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 4-door sedan body style within the same 'Luxury car' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (front for the SAAB and rear in the case of the Mercedes Benz). The first one has a Opel-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 180hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 6-cylinder, 24-valves 306hp engine designed by Mercedes Benz.

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. That aside, let's consider some other aspects which affect safety. 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, if we'd like to consider vehicle mass in this context too, which we definitely should, the German car offers a marginal difference of 3% more metal.

Manufacturers have been building their reliability reputation for decades now and, generally speaking, it appears that SAAB does have a slight advantage, all the models observed together. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of SAAB with an average rating of 4.1, and models under the Mercedes Benz badge with 4.4 out of 5. Some independent research have also placed 9-5 as average reliability-wise, and CLS is more or less at the same level.Above it all, drivers of cars with the same engine as the Swedish car rank it on average as 5.0 out of 5, exactly the same as the other one.

Mercedes Benz is way more agile, reaching 100km/h in 3.4 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 250 kilometers per hour, 30km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy the winner has to be the German car, averaging around 6.8 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (42 mpg), in combined cycle. We can't ignore that 15% difference compared to the Swedish car.

SAAB 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. From there things take a different direction, with Mercedes Benz outracing its opponent in any situation possible, making it better choice for boy racers. To make things even better, it consumps less fuel! No mistake, whatever you decide here, but I'd still go for the Mercedes Benz. 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.