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Virtual Adviser's™ opinion
Two significantly similar cars, no doubt about that. Still, each one has something different to offer. Having both cars powered by diesel engines and utilizing the 4-door sedan body style within the same 'Luxury car' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (4 x 4 for the BMW and front in the case of the SAAB). The first one has a BMW-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 235hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 150hp engine designed by FIAT.
SafetyBoth vehicles got tested by European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), with the SAAB being a slightly better choice apparently. Moving further on, let's take a closer look at some additional safety-related facts. Both vehicles belong to the luxury car segment, which is generally a very good thing safety-wise, still it doesn't help us solve our dilemma, does it? Furthermore, taking kerb weight as an important factor into account, the German car offers a considerable difference of 11% more metal.
ReliabilityReliability is not the best thing to consider on the make level, but it is worth mentioning that SAAB does have a slight advantage, at least on all of the models level. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of BMW with an average rating of 4.2, and models under the SAAB badge with 4.1 out of 5. The same official information place 5 Series as average reliability-wise, and 9-5 is more or less at the same level.That apart, owners of different cars powered by the same engine as the German car rank it on average as 5.0, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.1 out of 5.
Performance & Fuel economyBMW is way more agile, reaching 100km/h in 4.1 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 242 kilometers per hour, 37km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy things look pretty much the same for both cars, averaging around 6.4 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (44 mpg), in combined cycle.
Verdict
BMW appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In this case though, it seems that both cars show similar levels of passenger protection all together, so that won't break a tie. But one thing that actually could is the performance, with BMW outracing its opponent in any situation possible, making it better choice for boy racers. Fuel consumption is more or less the same. I believe that, when we take all into account, we have only one winner here - the BMW. In any case that's my personal view, built upon all the data available to me. What should decide here though is the way you feel about the two vehicles, and I hope you'll find my guidelines useful in the process. Also, you could use the oportunity to find out which car, everything taken into account, would be the perfect choice for you in the eyes of the virtual adviser™, among more than 12.000 different ones in our database.