Rent Chevrolet Traverse 2020 in Dubai

Picture seven of you for the week, say a family plus grandparents in from out of town, loading up for a run out to Al Ain with every seat full and the boot packed behind them. The Chevrolet Traverse 2020 is one of the few rentals in Dubai actually built for that trip. It seats seven across three real rows, and the 3.6-litre V6 barely notices the load once you're on Sheikh Zayed Road. We deliver it to your door in Dubai, usually within one to two hours of booking, cash or card accepted at handover. This page settles the real question: when does the extra row and the size earn their place over a smaller SUV, and when doesn't it.

The V6, and what it's like to drive

The Traverse runs a 3.6-litre V6 making 310 hp through a nine-speed automatic, and this car is front-wheel drive, not the all-wheel drive setup some Traverse trims carry elsewhere. On the highway that combination feels unhurried. A full load of passengers and bags doesn't ask much of the engine, and overtaking a truck at 120 takes one confident push of the pedal rather than a long run-up. The nine-speed gearbox shuffles through its ratios smoothly enough that you rarely notice a shift happening at all.

What it isn't is a 4x4. Front-wheel drive means this is a tarmac family hauler, happy on paved roads, mall ramps and the odd graded track, with no business on Hatta's rougher trails or soft sand. If desert time is part of the plan, look at something with real all-wheel drive instead. For city and highway driving, which is what most weeks in Dubai actually look like, the size never feels like a burden from behind the wheel.

Three rows, the boot and the family week

This is a genuine seven-seater, not a five-seat SUV with a token bench bolted on. Three across the middle row, and a real third row that takes adults for the length of an airport run, not just a short school pickup. That's the Traverse's real case against cheaper seven-seat rivals: nobody in the back row is counting down the minutes.

Luggage tells the familiar three-row story, though. With all seven seats up, you get about 651 litres behind the third row, enough for a big shopping run or several soft bags, not seven hard suitcases. Fold that row down and it opens to roughly 1,640 litres, comfortably two or three large cases plus carry-ons. Drop the middle row too and you're near 2,780 litres, enough for flatpack furniture or a full villa move. The trade every three-row SUV makes still applies here: seven people and seven full suitcases won't both fit at the same time. Decide which one actually matters for that trip before you pack.

Fuel, heat and the size on Dubai roads

Chevrolet's combined figure for this FWD V6 is around 11 L/100km, but that's a lab number. In real Dubai driving, with a full cabin and the AC working through the afternoon, expect closer to 13 or 14. The 73-litre tank still gives a decent range between fills, somewhere near 550 km across a mixed week of city and highway driving. Your rental includes 250 km a day, and anything past that costs AED 0.5 per extra kilometre, so a big day trip out to Al Ain or Hatta is worth adding up before you leave. Salik tolls and any RTA fines during the rental are yours to settle, the same as with every car here.

Size matters more on the road than it does at speed. At just over 5.1 metres long and close to two metres wide, the Traverse asks for a little more care in tight multi-storey bays and Marina ramps than a mid-size crossover would. Ground clearance sits around 191 mm, enough to clear speed bumps and a steep mall ramp without any drama.

Heat is the question every renter should ask before a July booking, and a cabin this size needs real time to recover after sitting in an open lot. The front vents pull hard once you're moving, and rear vents mean the second and third rows get their own cold air rather than whatever drifts back from the dash. Give it a few minutes with the engine running before everyone climbs in, and park in shade or a covered bay when you can. It gets there. It just takes longer than it would in a smaller car.

Who should rent it, and who should size down or up

Book the Traverse 2020 if you're six or seven people travelling together for a week, especially with an airport run or a long highway day somewhere in the plan. The third row genuinely works for adults, the V6 carries the load without strain, and the boot still manages bags once that row folds down.

Skip it if it's two or three of you running errands around the city. You'll spend the week parking a five-metre SUV and feeding a V6 for space nobody's using, and a compact or mid-size crossover does that job for less at the pump and in tight bays. If the plan includes real off-road time, this FWD Traverse isn't the car for it either, so look at something built for sand and gravel instead. For the group-of-seven Dubai week it's actually built for, though, it's hard to beat for the money. Minimum age to rent is 25.