Rent Nissan Patrol 2020 in Dubai

Ask any rental desk in this city which SUV survives a decade of back-to-back bookings without drama, and the Nissan Patrol 2020 is usually the answer before the question finishes. We've run this generation through enough summers, Hatta weekends and Sheikh Zayed Road commutes to know exactly what it's good at and where it starts to strain, and we bring it to your door within one to two hours of booking. This isn't a car we're guessing about. It's the one with the longest track record in a fleet built around proven metal, and this page is about what that history actually tells you before you commit a week to it.

Under the bonnet: the 5.6 V8 and the 4WD hardware

This is a Y62-generation Patrol, the body-on-frame wagon Nissan built through the 2010s and into the 2020 model year, well before the redesigned generation that replaced it. Pop the bonnet and you find a 5.6-litre V8 producing 400 hp at 5,800 rpm and 560 Nm at 4,000 rpm, paired with a seven-speed automatic and Nissan's All-Mode 4WD system with a genuine low-range transfer case. None of that is new information, and that's the point. We've had this exact drivetrain in the fleet long enough to watch it go through Dubai summer after Dubai summer without the usual excuses that come with high-mileage rental cars: no overheating dramas in gridlock, no gearbox hesitation after a hundred short trips in a week.

What that record actually proves is narrower than "reliable SUV." It proves the V8 pulls hard from a stop, about 6.6 seconds to 100 km/h and on to a claimed top speed near 210 km/h, and it keeps that composure fully loaded with people and cargo, a condition most family SUVs quietly struggle with. It also proves the 4WD hardware holds up to repeated sand runs rather than one nice photo followed by a service bill. One caveat worth passing on: a portion of the 2020 Patrols on the road here carry the smaller 4.0-litre V6 instead. It's a usable engine, just noticeably calmer, so if the V8 is the reason you're booking, ask us to confirm the engine on your unit first.

Cargo math: seats up, one folded, or the row out entirely

Seven seats, and the Patrol treats the number honestly rather than as a spec-sheet technicality. The second row is wide enough for three across or two adults who don't have to negotiate elbow room, and it slides and folds forward cleanly, so getting to row three doesn't involve climbing over anything. Unlike a lot of three-row SUVs, adults can actually sit back there for a real drive, not just the short hop between the villa and the mall.

Cargo is where you plan rather than assume. With all seven seats up, the space behind the last row handles a couple of soft holdalls and a stroller, not a wall of hard-shell suitcases. Fold down one side of the third row and you get a genuine load bay long enough for cases while still carrying five or six people. Take the whole row out of play and it swallows a large family's luggage for a week with room over. The situation that catches renters out is needing all seven seats and every case at once, and on most bookings, city runs, airport pickups, day trips, that situation simply doesn't come up.

What a V8 this size costs to feed and cool

A 5.6-litre V8 in a two-and-a-half-tonne SUV was never going to sip fuel, and the combined figure of around 14 L/100km undersells what you'll actually see. Stop-start Dubai traffic with the air conditioning flat out tends to push real consumption toward 16 to 17 L/100km. The 140-litre tank makes that bearable, giving you several days of normal driving, school runs, errands, the odd airport trip, before you need to think about a station again.

Mileage is the number that actually needs planning here. The daily allowance is 250 km, and every kilometre past that costs AED 0.5. That's not a punishing rate on its own, but a full day out toward the mountains or a long loop around the emirate adds up faster than the city driving most renters mentally budget for, so it's worth totting up your route before you leave rather than finding the overage at drop-off. You'll need to be 25 to take the keys, and as with any car we hand over, Salik tolls and RTA fines are the renter's responsibility.

Cooling a cabin this size down is a genuine job, and the white bodywork earns a small amount of credit for it. Pale paint reflects more heat than dark paint, so the panels run cooler after an afternoon in a July car park, though that advantage stops at the glass, and a windscreen full of direct sun bakes the interior regardless of colour. Get back in and give it a couple of minutes. The front vents pull the cabin down fast, and because the rear vents are properly fed, the third row isn't stuck breathing whatever warm air drifts back from the front.

Parking asks for the same patience. At just over 5.1 metres nose to tail, the Patrol wants a full-length bay, not the gap near the trolley return, and multi-storey ramps in the Marina reward slow, deliberate driving over confidence. The 275mm of ground clearance pays that back on the way there, turning speed bumps and steep mall ramps into non-events instead of things you slow to a crawl for.

The right renter for this Patrol, and who should size down

Book the Patrol if you're travelling as a large family or a group with real luggage, or if your week actually mixes highway distance, a full complement of passengers and a day heading toward the dunes. The years of history behind this exact drivetrain are the reason to trust it over a newer, less proven alternative, and a V8 with this much reserve makes long distances feel shorter than they are. You'll need to be 25 to rent it, and that per-kilometre overage charge rewards a bit of route planning rather than punishing it, so it's worth the five minutes to work out beforehand.

Size down if it's one or two of you handling errands and the occasional airport run. You'd be parking a five-metre SUV built for seven and feeding a thirsty V8 for a job a mid-size crossover handles for a fraction of the fuel and none of the parking stress. The Patrol earns the space and the running cost back on the week that genuinely needs seven seats and real ground clearance, not as a default pick because the name is the biggest one on the list.