Rent Mazda CX-5 2023 in Dubai

We can have a Mazda CX-5 2023 parked outside your building in Dubai in one to two hours, with a no-deposit option and a debit card accepted if that is what you carry. That delivery matters here more than it does with a small hatchback, because the question most people are quietly asking about this car is whether a 4.5 metre SUV is going to be a headache in the car park under their tower. It is a genuine mid-size SUV sitting in our economy column, and the answer on parking is friendlier than the tape measure suggests. The rest of this page is what a week in one is actually like.

Living with 4,575 mm of car in a city of tight bays

The body measures 4,575 x 1,845 x 1,675 mm, which puts it within a few centimetres of a mid-size sedan for length. Width is the number that decides how you feel in an older multi-storey, and at 1,845 mm the CX-5 is average for the class rather than wide. Bays built in the 2000s take it with enough room to open a door properly, and the mirrors fold. Where you notice the length is reversing out of a bay between two large SUVs, and that is what the camera and the sensors are for.

Ground clearance is 193 mm. That figure is the reason this car is relaxing in a city that loves an aggressive speed bump. The steep ramps at the older malls, the ones that make sedan drivers slow to walking pace and wince anyway, are a non-event. You stop thinking about the underside of the car by the second day.

Behind the rear seats there is about 440 litres of boot. Two large hard cases go in upright with room left for soft bags on top, and the rear bench folds to a floor that is close to flat if you have a bulky pickup to make. It seats five, and only five. A group of six should be booking a different shape entirely rather than hoping the back is roomier than it reads.

Key specs

How it behaves once you are up to speed

The 2.5-litre engine makes 188 hp and 252 Nm and sends it through a conventional six-speed automatic. Naturally aspirated, so there is nothing to wait for when you ask it to move, and the gearbox responds to the throttle rather than to a computer's guess about what you meant. Joining Al Khail from a short slip road with four people aboard is a normal manoeuvre, not a project.

At a steady 120 it sits quietly and tracks straight, and the steering has enough weight that you are not making small corrections all the time. Crosswind on the open stretches barely moves it. A hard overtake with a full car and the air conditioning working is the one moment where you plan ahead instead of just pressing, which is fair for a 2.5 without a turbo. Body control through a long interchange curve is better than most raised cars manage.

One thing to get right before you book. Some grades of this car drive the front wheels and some drive all four, and the page you booked from does not tell you which one is coming. Do not assume all-wheel drive, and ask the desk if it genuinely matters to your plan. Either way, the all-wheel-drive system here is built for wet tarmac and gravel, not sand. There is no low range and 193 mm of clearance is a raised road car, not an off-roader. Anyone with a dune plan should be renting a proper 4x4 and enjoying it more.

Running costs are undramatic. The manufacturer combined figure is about 7 L/100 km, real Dubai driving with the air conditioning fighting the heat lands nearer 9 or 10, and on a 56 to 58 litre tank that works out to roughly 600 km between fills. Most people fill once in a week. Mileage is 300 km a day with anything beyond that at AED 0.5 per kilometre, and Salik tolls and any RTA fines during your booking come back to you.

The first few minutes after it has been sitting in the sun

Nothing parked outdoors in a Dubai August is pleasant to get into, and this is a bigger cabin than a hatchback, so there is more hot air to shift. Give it a head start. Windows down for the first thirty seconds while you pull away, then close them, recirculate, and let the fan work. The front vents move a serious amount of air and the cabin is properly sealed and insulated, which is where the extra money in this car quietly shows up. From memory of handing these over in July, two or three minutes is enough to make it comfortable.

Rear seat cooling depends on the grade, so if you are putting small children in the back on a bad afternoon, give the system those few extra minutes before you load them in rather than assuming they get their own vents. Child seats are required for under-fours and belts are mandatory in every seat, and we can fit a seat before delivery if you ask.

Book it, or book something else

Rent the CX-5 2023 if there are two to five of you, you want the height and the boot of a real SUV, and you still have to park in ordinary Dubai bays every day. That combination is the whole argument for this car. It is quiet on the highway, comfortable on a long airport run, and small enough in the ways that matter around town.

Book something else in two cases. If your week involves six or more people, this is five seats and no amount of optimism changes that, so take a seven-seater. And if you are heading onto soft sand, take a 4x4 with low range, whichever drivetrain this one turns up with. For everyone in between, it is one of the better cars we hand over at this money.