Rent Mitsubishi ASX 2024 in Dubai

A black Mitsubishi ASX 2024 looks sharper outside a Dubai hotel or a Downtown tower than the white and silver units that make up most of this fleet, and that's the actual trade you're weighing before you book it. Dark paint pulls in more of the sun's heat than a light colour does, so a black ASX parked at the mall for a few hours in August comes back with a hotter seat, a hotter wheel, and a cabin that needs a minute longer to settle than a white one would. We still get the car to your door within one to two hours of booking, and underneath the colour the ASX hasn't changed: a plain 2.0-litre engine, a CVT automatic, five seats. The real question for a Dubai summer week is whether the styling is worth managing that extra heat for.

Power delivery and what it's like to drive

Mitsubishi keeps the ASX's engine bay simple: a 2.0-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder with MIVEC valve timing, making 150 hp and 197 Nm, sent to the front wheels through a CVT automatic. A higher grade of this generation carries all-wheel drive elsewhere in the GCC lineup, but the unit we hand over is front-wheel drive, which is the setup a Dubai rental week actually calls for. There's no turbo lag to plan around and no hybrid system to think about, just an engine and gearbox pairing Mitsubishi has run largely unchanged for years.

On the road that translates into patience rather than urgency. Building up to highway speed takes a beat, so merging onto Sheikh Zayed Road wants a proper gap rather than a quick dart into the lane. Settle in around 120 km/h and the cabin quiets down, with the CVT only raising its voice if you ask for a hard overtake. It isn't a car that rewards enthusiasm, but it is consistent, and consistency matters more than an extra 20 horsepower on roads you don't drive every day.

Cargo space, back seat and what a week's trip needs

At 4,355 mm long and 1,810 mm wide, the ASX sits toward the smaller end of the compact SUV class, which helps when you're threading it through a tight tower basement or a packed Marina mall ramp instead of working a bigger SUV into the same space. Ground clearance of about 195 mm clears speed bumps and steep driveway ramps without slowing to a crawl, though it rides on standard road tyres, so treat that clearance as a city advantage and not an invitation onto sand.

The boot holds 358 litres, which in real terms is one large suitcase and a couple of soft bags, not three hard-shell cases stacked on top of each other. For a DXB or DWC pickup with two large cases, plan to fold part of the rear bench for the second one, or keep it on the back seat next to a light passenger. Front seats suit two adults well, with a slightly raised driving position that's most of the reason to pick an SUV over a sedan here. The back seat handles two adults on an ordinary trip, or two kids with a booster between them, without complaint. Add a third adult and legroom becomes the limiting factor fast, fine for a short hop across town, not for a longer drive.

A black cabin, fuel and running cost

Combined fuel economy sits around 8 L/100km, closer to 9 in stop-start city traffic and closer to 7 once you're holding a steady highway speed. The 63-litre tank turns that into roughly 550 to 600 km of mixed Dubai driving, usually one stop at the pump across a normal week.

The colour matters more here than the fuel figures do. A black exterior holds more heat off direct sun than a lighter one, so on a parked afternoon the dashboard, the seats and especially the steering wheel run hotter to the touch than they would on a white ASX. The AC still catches up quickly once you're moving, because the cabin itself is compact and doesn't have much air to cool, but give it a proper minute rather than climbing straight in and expecting cold air. Crack a window before you get back in if you can, and don't rest a bare arm on the door trim for the first few minutes.

Mileage on this ASX is 250 km a day, and anything past that costs AED 0.5 per extra kilometre. An ordinary day of city errands, a school run, a mall stop, an airport pickup, rarely comes close to that ceiling, so the daily cap covers real use with room left over. It only gets tight on the one day you leave the city for somewhere like Hatta or Al Ain, where the round trip alone can eat most of the allowance before you've driven a single local errand. Salik tolls and any RTA fines picked up during the rental are the renter's responsibility, and child seats are required for anyone under four. Minimum age to rent the ASX is 25, worth confirming before you book if you're close to that line.

Who should book the black ASX, and who should size up

Book this one if you like the way a black SUV looks against Dubai's skyline and you're not bothered by a hotter seat for the first minute of a drive. Everything else about the car is exactly as plain and predictable as any other ASX in the fleet: a boot for one case and some bags, a back seat for two adults or two kids, and a daily mileage figure that covers an ordinary week without close counting.

Size up if you're regularly carrying four adults with full luggage or want more shove for confident highway overtaking. The Outlander or another mid-size SUV in the fleet handles both with less strain. Pick a lighter colour instead if the extra cabin heat genuinely bothers you and the black paint isn't the reason you're choosing this car. For a couple or small family who wants SUV space, doesn't mind the trade a dark colour makes with the sun, and keeps the week mostly local with maybe one day trip planned in, the black ASX 2024 does the job the rest of the fleet does, just with sharper looks and a warmer wheel to start.