Rent Kia Soul 2021 in Dubai

Rent the Kia Soul 2021 in Dubai and the extra kilometre rate is worth knowing before you even get to the shape or the engine: AED 0.3 for every kilometre past your included distance, one of the lowest overage rates on our whole fleet. Most cars on this list charge close to double that once the allowance runs out. We hand this one over at your door within one to two hours, in a boxy white five seat hatchback that looks like nothing else in traffic. The rest of this page is about whether that cheap mileage, paired with a genuinely useful cabin, makes the Soul the right call for your week.

The 1.6 automatic, and where the boxy shape helps or hurts

The 1.6-litre four makes 124 hp and 151 Nm, sent to the front wheels through a 6-speed torque converter automatic rather than the CVT that most rivals in this class run. That gearbox matters more than the horsepower figure suggests. It holds a gear instead of flaring through the revs while a CVT hunts for one, so pulling away from a red light on Al Wasl feels immediate rather than delayed.

The tall, square body is the trade off. Push the Soul to 120 km/h on Sheikh Zayed Road and it settles there without strain, but overtaking a slower truck with four aboard and a loaded boot takes some planning rather than a stab of the throttle, since a boxy front pushes more air than a low hatch ever will. None of that shows up around town. The extra ride height gives you a clear sightline over the SUVs stacked at a junction, and the car turns and parks with the ease of something smaller than it looks.

What the boot and back seat hold

At 354 litres with the rear seats up, the boot already beats most small hatches in this price bracket, and the shape adds more than the number suggests. The load bay is tall and square rather than tapered, so a stroller, a stack of moving boxes or a suitcase stood on its end slides straight in instead of forcing the angled packing job a sloped hatchback demands. Two large cases and a soft bag clear a DXB or DWC run comfortably, and folding the rear bench opens a flat floor for anything bulkier.

The back seat benefits from the same box. A tall adult climbs in without ducking, and there's enough headroom to fit a rear-facing child seat without wrestling the front seatback out of the way, worth knowing given Dubai's rule that under fours need one. Legroom is fair rather than generous, comfortable for two adults or three kids on the school run. Push a fourth adult in with everyone's luggage loaded for an airport trip and it tightens up, the same wall most cars this size hit no matter how tall the roof stands.

Outside, 4,195 mm of length and 1,800 mm of width mean it drops into a tight multi storey bay or basement parking without a three point turn, and 170 mm of clearance shrugs off speed bumps and steep mall ramps. Don't read that clearance as a green light for Hatta's tracks. This is a front-wheel-drive road car on road tyres, not a soft roader.

5,000 km to spend as you like, fuel stops and cabin heat

The Soul's included distance works differently from most of the fleet. Instead of a daily cap, you get 5,000 km to use across the whole rental, however long it runs. Book it for a week and you would need to cover over 700 km a day to threaten that ceiling. Rent it for a month and 5,000 km divided across 30 days still averages out to about 165 km a day, more generous than most of the daily allowances quoted elsewhere on the fleet. Push past the total and extra kilometres cost AED 0.3 each, the rate that keeps a longer Dubai stay or a run of day trips out of the city cheap to drive.

Official combined economy sits around 7.9 litres per 100 km. Real Dubai driving, with the AC working against the heat and traffic that rarely flows freely, pushes that closer to 9 or 9.5. Even at that real world rate, the 54-litre tank carries you roughly 550 to 600 km in city use, so a normal week of errands and commuting means one stop at the pump.

The tall glasshouse that makes the cabin feel open also lets in more sun than a low hatch with small windows, so give it a few extra minutes to cool after it has sat outside at 45 degrees. The front vents pull hard once you're moving. There's no dedicated rear vent on this trim, just airflow carried back from the front, fine for a short hop but slower to properly cool the back row on the worst afternoons. Park in shade where you can and it stops being a problem. Salik tolls and any RTA fines fall to you as the renter, as with every car on this fleet.

Who gets the most from this Soul, and who should look elsewhere

Book the Soul if you plan to put real distance on it: a longer stay, day trips beyond the city, or a heavy week of driving, since the cheap overage rate and the 5,000 km pool reward exactly that kind of use. One or two people, or a small family running errands and doing the school circuit, get the full benefit of the tall cabin without ever pushing the modest engine hard.

Size up if you're regularly carrying four adults with a full boot, or want stronger overtaking punch for long stretches of the E11. A Seltos or a Creta covers that brief with less strain from the engine at a similar running cost. Anything involving Hatta or a desert track rules the Soul out too, since it's front-wheel drive built for tarmac, not sand.

One thing to flag before you book: the minimum age here is 25, higher than most of the hatchbacks on this fleet, so this isn't the car for a younger visiting driver even if the shape and the mileage deal look right. We deliver it to your door within one to two hours. For someone who wants a car that looks different, loads well and doesn't punish you for driving it more than a typical week, the Soul earns its place.