and the 45-litre tank is on the small side, which works out at roughly 630 km in theory and closer to 500 in real summer driving with the air conditioning fighting a 45 degree afternoon. Call it one fill a week for normal city use. Mileage runs at 300 km a day included, then 50 fils per extra kilometre, and a week of school runs and mall trips will not come close to that ceiling.

Heat, and a car that has been baking since noon

Every rental car in Dubai gets judged on the same thing between June and September: how fast the cabin becomes survivable after it has been standing in the open. The T77 does this reasonably well. The front vents move a lot of air and the cabin is small enough by volume that a few minutes of high fan with the windows cracked for the first thirty seconds gets you from unpleasant to fine. It is not a car with a fancy climate system and it does not pretend to be.

Rear cooling is the one to check before you commit. Whether your particular car has rear air vents depends on how it was specced, so look between the front seats when we hand it over, especially if children are riding in the back through midsummer. Under fours need a child seat by law, and we can fit one before delivery if you tell us in advance. Belts are mandatory in every seat, front and back.

Take this over a Coolray, a ZS or a Jolion?

We rent all four of these, so what follows is not a pitch for whatever happens to be spare. On raw hardware the T77 is competitive. It has more power than a Jolion, more torque low down than a ZS, and a longer wheelbase than a Coolray. What you are giving up is not performance or space. It is familiarity. You will not know its quirks before you drive it, nobody at your hotel will recognise it, and if something needs attention the support network behind the badge is thinner than Haval's or MG's.

For a week of city driving, airport runs and errands, that trade is easy and the T77 is good value, particularly since we rent from 18 when most Dubai desks make you wait until 21. Take it. For a month-long hire, or if several different drivers will be using the car, or if you simply want the reassurance of a name you know, pay the small premium for the Jolion or the ZS instead. And if the driving itself is what you care about most, the Coolray is the sharper car and worth the difference.