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

compare selected cars
2001. - 2006.
E - Luxury car
sedan, 4 door
front
Badges
Production
Vehicle class
Body style
Wheel drive
Safety
2003. - 2008.
E - Luxury car
sedan, 4 door
front

Marketing

Dimensons & Outlines

4827 mm
1792 mm
1475 mm
500 liters
500 liters
75 liters
Length
Width
Height
Boot (min)
Boot (max)
Fuel tank
4915 mm
1821 mm
1481 mm
439 liters
439 liters
70 liters
2001 SAAB 9-5
2003 Nissan Maxima

Engine

Petrol
4 - Inline, 4 valves per cylinder
Turbo
2290 cc
220 hp
310 Nm
Engine
Fuel
Configuration
Aspiration
Displacement
Power
Torque
Petrol
6 - V config, 4 valves per cylinder
Nat. Asp.
3498 cc
265 hp
346 Nm

Performance (manual gearbox)

manual gearbox - 5 gears
1475 kg
7.8 s
235 km/h
13.7 l/100km
7.2 l/100km
9.6 l/100km
229 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)

automatic - 5 gears
1510 kg
8.7 s
230 km/h
15.5 l/100km
7.3 l/100km
10.3 l/100km
247 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
cvt - gears
1610 kg
s
km/h
11.8 l/100km
8.4 l/100km
9.9 l/100km
g/km

Expenses

1700 EUR
Price from
4000 EUR

Virtual Adviser's™ opinion

Overview

Well, these are two pretty similar cars we have here! It's only details that could potentially make the difference. Considering they both belong to the luxury car segment and utilize the same 4-door sedan body style and the front wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific petrol engine choice they offer. The first one has a SAAB-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 220hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 265hp engine designed by Nissan.

Safety

The fact that the SAAB got tested by the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), while the other contender didn't, puts it sky-high safety-wise, in my eyes at least. 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, but that fact doesn't break the tie between the two cars. On the other hand, when it comes to weight, a factor that most people underestimate, the Japanese car offers a marginal difference of 9% more metal.

Reliability

Reliability is not the best thing to consider on the make level, but it is worth mentioning that Nissan does have a slight advantage, all the models observed together. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of SAAB with an average rating of 4.1, and models under the Nissan badge with 4.3 out of 5. Unfortunatelly, I don't have enough insight that would allow me to comment in more details on the specific models level. That apart, owners of different cars powered by the same engine as the Swedish car rank it on average as 3.0 out of 5, exactly the same as the other one.

Performance & Fuel economy

There's not enough data for me to elaborate on the subject, I'm affraid.


Verdict

Nissan 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 Swedish car beats the other contender by far, making it the best choice without even considering other things. When it comes to performance, both vehicles provide similar experience, so I wouldn't point any of them out. Fuel consumption is more or less the same. It's not difficult to say then that if I'd need to make a choice, it would definitely be the SAAB. 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. I suggest you spend two more minutes in order to find out which car, based on your needs and budget, would be picked by the virtual adviser, out of 12.000+ vehicles we currently have in our database.

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