Rent Mitsubishi Attrage 2023 in Dubai

A cheap car shouldn't tie up a chunk of your card for a week, so we rent the Mitsubishi Attrage 2023 in Dubai with a no-deposit option and bring it to wherever you are, usually inside an hour or two of booking. Debit cards and cash are both fine at the handover, and you can be 18 with us rather than the 21 most desks in the city ask for. What you're renting is a small four-door with one genuine talent, and that talent is the fuel bill. Almost everything else about this car is a compromise you accept in order to keep that number low.

The fuel bill is the whole argument

Mitsubishi quotes 4.8 litres per 100 km combined for the 1.2-litre three-cylinder, and unlike a lot of official economy claims, this one is close to reachable. Drive it the way people actually drive in Dubai, with the air conditioning working hard and a fair amount of crawling, and we see something nearer 6 to 6.5 litres per 100 km. That is our own estimate from cars coming back off rental, not a published figure, but it holds up well across the fleet.

Do the arithmetic on the 42-litre tank and you land at roughly 600 to 650 km of real Dubai driving between fills. For most renters that means one visit to a petrol station in a week, maybe two if you're commuting between emirates. Very few petrol cars we hand out will beat it, and none at this end of the price list.

The mileage allowance matters here too. You get 300 km a day included and pay AED 0.5 for each kilometre past that, so a normal week of school runs, office trips and mall parking never approaches the ceiling.

Key specifications

What fits inside, and what doesn't

The boot is the one place the Attrage genuinely outperforms its price. At 450 litres it swallows more than most hatchbacks renting for the same money, and the opening is wide enough that you aren't wrestling cases through a letterbox. Two large suitcases and a couple of soft bags go in without folding anything down, which covers a real airport run for two people with a week's luggage.

The back seat is the softer part of the claim. The 2,550 mm wheelbase gives adults enough knee room for a trip across town, and two child seats fit back there fine for a week. Four adults for anything longer than half an hour is where it starts to feel mean, particularly with the boot full.

Inside, expect hard plastics and a plain dashboard. Nothing about the cabin feels expensive because nothing about it is. If a finished interior is part of what makes a rental worth the money to you, this isn't your car.

Cooling a small cabin in July

Small cabins have one advantage in a Dubai August, and it's that there's less air to cool. Leave the Attrage in an uncovered car park at midday and it comes back down to something civilised in around five minutes of driving with the fans up, which is quicker than most larger sedans manage. The front vents pull hard.

Be realistic about the rear, though. There are no rear vents, so anyone in the back is relying on air travelling from the front, and on a full car in July the second row stays warmer than the first for a while. Park in shade where you can, and give it a minute with the windows cracked before you close everything up. The system copes with 45 degrees, but it isn't a car that pretends to have climate luxury.

Where it runs out of road

Around town, the CVT is exactly right. There are no gears hunting up and down in stop-start traffic, just a smooth pull away from every light, and the car is light enough that 76 hp never feels like a problem below 80 km/h. Parking is easy at 4,245 mm long and 1,670 mm wide, which means the tight bays in older multi-storey car parks and the awkward ramps around the Marina are a non-event.

Sheikh Zayed Road is where you meet the limits. With 100 Nm of torque and around 14 seconds to 100 km/h, merging needs planning rather than a right foot. Load four people and their luggage, run the air conditioning at full tilt, and an overtake above 100 km/h asks the engine for everything it has, with the CVT holding revs high and loud while it works. The car will happily sit at 120 all day. It just doesn't want to be hurried into it.

The usual Dubai rules apply as they do to any rental. Salik tolls and any RTA fines are passed on to you, seat belts are required in every seat, and children under four need a child seat, which we can add before delivery.

Who should skip it

Rent the Attrage if you're one or two people, you're doing city miles, and the fuel and rental cost is what you're actually optimising for. On that brief it's one of the smartest cars on our list, and the big boot means you don't sacrifice the airport run to get there.

Skip it if you regularly carry four adults, if a lot of your week is spent on the E11 between emirates, or if you want a cabin that feels finished. A Nissan Sunny gives you more rear space for a small step up, and a Honda City is the one to book if you want a small sedan that still feels comfortable at 120 with a full load. The Attrage doesn't try to be either of those. It's the car you rent when the running cost is the point, and on that count it's hard to argue with.