Rent Nissan Patrol 2021 in Dubai

Picture a family of six landing at DXB with a week of Dubai ahead and a stack of cases no normal SUV will swallow. That is the job the Nissan Patrol 2021 was built for, and we bring it to your villa, hotel or the terminal itself, usually inside one to two hours of booking. This is the Y62 Patrol, the 5.6-litre V8 workhorse half the city seems to drive, not the redesigned model that came along later. What this page settles is whether that much car actually fits your trip, or whether you'll just be renting seven seats and a thirsty engine you spend the week trying to slot into a tower car park.

Fitting seven people and their cases

The Patrol seats seven, and it means seven properly. The middle row is broad enough for three children side by side or two adults who don't touch elbows, and it slides and tips so climbing into the back isn't a wrestling match. The third row is the part that surprises people, because grown-ups can sit there for the drive to Abu Dhabi rather than folding themselves in for five minutes.

Luggage is the trade-off you plan around. With all three rows up, the space behind the last seats holds a few soft bags and a couple of backpacks, not a wall of hard cases. Fold one half of the third row and you get a long bay for suitcases while still seating six. Drop the whole row and a week's luggage for a large family disappears inside with room over. The only awkward day is the rare one where you need every seat filled and full cases at the same time, and on most trips that day never arrives.

What a week in the V8 costs to run

The V8 is glorious and it is not cheap to feed. A two-and-a-half-tonne SUV grinding through city traffic with the AC on full pulls closer to 16 or 17 litres per 100 km than the combined figure suggests, and the number climbs further the more you crawl. The saving grace is the 140-litre tank, which gives you a genuinely long run between fills even with a heavy right foot, so you're not hunting for a station every other day.

Mileage is the figure to keep an eye on. The daily allowance is 250 km, then AED 0.5 for every kilometre beyond it, which covers school runs, mall trips and airport pickups with plenty to spare. A full day out to Hatta or Abu Dhabi and back is worth a quick tally first. Salik tolls and any RTA fines pass to you as the renter, the same as on any car we hand over. One thing to confirm when you book: a handful of 2021 Patrols carry the smaller 4.0-litre V6 rather than the V8. It still moves the car along, but with far less punch, so if the V8 is why you want it, ask us and we'll tell you which engine your unit has.

From the E11 to the dunes, keeping cool in between

On Sheikh Zayed Road the Patrol feels planted and unbothered. It holds 120 without effort, stays quiet, and the V8 has so much in hand that pulling out to overtake a lorry needs no run-up at all. For something past five metres long, reaching 100 km/h in roughly six and a half seconds still catches people out at the lights.

Heat is the question every renter asks, and a cabin this size needs a strong system to tame it. After hours baking in July sun the Patrol drops the temperature quickly once you get back in, and vents feed the second and third rows, so nobody in the back is stuck breathing warm air while the front gets all the cold. Parking is where the size bites. At 5.14 metres and nearly two wide, tight multi-storey bays and Marina ramps ask for the cameras and a little patience. The 275 mm of ground clearance pays that back everywhere else, flattening speed bumps and steep ramps you'd otherwise slow to a crawl for.

Off the tarmac the capability is real, not styling. With low range and proper body-on-frame 4x4 hardware, the dunes are genuinely reachable. That said, dune driving is a skill and not a switch. Drop your tyre pressures, carry recovery gear, and go out in convoy with someone who knows the route. Plenty of the Patrols we rent never touch sand, and that's a perfectly good way to use one too.

Who this Patrol suits, and who should rent smaller

Rent the Nissan Patrol 2021 if you're a big family or a group moving with luggage, or if your week honestly mixes highway miles, seven passengers and a day in the sand. Nothing in this class does the people-and-cargo job with fewer compromises, and the V8 turns long drives into nothing. You'll need to be 25 to take the keys.

Rent smaller if it's one or two of you doing city errands and the odd airport run. You'll spend the week placing a five-metre SUV into bays it barely fits and feeding a big engine for work a mid-size crossover or a sedan handles for far less. The Patrol is a lot of car, and worth every centimetre when the trip calls for it. Book it for the load and the group, not for the badge on the grille.