Rent Hyundai Elantra 2020 in Dubai

Silver does real work in a Dubai summer. It reflects more of the sun's heat off the bonnet and roof than a dark colour holds onto, so a parked cabin doesn't bake quite as hard, and it's the shade GCC buyers keep coming back to because it hides road dust between washes and holds resale value better than paint that ages badly. That's what you get on this Hyundai Elantra 2020 rental, delivered to your door in Dubai within one to two hours of booking. It's also the last Elantra generation before Hyundai switched the car to a CVT, worth knowing before you decide what this one actually drives like.

A 6-speed automatic, not the CVT the newer Elantras get

This 2020 car carries the outgoing AD-generation body, the shape Hyundai sold across the GCC before the sharper CN7 arrived for 2021. Under the bonnet sits a 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol making around 148 hp, sent to the front wheels through a genuine 6-speed automatic rather than the CVT every newer Elantra on our fleet uses. That difference is bigger than it sounds. A CVT holds the engine at one note under hard acceleration; this gearbox steps through its ratios the way most drivers expect, so pulling onto Sheikh Zayed Road from a slip road feels like the car is working with you rather than winding up first. It isn't a quick car, 0 to 100 km/h takes a shade under ten seconds, but it merges and overtakes without hesitation and settles into a quiet cruise past 100. Around town the shifts are smooth enough that passengers won't notice them.

Luggage and legroom in the older shape

The boot holds 408 litres, enough for one large suitcase and a couple of soft bags without wrestling the lid shut, but not the three-case pile a family of four brings home from a trip. A single traveller or a couple flying into DXB will find it fits everything with room spare; add kids and their school bags to that suitcase and you're better off folding part of the rear seat down for the odd bulky item. The rear bench seats two adults in real comfort, with the 2,700 mm wheelbase giving proper knee room for the class, and a third passenger for a short hop across town.

At 4.62 metres long and 1.8 metres wide, this Elantra is a touch shorter and narrower than the newer Elantra shape, which makes it easy to place in a tight Marina or Business Bay basement bay. Ground clearance sits around 135 mm, enough for standard speed bumps and mall ramps taken at a normal pace, though a steep ramp entry still wants care rather than speed. Being silver helps day to day too: the dust that collects on Dubai roads between washes shows up far less here than it would on a black or dark grey car, useful if you're keeping this one for a few weeks rather than a few days.

How far a tank goes, and how fast the AC catches up

Fuel is where an older Elantra still holds its own against newer metal. The 2.0-litre returns about 13.5 km per litre in mixed Dubai driving, and the 50-litre tank is good for roughly 650 km before the needle drops low, so a normal week of commuting and errands means one stop at the pump. The rental includes 250 km a day, with anything past that billed at AED 0.5 per extra kilometre, comfortable for daily driving around the city and only worth a thought if you're bolting a long weekend trip onto it. Salik tolls and any RTA fines are the renter's to cover, and seat belts in every seat plus a child seat for under-fours are non-negotiable, the same as any car we run.

Left in the sun through a Dubai afternoon, the cabin heats up the way any dark-interior sedan does, but a car this size cools fast once the AC gets going, since there's less air to chill than in a crossover. The air conditioning here is the straightforward manual kind rather than the twin-zone system on the newest Elantras, but the front vents pull hard and the worst of it passes within the first minute after you climb back in. Crack the windows for a few seconds before you start the engine and it clears even quicker.

The renter this Elantra fits, and the one it doesn't

Rent the Hyundai Elantra 2020 if you want a proven automatic sedan for city driving and don't need the newest cabin tech: a single traveller or a couple covering Dubai's daily mix of commuting, airport runs and weekend errands on a tight fuel budget. The 6-speed automatic is a genuine plus if you'd rather feel a car change gear than have it hum along on a CVT, and the silver paint means it still looks presentable after a few weeks of road dust without a wash. We rent this car from age 25.

Look elsewhere if you need to carry four adults with a full load of luggage. The 408-litre boot and rear seat get tight fast at that point, and a mid-size sedan with more room, or a small SUV, will serve you better. The same goes for anyone planning a Hatta trip or anything off tarmac, since this is a front-wheel-drive sedan with about 135 mm of clearance, built for the road and not for gravel. For everyone else doing ordinary Dubai driving on a sensible budget, it's a solid pick.