Rent Hyundai STARIA 2024 in Dubai

Moving nine people and their bags across Dubai usually means two cars and a lot of texting about who rides with whom. The Hyundai Staria 2024 ends that problem, and we rent it across Dubai with payment sorted on delivery, cards, cash, or your phone wallet, so nobody scrambles for a deposit before the keys change hands. It is a full nine-seat van wearing a spaceship body, built to carry a big group and a boot full of luggage in one trip. That is the whole case for it: if you genuinely need the seats, almost nothing else does the job as comfortably. If you don't, a seven-seat SUV will be easier to live with.

Who the Staria is actually for

Think airport collections for a visiting family, a work crew heading to a site, or a wedding party that needs to move together. The Staria seats nine, and unlike a packed seven-seater, the third row here is a place an adult will sit for an hour without complaint. The middle and back rows get their own headroom because the roof stays tall all the way back, and the sliding doors mean you load the kids or the grandparents without swinging a heavy door into the car beside you in a tight bay.

The flip side is honest enough. This is a van, and it drives like one. The 3.5-litre V6 makes a healthy 249 horsepower, but it is pulling a long, heavy body, so loaded with nine people and luggage it gathers speed deliberately rather than eagerly. The 9.2-second sprint to 100 is a figure for an empty van. Fully loaded, you plan overtakes on Sheikh Zayed Road rather than dart through gaps.

Does my whole group and luggage fit

Yes, and this is where the Staria separates from a stretched SUV. With all nine seats up you still get around 831 litres behind the last row, enough for a real airport run, several large cases plus the soft bags that come with them. Drop the rear bench and that space roughly doubles. A seven-seat SUV asks you to choose between the seventh seat and the suitcases. The Staria rarely makes you choose.

How often you'll stop for fuel

A V6 hauling this much body is never going to sip. Reckon on roughly 10.5 litres per 100 km in mixed driving, and worse in slow Dubai traffic with the AC working hard and a full load. The 75-litre tank still gives you something near 700 km between fills in steady conditions, so a week of school runs and mall trips won't have you at the pump constantly. Plan one proper fill for an airport-and-back day with the van full. Remember Salik tolls run on your account while the van is with you, and any RTA fines during the rental come back to the renter, so the gantries you cross and the speed you keep are on you.

Heat, and cooling a cabin this big

A van this size is a lot of air to chill, and a Dubai afternoon in the high 40s leaves the cabin baking. The Staria's saving grace is that the air conditioning reaches every row, with vents feeding the middle and back, not just the front seats. After a hot park it takes a few minutes to genuinely cool, longer than a small hatchback simply because there's so much more cabin. Crack the windows or run the fan for a minute before you load up, and the back two rows will be comfortable by the time you're on the road. Belts are mandatory in all nine seats, and children under four need a proper child seat, worth sorting before an airport pickup with little ones.

Living with its size in Dubai

At over 5.2 metres long and nearly two metres tall, the Staria asks for a little planning. Many multi-storey car parks around Marina and the malls have height barriers around 2 metres, and this van sits right at the edge of that, so check the clearance sign before you commit to a ramp. Bays feel snug, and U-turns need a wider arc than you're used to in a sedan. The upside of the height is visibility: you sit up high with big glass, and the sensors and camera make reversing easier than the dimensions suggest. On the open road to DXB or DWC it cruises calmly, settled and quiet once it's up to pace. The 186 mm of ground clearance clears speed bumps and mall ramps without scraping, though this is a road van, not something for soft sand.

The verdict

Rent the Staria when the nine seats are the point. For a large family, a group trip, or shuttle duty where everyone and the luggage has to move in one vehicle, nothing in this class is more comfortable or more honest about space. If your group is six or fewer and you're not carrying a wall of suitcases, a seven-seat SUV will be cheaper to fuel, easier to park, and quicker to thread through traffic. Buy the Staria's size only if you're using all of it. When you are, it's the right call, and we'll have it at your door in Dubai within an hour or two.