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Compare any two cars and get our Virtual Adviser™ opinion

Car #1
Make
Model
Variant
Engine
Car #2
Make
Model
Variant
Engine

compare selected cars
1995. - 2006.
S - Sports car
cabriolet, 2 door
front
Badges
Production
Vehicle class
Body style
Wheel drive
Safety
1998. - 2003.
S - Sports car
cabriolet, 2 door
rear

Marketing

Dimensons & Outlines

4285 mm
1780 mm
1315 mm
147 liters
147 liters
70 liters
Length
Width
Height
Boot (min)
Boot (max)
Fuel tank
4567 mm
1722 mm
1380 mm
237 liters
350 liters
62 liters
1995 Alfa Romeo GTV Spider
1998 Mercedes Benz CLK Cabriolet

Engine

Alfa Romeo / General Motors
3.2 Busso V6
Petrol
6 - V config, 4 valves per cylinder
Nat. Asp.
3179 cc
240 hp
289 Nm
Engine
Fuel
Configuration
Aspiration
Displacement
Power
Torque
Mercedes Benz
3.2 V6 M112 E32 HP
Petrol
6 - Inline, 3 valves per cylinder
Nat. Asp.
3199 cc
224 hp
315 Nm

Performance (manual gearbox)

manual gearbox - 6 gears
1445 kg
6.3 s
242 km/h
19.9 l/100km
9.3 l/100km
13.2 l/100km
315 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
 
kg
s
km/h
l/100km
l/100km
l/100km
g/km

Performance (automatic gearbox)

 
kg
s
km/h
l/100km
l/100km
l/100km
g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
automatic - 5 gears
1595 kg
8.3 s
236 km/h
15.7 l/100km
8.2 l/100km
10.9 l/100km
262 g/km

Expenses

2200 EUR
Price from
2000 EUR

Virtual Adviser's™ opinion

Overview

Two significantly similar cars, no doubt about that. Still, each one has something different to offer. Having both cars powered by petrol engines and utilizing the 2-door cabriolet body style within the same 'Sports car' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (front for the Alfa Romeo and rear in the case of the Mercedes Benz). The first one has a Alfa Romeo-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 240hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 6-cylinder, 18-valves 224hp engine designed by Mercedes Benz.

Safety

Unfortunatelly, neither of the two vehicles was submitted to the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) testing. This makes it virtually impossible for me to pick one over the other and I'm generally against buying such cars as the safety should really always come first. That aside, let's consider some other aspects which affect safety. Both vehicles belong to the sports car segment, which is generally classifying them somewhere in the middle safety-wise, but that fact doesn't break the tie between the two cars. On the other hand, taking kerb weight as an important factor into account, the German car offers a considerable difference of 10% more metal.

Reliability

Reliability is not the best thing to consider on the make level, but it is worth mentioning that Mercedes Benz does have a slight advantage, all the models observed together. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of Alfa Romeo with an average rating of 4.2, and models under the Mercedes Benz badge with 4.4 out of 5. The same official information place GTV as average reliability-wise, and CLK is more or less at the same level.We should definitely mention that owners of cars with the same powertrain as the Italian car rank it on average as 5.0 out of 5, exactly the same as the other one.

Performance & Fuel economy

Alfa Romeo is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 2 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 242 kilometers per hour, 6km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be the German car, averaging around 10.9 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (26 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 21% difference compared to the Italian car!


Verdict

Mercedes Benz 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 my opinion, everything taken into account, the German car offers significantly better overall protection, taking the lead here. From there things take a different direction, with Alfa Romeo being considerably quicker, thus putting more smile on driver's face. It does come at a cost though, and that's the fuel consumption... All together, there's not much more to say, in this case I wouldn't even consider anything but Mercedes Benz. Anyway, that's the most objective conclusion I could've came up with and it's based solely on the information found on this website. Aspects such as design, practicality, brand value and driving experience are there for you to measure them out. In case you have two minutes to spare I invite you to define your needs, desires and budget and see which car would be chosen by the virtual adviser, among thousands of similar, yet so different vehicles.

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