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 (4 x 4 for the SAAB and front in the case of the Volvo). The first one has a Opel-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 220hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 240hp engine designed by Mazda.

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. Furthermore, when it comes to weight, a factor that most people underestimate, 9-5 offers a considerable difference of 13% more metal.

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that both brands display similar results in faults and breakdowns, at least on all of the models level. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of SAAB with an average rating of 4.2, and models under the Volvo badge with 3.2 out of 5. Some independent research have also placed 9-5 as average reliability-wise, and S80 is more or less at the same level.That apart, owners of different cars powered by the same engine as 9-5 rank it on average as 4.3, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 3.6 out of 5.

Volvo is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 1.5 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 230 kilometers per hour, exactly the same as the other car does. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be S80, averaging around 6.2 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (46 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 39% difference compared to 9-5!

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, 9-5 beats the other contender by far, making it the best choice without even considering other things. From there things take a different direction, with Volvo being considerably quicker, thus putting more smile on driver's face. To make things even better, it consumps less fuel! At the end, as much as I'd like to give you a winner here, it's simply a pure tie if you ask me. Nevertheless, let's not forget that people have different preferences and needs, so what really counts is your personal feel. I'm only here to help. 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 more than 12.000 different ones in our database.