Rent Renault Symbol 2020 in Dubai

For a week of school runs, mall trips and the odd airport pickup, the cheapest sensible car to keep fuelled in Dubai is usually a small sedan like the Renault Symbol 2020, and we'll bring it to your door inside one to two hours. The case for it starts at the pump: a 1.6-litre that sips fuel, a tank that lasts most renters the whole week, and a real boot that swallows the family's cases. The engine is modest and the cabin is plain, but for a couple, a small family or anyone watching the meter, the Symbol does the boring jobs for almost nothing. This page is about whether that trade fits your week.

Running cost is the reason to book it

The Symbol's 1.6-litre four 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 works out to roughly 700 km of range between fills. For most renters doing the daily loop of school, mall and a cross-town meeting, that means one stop at the pump early in the week and then forgetting petrol exists.

Lean on Sheikh Zayed Road at speed every day and economy drops, as it does in any car. Even then the Symbol stays cheap to run, which is the entire point of choosing an economy sedan over something thirstier.

The engine, and where it runs out

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

Spec at a glance

The boot punches above the price

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 cars in this class manage. In practice it swallows 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 load space for a flat-pack run or the weekly shop for a big household.

Parking, ramps and city size

At 4354 mm long the Symbol is compact enough to make tight multi-storey bays and Marina parking genuinely easy. You'll slot into spots a bigger sedan has to circle twice for. Ground clearance is 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. Less air to cool means that once the AC catches up, it stays cold. 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 luxurious, but they shrug off heat and don't creak.

A few 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 the cheapest sensible automatic four-door in Dubai and you 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.