Rent Renault Symbol 2020 in Dubai

Two things make the Renault Symbol 2020 an easy yes for a no-fuss week in Dubai: we deliver it to your door in one to two hours, and we'll rent it to drivers from 18 when most of the market makes you wait until 21. If you're young, on a budget, or you just want a sensible automatic four-door without ceremony, this is one of the few cars that ticks all three. It's a plain economy sedan with a 1.6-litre engine, a real boot, and running costs low enough that you stop thinking about the pump. The point of this page is to tell you honestly where the Symbol does its job well and where you should book something bigger.

Getting the keys, and what it costs to run

The access is the first reason people choose it. Renting from 18 opens the door to drivers most fleets turn away, and the car arrives at your address rather than at a desk across town. Once you have it, the running side is just as easy. The 1.6-litre returns real combined economy around 15.6 km/l, and on a gentle week of city driving you'll see close to that. With a 50-litre tank, that's roughly 700 km of range between fills, so most renters stop once early in the week and then forget about petrol.

Fuel here is cheap to begin with, so even when you lean on Sheikh Zayed Road and economy dips, the Symbol stays inexpensive to keep moving. That's the whole case for an economy sedan over something thirstier.

Spec at a glance

The boot does the heavy lifting

This is the Symbol's quiet party trick. The boot holds 510 litres, which is a lot for an economy car and more than most rivals in the class. In practice it takes two large suitcases plus a couple of soft bags with the parcel shelf still in place. For a DXB or DWC airport pickup with a full family's luggage, that's the difference between everything fitting cleanly and stacking cases on the back seat. Need more room? Drop the rear bench and you've a long, flat space for a flat-pack run or the weekly shop for a big household.

The engine, and where it runs short

Under the bonnet sits a 1.6-litre making 102 hp through an automatic to the front wheels. Those are modest numbers and you feel them. Pulling away is fine and merging is fine, but a hard, sudden overtake is where the Symbol runs out of enthusiasm. Around town none of that matters: the automatic keeps things smooth in stop-start traffic, so you're never fighting a fiddly manual in the crawl. On the highway it'll sit at 120 comfortably, it just won't surge, so plan your overtakes rather than stab the throttle.

Parking and city size

At 4,354 mm long the Symbol is compact enough to make tight multi-storey bays and Marina parking genuinely easy, and you'll slot into spots a bigger sedan has to circle twice for. Ground clearance is around 145 mm, normal for a city car, so speed bumps and most mall ramps are no drama if you take the steepest at a sensible angle. It's not built for kerb-hopping or rough ground, so keep it on sealed roads. The light steering that feels vague at highway speed becomes an asset in car parks and on U-turns, and the boxy shape makes the corners easy to place.

Heat, AC and a cabin that copes

Dubai summers are the real test, and the Symbol's small cabin is quietly on your side, because less air to cool means it stays cold once the AC catches up. Leave it baking in a mall car park at 45 degrees and the first minute is rough, like any car. Crack the windows, dump the worst of the heat, then let the front vents do their work. There are no rear air vents, so back-seat passengers rely on cold air pushed from the front, which is fine for two kids on short hops but worth knowing if four adults are aboard for a longer drive. The plastics are plain and hard rather than plush, but they shrug off the heat and don't creak.

A couple of Dubai practicalities sit with you. Salik tolls run on your rental and pass to you, as do any RTA fines picked up during the hire, so drive to the limits and the gantries sort themselves out. A child seat is required for under-fours, and the back seat takes one without a fight.

Who should rent it, and who shouldn't

Rent the Symbol if you want a cheap, sensible automatic four-door in Dubai, you're 18 to 20 and shut out of most fleets, or you simply value boot space and a low fuel bill over polish. It's the right call for a couple, a small family, or anyone doing regular airport runs who needs cases to fit. The drive is unremarkable and the cabin is basic, and that's the honest deal for the rate.

Skip it if your week is mostly tight city-centre parking with no luggage, where a small hatchback is easier to thread. And size up to a larger sedan or a crossover if you regularly carry four adults on the highway, want stronger overtaking pull, or expect rear AC vents and a quieter cabin at speed. The Symbol knows its job: cheap, roomy, dependable transport. Ask it to be more than that and it'll let you down.